What I’m Watching: The L Word: Generation Q (Season Premiere)

The L Word: Generation Q: Season 2, Episode 1 “Late to the Party” (B+)

I’m glad that this show, which wrapped its first season about six weeks before the pandemic broke out in America, is back, and it’s nice to see it heading in a few new and a few familiar directions in season two. We got an answer right away to that major airport cliffhanger, which is that Sophie did show up and go with Dani, and they were still set to get married. The problem is that, despite telling Alice about it and Dani admitting that she had a crush on Bette, Sophie didn’t confess to sleeping with Finley, which came up very quickly and in the worst, most public way possible. The fallout is not going to be pretty from Finley’s surprise interruption of their wedding. That’s not all the drama – Micah is also lying by not telling his friends that he’s still seeing the not-so-single Jose. Gigi really was having fun tormenting Alice and Nat now that they’re now longer a threesome, and while it did take Alice a little too long to get to the idea, setting Gigi up with Bette absolutely makes sense. It’s going to complicate things, but Tina and Carrie showing up on their date pushed Bette to give it a shot, if only to make them jealous. Rosie O’Donnell truly is terrific as Carrie, and I hope we see much more of her as Bette does a terrible job of hiding her disdain for the well-meaning, genuinely nice new partner of Tina’s. Angie’s exploration of her heritage should be interesting, especially since she’s now doing it explicitly without her parents’ consent, and, as usual, Shane continues to make a mess of every situation by flirting or sleeping with the wrong person, and this week’s guest, played by Lena Waithe, was not happy about it one bit.