Just How Real Can Showtime’s Real Lesbians Be?

The Real L World, announced last year, is Showtime’s answer to the remaining thirst for dramatic, high-brow-y lesbian programming, which remains after The L World closed up shop. Naturally, the same criticisms will remain: “Lesbians on television are always lipstick!,” you’ll say; or, “Where are the bull dykes?” Valid questions! But creator Ilene Chaiken has never been apologetic about how she chooses to traffic in sapphic television. She likes putting pretty women on television — the kind you’d want to screw. And producers Magical Elves, the good folks behind the original Project Runway, aren’t new at this either; they know what plays on camera.

But we do like the diversity that’s shown within the lack of diversity. Single women. Engaged women. Women with kids. And not everybody is white (there’s a Latina, woo woo!).

The ladies, at least when the camera is pointed on them, truly seem to believe the show will offer a “real” look at their lives, and not a dressed up or cleverly edited one. We would also like to hope so. Because while good television involves drunken rampages and sleeping around, great television makes actual human relationships more enthralling than those gimmicks.