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THE L WORD: GENERATION Q Trailer is Here, and it’s…Queer.

I missed you. I missed you more. A first look at The L Word: Generation Q dropped unexpectedly this week in a social media sandstorm that swept the collective rainbow universe. The trailer takes a hard departure from the original namesake series that opened on a scene of two lesbians fucking in a pool, in favor of a politically-charged tone. Returning stars (and executive producers) Jennifer Beals, Kate Moennig and Leisha Hailey claim front-runner status throughout the 60-second spot and offer slim new details about the newcomer Generation Q cast. Bette Porter (Jennifer Beals) is hanging up her gallery pants for a new type of power suit: mayoral candidate for the city of Los Angeles. “Los Angeles has been very good to me,” Porter says to the campaign crowd, “and I believe it’s my turn to give back to this city that I love so much.” With Tina and her child seemingly left in the past (who has time for family when you’re plotting major power moves?), Bette appears to have a new love interest in her life. But can you really blame her? With that office view, the campaign staff are bound to throw themselves at her. The Twitterverse went blind after Bette’s hot new hook-up, sparking mass hysteria over her and Tina’s split.  

More importantly, does it make sense that Bette is making a run for mayor? She has the Ivy League roots, but did anyone even watch The L Word? We still don’t know who killed Jenny… plot twist for season one?

  Then again, we also don’t know if the body rolled away in Season 6 actually was Jenny.  

Flash cut to the new set of Generation Q, we’re thrown into the streets of Silverlake. The original series staked its claim on the famously-gay neighborhood of West Hollywood, but the reboot follows the real-life flow of lesbian Los Angeles into the new queer-capitol of the city. Shots of Hyperion Avenue, Sunset Junction and the Silverlake Reservoir make it painfully clear we’re not at The Planet anymore, but it’s all-too-convenient since the suburb sits below the sky-high views of Bette’s office in Downtown LA. Alice (Leisha Hailey) has climbed the LA ladder into the rankings of her very own television show Alice, but her funny-girl personality remains a constant as she quips, “That hiatus felt really long. It felt like a decade, right?” from the production stage. The logo of the show seems to indicate a female/lesbian spin, drawn as a pair of lips turned sideways to look like a vulva. Shane (Kate Moennig) steps off a plane and seemingly right back into her old fuckgirl habits alongside newcomer Finley (Jacqueline Toboni). Finley has been described as “a charming but unfocused assistant who struggles to reconcile her sexual orientation with her religious upbringing.” Could she be receiving a Grade-A grooming from Shane on the Art-of-the-Hook-Up?

  Finley appears as another front-runner in the trailer, pushing the rest of the new cast into the backseat. She’s given the honors of proclaiming “This is what I thought living in LA was gonna be like,” while also endcapping the trailer and hammering home the tone of the new series, “Time’s up, Bitch!” Few details are offered about new stars Rosanny Zayas (Sophie), Sepideh Moafi (Gigi), Arienne Mandi (Dani), and Leo Sheng (Micah). However, it appears a few of them may be working for our returning stars as assistants sprinkled throughout Bette, Shane and Alice’s professional lives. Speaking of hook-ups… We only received a 60-second glimpse into the new series, but the emphasis on sex feels far downplayed from the original series. Where’s the “fighting, fucking, crying, drinking, writing, winning, losing, cheating, kissing…”? The Generation Q spin feels far more focused on big, modern-day feminist and queer power moves than the raw fuck-up lesbian stories of the original –which begs the question: will the series take on a greater socio-political overtone vs focusing on the small-world realities lesbians face every day? The trailer is poised to grab all-the-feels from the shows hungry original fan base, but under the gloss of Bette, Shane and Alice, there’s a whole new story catered towards a younger generation fueled by big-world controversy and internet buzz. The L Word was an introduction to lesbians as we were… regular people with the same screwed-up relationship and career struggles as the rest of Los Angeles (and beyond), sprinkled with a dash of ridiculous commentary and one or two of a few unique trends of the culture (U-Hauling, anyone?). Generation Q is a show all of its own, displaying the generational gap of what lesbians cared about then, and what the newly-branded queer community champions now. Sorry Gen X, looks like Generation Q is not for you. The L Word: Generation Q premieres on Showtime, December 8 at 10/9c.

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