The L Word: Generation Q: The Shane Issue

On Friday night, another episode of The L Word: Generation Q aired on Showtime. There isn’t much sapphic content on television that has stood the test of time, but The L Word franchise certainly has. While we wait for the season to finish, all we can think about is what the Q+ Magazine staff have affectionately donned as The Shane Issue. 

Shane (Kate Moennig) has been a central character in The L Word franchise right from the beginning. An androgenously presenting lesbian, Shane is the one that sleeps around, never settles down, and thinks with her vagina before anything else. She also happens to be one of the most loved characters in the entire franchise, despite her flaws. She is certainly one of ours. 

Season 3 of The L Word: Generation Q saw Shane take a different path than she usually does. When the season started out, she and Tess (Jamie Clayton) were in a committed, long-term relationship and it looked like all the things that followed Shane throughout the years were no longer going to be a thing of her future. We were intrigued and we watched on expectantly at this new development.

In S3 Tess and Shane run a business together, are looking at expanding to a second one, live together, and look after Tess’ very ill mother. All very domestic things, and exactly what you would expect of long-term lovers. 

However, as the last couple of episodes of The L Word: Generation Q have demonstrated, the writers of this franchise don’t really know what to do with Shane, and they always send her on the same spiral of infidelity. 

A couple of episodes ago, Shane cheated on Tess, despite the fact that she does love Tess, with an employee that works on Alice’s (Leisha Hailey) show. We think we can speak for everyone when we say we exhaled a huge, miserable sigh when this plot twist came about. Shane ruining everything around her by cheating? Very, very on brand.

It seems like the writers of this show don’t really know how to deal with someone who has been a life-long cheater. They always attempt to place Shane in situations where she is redeeming herself, “changing”, but then at the very first sign of trouble, she turns around and sleeps with someone she isn’t supposed to, even when it feels like she doesn’t really want to do that. Again, and again, and again.

This behavior has been played out with Shane’s character repeatedly over both the original and this reboot of the show. 

Just as we were finishing up with the massive eye rolling we were doing at this whole entire situation, getting ready to maybe turn the show off (because y’all we’ve done this repeatedly with Shane for too many years) a slight turn of events occurred, and just like that, suddenly we are now very interested to see how this is going to gp. 

After Tess finds out that Shane cheated, and Shane begs her for forgiveness, Tess arrives at a conclusion: Shane is a sex addict, and that completely changes the game for her. 

As a substance abuser herself, Tess has compassion for folks with additions that others might not, and she certainly seems interested to learn if this is also what Shane might be thinking about herself. 

And frankly, Tess could be right. Shane does seem incapable of not sleeping with other people, even when she knows it’s wrong and even when she knows it’s going to trainwreck lives. She does it anyway. It’s her go-to modus operandi when absolutely anything in Shane’s life gets challenging. And its definitely a compulsion that seems to live deep inside of her.

It’s not that we want Shane it be a sex addict, but we can definitely keep watching if this is the case. At least then there would be something new to explore, a reason for the senseless repeated storylines. Because honestly y’all, we’re not sure we can watch another season of Shane just hoeing around without regard for people she apparently loves, with no explanation at all. She is a grown-ass woman now and should be able to control herself. 

Unless she can’t. And in which case, this is something we can buy into and watch. This is something we can get behind. We need this to not just be another example of Shane being a shallow, inconsiderate horn-dog.

There are two more episodes left in this season of The L Word: Generation Q so we will be tuning in enthusiastically to see how they deal with this possible new character development on the Shane front. As long-term, invested viewers of this show, we really need the writers to respect her character so much more than they have over the years and do something meaningful with her stories. 

If this sex addiction storyline is it, we are here and we are ready. 

Who else is watching this show right now? What are your thoughts? 

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The L Word: Generation Q airs on Fridays on Showtime. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!