Played by trans and nonbinary actor Daniela Sea, Max is initially presented as a working-class butch, the antithesis of the corporate femme-centric world of “The L Word.” After transitioning he is framed as a violent cautionary tale, and a caricature of everything to hate about masculinity. Similarly, “The L Word” has a legacy of hostility toward butch, gender non-conforming, and transgender characters, most notably Max. And though the series is clearly tackling the original’s biphobia by giving Alice a cisgender, heterosexual male love interest, framing a Black man as bumbling, smelly breathed and willing to put up with Alice’s shame and indifference toward him is hardly progress. Eddie and her club appear in only one episode, serving as a snappy vignette for writers to include the word “reparations” without a substantial nod to why this conversation is timely and relevant. After Shane is ejected from Eddie’s poker club, she appropriates the idea. Shane’s brief visit to a Black lesbian poker club run by a stud named Eddie (played by Lena Waithe) may remind viewers of Alice’s awkward and problematic stint chasing Papi through bars and clubs in a pre-gentrified East L.A. Indeed, many of the pitfalls of the old series persist, and are simply tweaked for a new generation.
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