Anyone who has attended a lesbian mixer, like Grapeskin, knows that the L Word is a standard topic of conversation. What *were* they thinking with Shane’s hair? Can you believe Alice and… (sorry, no spoilers here) hooked up? How hot *is* Carmen?!?
Go beyond the chatter over wine and you’ll find women who love women are, by and large, obsessed with the show. On one L Word fan site ( www.thelword-down below.com ), there are links to petitions to get the show on Australian television… With all the show’s niche popularity, are the networks taking notice?
Network 7 aired season 1 and 2 of the show and currently have plans, but no set dates, to air season 3. While viewers, myself included, applaud Network 7 for airing a lesbian drama on network television, we are nonetheless frustrated that season 4 is on rerun in the U.S., and we are still waiting to find out about Alice and Dana. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and something of a lesbian drama blackmarket of downloads/bootleg DVDs from abroad has sprung up.
Ever in search of instant gratification, OUTinPerth contacted Angus Ross, Network 7’s Sydney Program Manager, to ask, why wait? As it was explained to us, there are a number of reasons for a delayed Australian release. ‘For a program like that, even when the show starts in America, we have to wait for materials to arrive in Australia’.
However, that alone does not explain why Australia runs about two full seasons behind America. ‘The last series of season 2 was shown in the first half of last year. The next series is 12 episodes. It is not being held off for any reason, other than finding a suitable slot and having a preceding program that will flow nicely into that program. We will always air the show. We bought the show and see that [it] has late night ratings potential’, Mr. Ross said.
As for the petitions, ‘If there are petitions to air, we will always look at them, but we determine time slots based on ratings. So, if someone petitions for a more convenient time for them, we base it on the ratings’.
So, for the time being, Australian viewers currently have to wait it out. Unfortunately for those desperate to keep up before gorgeous friends let the (ahem) pussy out of the bag as to what exactly Alice did next, there’s only one *legal* option – fork out for a trip across the Pacific.
