The woman responsible for introducing us to Bette Porter, Tina Kennard, Shane McCutcheon, Alice Pieszecki, Jenny Schecter and the rest of the sexy Los Angeles lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) crew that frequented The Planet is at it again.
“The L Word” and “The Real L Word” writer-director Ilene Chaiken is on the brink of producing a documentary, just as her original series nears its 10-year anniversary.
The third installment of the “L Word” franchise is taking a new turn. It’s going to highlight a new and more heart-wrenching story while straying away from the more glamorized locations like L.A. and New York City. Instead, the producers (Magical Elves and Showtime) are looking at stories from Middle America.
The format isn’t set in stone yet. According to Showtime Entertainment president, David Nevins, it’s a documentary, maybe two.
Chaiken recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter where she discussed how complex and diverse the LGBT community is. “Being gay is not a monolithic proposition. We’ve lived so many different lives in so many different communities, with so many different experiences. I want to tell stories that are specific to being gay but reflect a lot of different realities of gay life. We were telling one story in “The Real L Word” in LA and Brooklyn with a group of women we were following. This is a very different story, and it didn’t really belong in that story,” she explained.
Due to the high criticism for not representing everybody in “The L Word,” perhaps it’s why Chaiken and producers decided to go a different route this time around.
“I knew I would never be able to represent lesbians or lesbian lives. I knew that my only responsibility was to make the best TV show I could and to entertain people and to talk about a small group of fictional characters and create a world for them to exist in. I didn’t anticipate the success of the show but even without knowing that it would be successful I knew that I would get criticized for not representing everybody and I just would have to be able to handle that because there was no way that I could," she told Huff Post Gay Voices last year.
Chaiken has also recently reunited with “L Word” star Jennifer Beals (Bette Porter) in the new ABC pilot, “Venice."
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