Dear Ilene Chaiken,
i'm a twenty old girl, my name is rosa and i'm from Italy. It is said that you read everything that people write on this forum so i really hope you read these things i'm writing. It is an honour for me to have the chance to "talk" to you because thanks to you i feel closer to my world everytime i watch the l word, i live in the suburbs of a very small city and sometimes it's hard for me.

I wanna thank you for creating this series and especially the character of bette, because when i see her i see me.it's really strange when i see a new episode i know just what she's gonna do because it's the same thing i'll do! it never happened to me something like this. bette is a source of inspiration for me and jennifer beals impersonates her very good! i saw a video on you tube in which she talks against every form of racism, at the glaad awards. I didn't know she was so special. I think that people like her should be elected as presidents, not politicians that think only to themselves! She is one of the person I admire the most in this world…
I saw season 4 and i liked it so much! i like new characters like phyllis, jodi and tasha. i liked the editing of some scene (the endlesses phone call in episode 4x06) and of the opening and how characters appear. I liked the last episode with dana's appearence and the final scene with bette and jodi even if i think that kate arden has attacked too much jenny about marina....... moreover one of the new entries was a vet and i've been surprised when i saw her because i'm studying to become a vet too! i think that is the best season ever till now...

I also wanted to talk about the relationship between bette and jodi....I like the way they change eachothers world, the way bette is a little more crazy (she stole a sign for her) and jodi learnt to follow some rules (about monogamy)! I liked jodi since the first time i saw her. before i saw her i read on the web that bette in season 4 should have had a story with a deaf girl and i thought that she was delicate and innocent, i was shocked when i found out that jodi was a very strong and determinated person who is not afraid about what people think of her, about express herself and about the fact that she was deaf. Instead I have a lot of fears. I've hidden myself from others and i've been invisible for 22 years. But now i finally start to see the world in a different way. I know it's quite pathetic but i lived the story between bette and jodi in a very emphatic way and this never happened to me! I can't describe my feelings that i 've felt seeing bette that went to jodi and told her she was afraid of her. Those sentences about fears that jodi did touch me. You know, those are things that i've always repeated to myself but the way she told it........the fact that she said those things after all she had been through make those words more real. If i was bette i would have fallen in love with her too… I don't know much of Marlee Matlin but i know for sure that she is a wonderful actress and also an exemple for me and for my life. Thank you so much for bringing her in the show, really. I think she's so beautiful...

I know that a lot of people wants bette and tina to be together again....I don't understand why after what tina had done to bette in season 3 and 4. bette suffered for her for two seasons and now that she moved on and she's happy with jodi it doesn't have any sense to me that she gets back with tina. Someone said: "Love is like coffee, you must drink it hot because it's not good when it's cold and and when it's heated it sucks!"
I think that in every relationship when "that" something breaks it never comes back...For me it's better see them as good friends that see them as bad lovers.
I just want the story between bette and jodi to go on and i wish they were happy but i know it’s a series tv so i know for sure that bette and tina will get together. i just wish that tina won't be the reason because bette breaks up with jodi. Bette is not that kind of person.
Congratulations for your work, you are so lucky because with your stories you have the chance to touch people's hearts and minds, you did with me, and this is a way to change the world we live in! After all I hope you don’t mind about what people say and you do what you feel with your characters. I just wanna see the real bette, not a bette moulded by tibetters! Thank you for listening me.
with love, rosa

snapdragon
love the idea of Jo & Bette -more drama, insight, vulnerability and challenging for the actors and fun to watch. KEEP IT COMING!

Just a few thoughts on the many posts where Tibetters were hailed as the "moneymakers", the B&T relationship hailed as "where the money is" and people threatening to cancel subscriptions and not purchase DVDs:

1) If the storyline of a show is controlled by a certain group of fans due to financial reasons, the show's integrity and creative independence would be compromised. I don't think any true fan of TLW would actually want that.

2) Individual viewers' contribution to the finances of a TV station is really miniscule on the grand scheme of things, if you're talking about a huge advertiser, that's a totally different matter.

3) You know what, all the negative comments posted on this site are actually making this site more valuable by the minute. At the end of the day, all your criticisms will merely be numbers (number of posts, number of views, number of registrations), all of which adds to the price the site will fetch when the owner decides to sell it. Isn't the irony amusing.

4) Just something to think about: as a viewer, however much you support a certain relationship, do you really want it to happen the way you want just because you screamed at and threatened the writers and producers? Would it really be that satisfying if they gave in like whims and dish out whatever you want just to keep ratings and throw their integrity and creative independence out the window?

Actually I didnt like the Bette Tina relationship. Bette can do better and Tina, well what can I say. Not my type. I think Bette did better with Candice, with her she showed her passion and her vibrancy. With Tina it just same old, same old. I would like to see Bette meet someone else like Candice or even Candice herself to come back in to the show. But Jodi, much and all as I love Marlee Matlin, not in this role, no way.

Regards Lee

A friend is like a parachute. If she isn't there the first time you need her, chances are you won't be needing her again.

Where is this video screen that i need to be clicking on. i don't seem to see it...

