The L Word

The first television series built entirely around a group of queer women, following a West Hollywood friendship circle through affairs, breakups, chart-drawing and a great deal of talking. It made stars, it made the chart a real-life meme, and for a huge number of women it was the first time the possibility was on television at all.

It is also genuinely uneven and its handling of its trans character, Max, is the thing everyone winces about now. The last season is infamous for a murder plot nobody wanted. Watch the first three, and then decide about the 2019 sequel series on your own time.