The L Word: Generation Q has been renewed for a third season
The Showtime series stars Jennifer Beals, reprising the role she played on the original L Word
Showtime is moving forward on a third season of The L Word sequel series Generation Q today, sending out a press release announcing the series’ eventual return.
Generation Q stars a mix of performers from both the original The L Word (most notably Jennifer Beals, Katherine Moenning, and Leisha Hailey) and a number of new characters, played by the likes of Arienne Mandi, Sepideh Moafi, and Leo Sheng. The series, showrun by Marja-Lewis Ryan, continues to concern itself with the endlessly messy professional, social, and especially romantic lives of a crew of women living in Los Angeles.
Our take on the series’ revival has been decidedly mixed, praising some of its more daring and enjoyably soapy moves, but frequently frustrated by occasional incoherence. Here’s Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, reviewing the show’s “clumsy” second season finale:
And it all comes back to the thin line between chaos and controlled chaos. The wild, sometimes soapy drama of this show and its rapidfire pacing does land sometimes. The messiness of these characters compels. But narrative chaos can quickly devolve into an incoherent, well, mess. This finale barrels through plotlines with little semblance of emotional coherence and authority… The finale is so focused on the mechanics of getting to these big dramatic endings/cliffhangers for all its characters that the buildup is lifeless. A lot does happen in the finale, but it happens too quickly and all at once.
The original incarnation of The L Word, created by Ilene Chaiken, Michele Abbot, and Kathy Greenberg, aired on Showtime between 2004 and 2009; it also spawned a pair of reality-set spin-offs, The Real L Word and L Word Mississippi: Hate The Sin. The second season of Generation Q wrapped up on Showtime back in October of 2021; according to the network, the 10-episode third season will return some time later this year.