Why is she attracted to Bette? Is Bette a challenge? Apparently not. What is making Bette so beholden? I'm confused, so I'm kinda all over the place in this post. Sorry. Anyway...there's something odd about Jodie getting Bette to go through a fastrack version of revelation or self-discovery in a relationship...all of Bette's failings seem to be presented to her in short order and she's barely known this woman. After 3 years with Tina, no one ever mentioned Porter being a control freak...least of all Tina. The lack of communication, having it out, and just plain talking about things was abnormally, conspicuously, and unrealistically absent throughout their relationship. Their silence was deafening. It was like somebody somewhere was trying really hard to pull the two apart...rip 'em apart...BUT in comes the 'fiery artist' and suddenly there's open and frank discussion...communication...between the footloose and fancy free fiery artist and alpha control Porter...the opposites colliding as opposed to attracting...and yet...not sure I see why Jodie is willing to give up the polygamy thing for Dean Porter...not too sure why Jodie would not have noticed or forcefully mentioned the way Bette acted around Tina at the dinner party...those looks...but maybe it's the polygamy thing that makes her not really notice or think it's par for the course. Now that I think of it...what did Bette see in Tina? I mean way back...in the beginning. Whatever it was, it was derailed in the plot...clowded over...It's like they had lost themselves and each other and while apart from one another all this time it seems they are finding themselves. When this process is over, and it seems to be happening on a parallel plane, that's when they'll turn from looking inward to looking at each other and knowing what they see. And then we'll either be cursing tractors or wondering if the 10th season is in fact the last...

Episode 4.10 could have been really good if the entire episode had been the dinner party, sort of an updated "Boys In The Band." However, with the constant cutting back and forth between the dinner party and Max and his family, it was only a relatively good episode (relative to the last few episodes of this season and every episode of Season 3). I understand that you want to tell Max's story (despite the fact that many viewers don't seem to want to have it told), but was it really necessary to show a scene-by-scene account of his entire trip home for his mother's funeral? The episode was literally 50% Max and 50% the rest of the (11) characters (well, make that 10, minus a sorely-missed Phyllis). Just when the momentum was building at the dinner party, we had to cut back to Max and another redundant scene illustrating his family's rejection of him. This could have been more effectively illustrated with just one or two scenes, before or after the dinner party sequence, that didn't leave viewers resenting Max's screen time so much. I'm sure there are those who may have had the opposite reaction who were annoyed by the constant interruption of Max's important scenes with the seemingly frivolous dinner party scenes -- that's why it would have been better to not have them in the same episode. It reminded me of those jarring juxtapositions in Season 2 -- you know, Bette with her father on his deathbed juxtaposed with the wacky goings-on with everyone else on the Olivia cruise. More attention should be given to the overall tone of each episode. I'm sure the talented cast could easily handle a "Boys In The Band"-type episode ("L Girls In The Band"?) that would include nothing but the dinner party preparations, the dinner party, and its aftermath. I'm just not sure the writers could handle it. It would require consistently good writing.

Check the board--I wrote you some limericks!!

Umm excuse me, I think Im gonna be sick!!

***************************************************
"Alright. Yoda needs to give me some better advice or Yoda needs to shut the fuck up!".

Down stream a poster facetiously mentioned that there should be a Bette and Tina Show. This is a actually a brilliant idea. After Season 5 there could be a spin-off version of the world's most beloved lesbian couple.

Well if not that then how about a TIBETTE ONLY thread. Seems our numbers are so huge that it irks certain people. But I can see it now...okay everyone who wants Tibette at the front of the ship and the whole things tips over.

Tsunami Tibette Forever!

Great episode!
I'm a little fed up with all this Tibette things...I thought that it was a "french thing" to be never happy...but I'm surprised to see how you girls are...
We're here fighting to have a new president (hoping it will be the good one), to be recognised, to have the same rights as heterosexual and it will be hard...!
So i just want to say how glad I am to see this show.
Furthermore, as i have a very good friend who is deaf , this diner party sounds so real. We ever try to include her into our jokes, our conversations, but it sometimes goes too fast....even if we don't have to sign as she reads on our lips.
Keep on giving us such intensity, and thanks a lot!

Yeah Ilene'
Congrats on S5!

NOW!

TIBETTE
TIBETTE
TIBETTE
TIBETTE
TIBETTE
TIBETTE
TIBETTE!

Yes! Another Tibette post. You didn't think it would be anyone else now would ya? AHA!, anywayz!, Firstly onto Tina, I don't like what you have done to Tina. firstly you send her on a one way to Manville. I was saddened, but thought Ok, it's done, move on. Now even though I didn't like this idea, I thought you was at least going to Xplore this storyline, instead what we got, as per usual with you, is a potential storyline, with nothing except and beginning and end. And I think that is out of order to both actress, and her character. IMO you really only did this, to make way for as you would say ''Bette's thrilling new love'' *stares*.

What you need to be looking to do in S5!, is fixing our wonderful Couple. Firstly you need to lay down the foundations yea, let them talk, communicate, because that was the downward spiral for their break up, as well as Bette's infidell, etc. Secondly you need to stop bringing in outside interferences, because how are Bette and Tina going to progress? when everyone is in their business.

even when their happy, or unhappy, whatever the situation you can't deny the love that is still there, and that love is rare. You can Let Bette & Jodie have their moment, because that is all it is, just like Tina and Henry, like a rebound. Sooner or later, our girls will find their way back to eachother.