Word that Showtime was devel-oping an hour-long drama about the lives of a group of young Los Angeles women, most of them lesbians, was intriguing to say the least.

The way was paved by comedies such as “Ellen” and “Will and Grace,” and Showtime already experienced success with a male counterpart, “Queer as Folk.” The time seemed right.

The hype that always precedes groundbreaking entertainment is one thing. Reality is another.

The reality of Showtime’s “The L Word” is television drama that is illegitimately middling, compared to what it could be with the resources and talent that went into its production.

Producers Ilene Chaiken, Steve Golin and Larry Kennar had the opportunity to do something really remarkable, to paint a true picture of what it is like to be a lesbian in a world that is at last coming to grips with same-sex orientation as a valid way of life.

It is distressing to report that instead, they took a wrong turn that led to the low road.

“The L Word,” which premiers Jan. 18, stars Jennifer Beals and Laurel Holloman as Bette and Tina, who after seven years together want to have a child. Their world consists of their neighborhood and the little café where they gather frequently with their lesbian friends.

Bette, the director of the California Art Center, is continually engaged in a cell phone conversation. Tina takes off work to work on getting pregnant, if only the right sperm donor could be found.

The two seem to be constantly handing specimen cups to potential fathers. On one occasion, a potential donor takes the cup behind a back-lighted screen, and we get to watch (and listen) as his silhouette does what is necessary to fill the cup.

Next door, Tim (Eric Mabius) just moved in his girlfriend, Jenny (Mia Kirshiner). All seems to be well until she steps into the café one day and locks eyes and apparently passions with the owner, Marina (Karina Lombard).

When the two women find themselves alone in a restroom, they kiss, which sends Jenny into denial and home to perform a “Monica Lewinsky” on Tim.

Among the group from the café is Shane (Katherine Moennig), reminiscent of rocker Joan Jett. She is being stalked by her ex, played by Melissa Etheridge’s real-life partner, Tammy Lynn Michaels.

And then there is Kit, Bette’s African-American half-sister (Pam Grier), who is in a 12-step program and wants to make amends.

We mustn’t forget about Bette and Tina’s bi-friend, Alice (Leisha Hailey) and their jock friend, Dana (Erin Daniels), who’s in love with the sous chef at the country club but isn’t sure which way she leans.

Some of these “L Word” scenarios could be handled deftly, elegantly and meaningfully. But they simply are not.

Instead, the audience is handed mechanical sex scenes (and plenty of them) that lack sensitivity and romance, mediocre acting from players who are capable of so much more and an extremely shallow take on being lesbian in 2004.

Among the cast of characters, there are a couple of bright spots. Karina Lombard is most intriguing as the cultured and intellectual Marina, and longtime actress Pam Grier is believable as the outcast sister.

Very little else in this premiere season of “The L Word” seems remotely plausible. It doesn’t ring true for a lesbian couple to get it on in the doctor’s office with one on the table, feet in the stirrups.

The question that begs an answer is this: Just who is “The L Word” trying to attract as viewers, lesbians or straight men?

MORE INFO
‘The L Word’
Jan. 18, 10 p.m.
Showtime

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