Television: October 2007 Archives

CBS is the place to go to fill up on crime drama. In the last seven years or so, Les Moonves and his crew have brought us several flavors of CSI, Without a Trace, and several other crime-related dramas with much success. Criminal Minds, which debuted in 2005, distinguishes itself from the pack with the overall darkness that envelops the show.

From day one, The L Wordhas been a powder keg of sex and drama among a gorgeous group of Los Angeles dwelling lesbians. As season four opens, Shane McCutcheon (Katherine Moennig) has left her fiancée Carmen de la Pica Morales (Sarah Shahi) just minutes before their wedding in Canada. Shane is in the midst of an intense alcohol, sex and drug fueled bender with her lover from seasons past, Cherie Jaffe (Rosanna Arquette). When Shane finally does come home from the bender, she finds that her fathers' scorned wife has left Shay (Aidan Jarrar), Shane's nine year old brother in her care. Shane shows a much softer side of herself; taking a modeling job to earn money to pay the medical costs after Shay is hurt in a skateboarding accident and pleading with the principal of the local school to allow her brother to attend classes there. Katherine Moennig shows a fairly impressive range of emotions during the fourth season of The L Word. You can feel her heartbreak as she tries to numb the pain of losing Carmen, her happiness as she bonds with her little brother. As it happens, Shay becomes friends with another boy at school. While on a play date Shane meets the boy's single mother Paige Sobel (Kristanna Loken) and eventually the two become lovers.