YMMV / The L Word

• Alternate Character Interpretation: In season 1, episode 14, did Bette rape Tina, or did Tina rape Bette?

• Best Known for the Fanservice: It was inevitable. By featuring so many sex scenes between women, the series is mostly remembered as a softcore lesbian porn flick with boring dialogues and bad acting in between.
• Creator Backlash: Mia Kirshner was furious when it was revealed in Generation Q that Jenny had committed suicide, saying not only was it out of character of her but that it sent a terrible message to fans who had suffered similar abusive pasts.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Alice. Shane, who is even loved by people who otherwise hate the show.
• Ethnic Scrappy: Kit is sometimes viewed as an Ethnic Scrappy by fans because, according to them, all of her characterization is stripped away and in later seasons she only exists to say "Giiirl!" twice an episode.
• Fetish Retardant: Jenny and Dana attempt to have a tryst, but have so little chemistry with or desire for each other that they basically go through the act like they were reading it from a textbook and just give up and go dancing instead.
• First Installment Wins: Any trouble digesting the ridiculata of the latter seasons will either be soothed or completely exacerbated by the dramatic superiority of pretty much any episode from the first three.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The death of Bette's father was followed soon after by the death of the actor, veteran thespian and civil rights leader Ossie Davis. (Those pictures from the funeral with MLK and Bill Clinton weren't Photoshopped.)
• Jerkass Woobie: Jenny, according to the minority of fans who don't consider her a full-fledged Scrappy.
• Just Here for Godzilla: A lot of male fans pretty much watched it for the frequent sex scenes.
• Memetic Mutation: Jenny's rant to Mark in "Loud & Proud" ^note It's not my job to make you a better man and I don't give a shit if I've made you a better man. It's not a fucking woman's job to be consumed and invaded and spat out so that some fucking man can evolve. is often used on Tumblr to criticize Love Martyr storylines and redemption arcs for male villains in leather pants.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Max Sweeney is a complicated case. While the series had an ugly TERF tone to Max's storylines, implying that trans folks are deluded sell-outs that fall prey to and propagate gender stereotypes (including being on the receiving end of a particularly cringeworthy speech by Kit telling him 'why don't you try being a butch lesbian instead?'), the charismatic and humanizing way actor Daniel Sea played Max endeared the character enormously to the transmasculine community. Even at the time, viewers tended to root for Max and found him much more sympathetic than the show intended. These reactions have only gained traction over time, with greater awareness of trans issues. The sequel show acknowledges this.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Once they learned that he'd rigged the entire house with surveillance cameras so he could turn the intimate details of his roommates' personal lives into fodder for his next documentary, there was no way in Hell the viewers were ever going to forgive Mark. (Which is probably why he was Put on a Bus between Seasons 2 and 3.)
  • For some, Jenny crossed this when she repeatedly misgendered Max, repeatedly calling him "she" and a "mom". Especially the scene where they celebrate Max being pregnant with the Willy Wonka-themed party. Jenny acted in such a disgusting manner - this was one of the reasons that Max ended up having a severe anxiety attack.
  • Stealing Alice's idea for a movie script is also a major assholery of hers, even though she started to cross over earlier than in the sixth season.
• Pandering to the Base: The show was supposedly aimed at a female audience. However, it garnered a very large straight male fanbase mainly through extensive sex scenes, reducing gay guys to background extras, making one of the girls bisexual (which ensured a straight guy would participate from time to time) and making straight guys prominent in the supporting cast. Actual lesbians didn't miss that and often denounced the whole show because of the blatant pandering.
• The Scrappy:
  • Jenny, to some many almost all viewers. There wasn't a viewer who didn't cringe every time Tonya opened her mouth.
  • Niki, the party girl closeted lesbian actress who uses a beard despite the hurt it causes her girlfriend and who dates older women. She was based on Lindsay Lohan. This was confirmed as fact by the actress, and the writer Angela Robinson (who is a lesbian and worked with Lindsay so there may be Reality Subtext there).
• Seasonal Rot: The later seasons in general are often accused of this, but particularly the final season — which is so universally hated that some fans prefer to pretend it didn't happen.
• Testosterone Brigade: Thanks to the generous pandering done towards the staight male Periphery Demographic.
• Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Dylan, given that she falsely accused Helena of sexual extortion and sued her for millions of dollars.
• The Woobie: Shane. Her Once a Season character arc is her coming from a bad place, somehow managing to rebuild her life, and having it ruined in increasingly dramatic ways. And that's without her frequent Slut-Shaming and Dark and Troubled Past...

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