More lesbians on TV!!
Last week the kind PR queers at Logo sent us a preview DVD of their upcoming lesbian
sitcom, Exes and Ohs. (I’m not sure exactly what it takes to qualify as a sitcom, but it’s a half-hour program that strives to be funny and definitely isn’t a serial drama or a reality show, so that’s what I’m gonna call it.)
Like many of my queer female counterparts, I have a severe love-hate relationship with The L Word, which, until now, has been the only show for and about lesbians on television. While L Word does focus on lesbian (and sometimes bi) women and their relationsihps, it’s pretty badly written with almost no character consistency from season to season. Plus, all the women on that show, even the ones that are supposed to be butch, are super-femme and super-hot; nice to look at if that’s your style, but a pretty poor representative of actual lesbian culture.
I was hoping that Exes and Ohs would excel where L Word fails, but based on what I saw, I can’t really say that’s the case.
The best thing about Exes and Ohs is that they take a few baby steps away from only casting hot skinny women. One of the couples, Kris and Chris, are both kind of overweight and definitely not hot in a Hollywood sense. Heather Mattarrazo (you may remember her from Welcome to the Dollhouse) is also a main character, and, well, she’s not really pretty either. This is a good thing.
The bad thing is that even though it’s written and produced by real-live lesbian Michelle Paradise (she also stars), the jokes and the plot points are still super cliche, and just not that funny.
However, I’m willing to give them a little slack, because sometimes it takes a few episodes–or even an entire season–for shows to find their stride. (Anyone seen Season 1 of Sex and the City lately?) That there are now not one but TWO shows on TV for and about lesbians still makes me really happy, regardless of the fact that they both kind of suck.
If I could afford more than the Basic 10 channels, I’d totally watch it.
