“Am I crazy? Am I drunk? Am I hallucinating?” — Jenny Schecter
It’s the “Off The Chart” pre-party! Before we start our season-by-season recapping, this premiere episode digs into lesbian, bisexual and queer culture circa 2004 and breaks down the impact of The L Word’s launch. Meet our recap crew, two who watched the original series as it aired, and two youngster late-comers. (There’s even one of us who loves Jenny.) Revisit the Riot Grrrls and New Queer Cinema, remember that summer we all said, “That’s hot,” regret those low-rise flares—and get ready to live, laugh, love and listen.
Episode notes and extras:
- “Not Your Mother’s Lesbians,” New York Magazine on the launch of The L Word in 2004
- The Chart
- New Queer Cinema
- Go Fish (1994), a classic lesbian indie film, directed and co-written by Rose Troche and starring and co-written by Guinevere Turner—Troche directed several episodes of The L Word, Turner played Alice’s awful ex Gabby Deveaux
- The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love (1995) Another classic lesbian indie film from the 1990s, this one starred Laurel Holloman (Tina)
- Queer As Folk (UK) and Queer As Folk (US)
- Lesbian Avengers
- Queer Nation
- How the Riot Grrrl movement sold the world on girl power
- RIP early aughts fashion
- From BuzzFeed: Which L Word character are you?
- The L Word: Generation Q
- The L Word creator Ilene Chaiken on what fans can expect from the reboot
Featuring:
Rachel Giese @rachelagiese
Erica Lenti @ericalenti
Eternity Martis @eternitymartis
Michelle Turingan @chelleturingan
Producer and editor: Corey Misquita @coreymisquita
Senior producer: Rachel Matlow @rachelmatlow
Executive producer: Rachel Giese
Music: KidKulit