Showtime has kicked off Pride Month by giving fans a premiere date and first teaser for season two of The L Word: Generation Q, spin-off that arrived nearly fifteen-years after the original groundbreaking LGBTQIA+ drama The L Word. According to Variety, the series will “debut on [Showtime’s] non-linear platforms on Aug. 6 and premiere on-air on Aug. 8 at 10 p.m.”
TVLine further explained The L Word: Generation Q’s multi-part release schedule, with the first five episodes of the series airing on Sundays before Showtime switches over to Monday air-date for the remainder of the season. Acknowledging that the air-dates for season two may seem complicated on paper, TVLine assures streaming fans that “every new episode will be available to stream and watch on-demand for Showtime subscribers on Fridays, ahead of their on-screen premiere.”
The L Word: Generation Q follows multiple generations of queer characters and their intertwined lives. Tuesday’s trailer focused primarily on Bette, Alice and Shane, beloved characters from the original series portrayed by Jennifer Beals (Flashdance, Taken), Leisha Hailey (Bosch) and Kate Moennig (Ray Donovan, Grown-ish). While these character’s narratives carry-over from the original series for long-time fans, another reason the trailer may have focused on their arcs is because three members of the recent generation of characters brought season one’s finale to an unexpected cliffhanger.
Season one’s finale showed Rosanny Zayas’ (Modern Persuasion, Otherhood) Sophie hook-up with long-time friend Finely – played by Jacqueline Toboni (Easy, Grimm) – the day that she was meant to fly to Hawaii to elope with her fiancé. The show’s cliffhanging final moments showed Sophie rushing to the airport, with the audience unsure whether she was chasing after Finley of her fiancé Dani, played by Adrienne Mandi (In the Vault). For this reason, the storylines between Sophie, Finely and Dani were rather indefinite in Tuesday’s first teaser, leaving fans room to continue speculation as to what happened between them.
The teaser also see’s newcomer Jordan Hull return as Bette Porter and Tina Kenard’s daughter Angelica, and Autostraddle points out that she may be attending her prom based on scene glimpsed in the trailer. Leo Sheng’s (Adam, Disclosure) Micah, Stephanie Allynne’s (One Mississippi, In a World…) Nat and Sepideh Moafi’s (The Deuce, Falling Water) Gigi also appear in the trailer, with an indication that Bette may get together with Gigi, who was in a throuple with Alice and Nat in the spin-off’s first season.
Returning characters not seen in The L Word: Generation Q’s first trailer include Jamie Clayton’s (Sense8, Designated Survivor) Tess, and Laurel Holloman’s (The Incredibly True Adventures of 2 Girls in Love, Boogie Nights) Tina Kenard, Bette’s on-again-off-again love interest throughout the course of the series. Clayton confirmed her return to the series on Hailey and Moennig’s podcast Pants and Beals has posted several photos of Holloman on set during season two’s production, meaning both characters are set to return.
New additions to the cast, announced in December, include Rosie O’Donnell (The Rosie O’Donnell Show, Sleepless in Seattle), Donald Faison (Scrubs, Clueless) and Griffin Dunne (Dallas Buyers Club, Trust Me). While none of these characters appear in the trailer, O’Donnell’s inclusion provides the most intrigue, especially for long-time champions of Bette and Tina’s love story. O’Donnell is billed as Carrie, “a brash yet kindhearted public defender thrust into Bette’s life” (Deadline). In season one, a moment of romantic tension between the will-they-won’t-they couple is diffused when Tina mentions her fiancé, an unseen woman named Carrie.
Though neither Tina nor Carrie are glimpsed in Tuesday’s first trailer for The L Word: Generation Q, Beals had previously shared photos of herself and O’Donnell behind-the-scenes, via Instagram. As Bette bemoans her high romantic standards in Tuesday’s trailer, it’s likely that a return of Tina Kenard could throw a spanner-in-the-works of the former Mayorial prospect’s love life in season two.
With an expansive world of new and returning characters and many loose threads from the first season, Tuesday’s trailer merely whet the appetite of fans who have been awaiting the series return. Hopefully a full-length trailer prior to The L Word: Generation Q’s August premiere will grant more insight into what fans can expect from the drama’s next installment.