By Curt Schleier
Lady of the Lake opens with more of the silliness that pervaded much of the first two episodes of THE L WORD this season: a Charlie’s Angels (now Bev’s Angels) sequence that doesn’t make any sense to me. And that’s just the beginning.
Helena (Rachel Shelley) is still in prison, awaiting her mother’s return with bail money or her trial; this story arc is so silly I need more space than that which is available to me here to list everything that’s wrong. I mentioned last week for example, that there’s no prison in the United States where visitors have to walk through cell blocks to get to the visiting room.
There’s much more. A lot of it is minor crap, but minor crap adds up. If you watch a show or read a book and become distracted because something doesn’t make sense, it takes you out of the moment. It also bespeaks a lack of creative energy. If you have to bend reality to make your drama work (and you’re not filming a sci-fi movie) then something is lacking.
Having said that, Helena’s (Rachel Shelley) mom, Peggy Peabody (Holland Taylor), finally shows up and en route to the visiting room has a brief conversation with one of the inmates regarding what favors they might perform on each other under different circumstances. Peggy of course plans to take over Helena’s life. Mom posts bail for her daughter, though Helena doesn’t really want to leave her cell mate behind. “I want to finish my time and pay my debt to society.”
Peggy doesn’t understand: “Peabodys don’t have debt and certainly not to society.” She intends to hire the best criminal lawyer around to try to get Helena off, take her daughter to a European country with vague extradition laws while they await a decision, and presumably forfeit the bail money if things don’t go well. But Helena is determined. She’s hidden the money she stole and plans to use it to spring Dusty. Then the two will run away and presumably live happily ever after. So while Peggy is busy insulting Helena’s friends at the Planet, she sneaks out the back door. Ah prison romance. You can’t get enough of those stories, can you?
On a far more serious note, things do not look good for Tasha Williams (Rose Rollins), who has been accused of homosexual activity. Beech, a man she considered a friend and the lawyer assigned by the military to her defense, is homophobic and does not appear likely to mount a strong defense. She tells Alice (Leisha Hailey) that she will lie about her sexual orientation to protect her cherished career in the military and Alice, who is usually very militant, offers to disappear for a while to protect her lover.
(As an aside and getting back to those distracting moments, Tasha, a captain, walks through the base saluting – but like a girl not like a soldier. It’s amazing that so few Hollywood types have been in the military that no one on the crew said, “Hey, that’s not the way you salute.” Fortunately, I’m here.)
Jodi (Marlee Matlin) drags Bette (Jennifer Beals) to an annual get together she has with her friends. But Bette is so uptight, she finds it difficult to bond with any of the group and spends most of her time working and resisting offers of friendship.
Meanwhile, her former girlfriend, scores a computer date with a really hot heart surgeon with surgically enhanced breasts – and when I say scores I assume you get my drift.
It seems that THE L WORD is making tentative steps away from farce and into the area of relationships that has always been its strong point. Let’s hope that continues.