“The L Word: Generation Q” Announces Two New Characters, Bette and Tina’s Grown-Up Baby

The L Word: Generation Q has officially announced two entire characters who’ll join Bette and Tina and Alice when they move to the eastside of Los Angeles for their fall reboot on Showtime. Over at Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Marja-Lewis Ryan unveiled an annotated page from a Gen Q script and some details about the new series. The new kids are Dani (cis, PR person) and Micah (trans, climate scientist), just a couple of exes who are now best friends. Also, in addition to the returning characters you’re expecting, here’s a returning character you’re not: Bette and Tina’s little baby angel Angelica, who’s a fully grown teenager now. Ryan says writing that whole thing was “really fun.”

Remember when Bette and Tina almost burned down their house when Angie was at Disneyland with Kit and they had sex while the stir-fry was still cooking on the stove? Remember that time Dawn Denbo released a bunch of rats at the Planet and Angie peeped them and thought they were dogs? Remember that time Angie got her hands on that gun? Remember when they wheeled Jenny Schecter’s dead body right into the living room in front of Angie’s precious face?! Bette and Tina were terrible parents! I hope she’s seeing a therapist and I hope it’s not Dan Foxworthy.

Ryan also told EW:

“Getting the chance to write where their lives would be in 10 years, there’s this element of fan fiction that I got to fulfill — and the other writers in the room did, too… Not to get super dark, but any time I see a news story about a kid like you or me who kills themselves, the idea that this show is not on the air is, I think, harmful. I just think about the little Marjas, watching themselves, seeing themselves, and being okay. So it’s bigger than me. It’s bigger than my ego.”

When Generation Q proclaimed that it was going to for real be called Generation QRiese noted that the show was casting “two trans male roles, one of which is for an Asian-American actor, as well as for a white female character identified as a ‘late 20s-early 30s former Olympic Swimmer’ who is ‘charming, youthful and sweet.’ She’s also supposed to be tall.”

Oh, one other important character is apparently coming back: Alice’s chart.

Head on over to Entertainment Weekly to get your paws on that script.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

23 Comments

  1. Any word where this will be filmed? Vancouver again? And any word if there are any trans women characters, cause we do exist out here in SoCal and some of us are just regular gals and some are kickass coders(and some of them come to real life Planet, Cuties).

    • Yeah for real. I’m reading all these articles about it thinking like.. wait. So it’s a show about queer women and the only trans characters we’re hearing about are multiple men?

      I mean. Like. I 1000% get that loads of transmasc folks come up through queer women’s communities and that’s great buuuuuuuuut. The women? Where are they?

    • I’m honestly surprised they’ve already casted two transmen ahead of transwomen. Anyway, I hope GenQ sticks to women loving women because I’d rather not see a significant amt of straight ppl drama.

      • That’s good to know, cause when I found out years later in an article from Rachel Shelley that it was filmed in Vancouver that surprised me, but also saddened me as a local.

    • Me too! I always hated that Bette (and even Tina) assumed she’d be into art. I remember when Tina was on the first date with Denise and talking about how they’ve applied for Angelica to get into an art preschool or something: Denise was like “What if she doesn’t want to be an artist?”

  2. Laurel Holloman’s not in the reboot, right, because she’s retired from acting? I wonder how they’ll explain that.

  3. Wait, is Tina in this? I just don’t know if I can handle more Tina.

    I propose that she be killed off in a car accident 5 years ago and Bette has remarried literally anyone. That woman Alice and Tasha were in love with. Papi. Dawn Denbo’s former lover Cindy. Stacey Merkin. Xena Warrior Princess. Tessa Thompson as a Westworld robot. ANYONE.

    • I was alittle sad when they said Tina wont be in but Bette remarrying?

      🙌 faith restored

    • I am with you. I would rather Bette spend the entire show at a silent retreat than have Tina in it.

  4. Oh GOD, leave me in peace with just the awful Rugrats child being people’s go-to witty namesake comment.

  5. Sigh…some day, there’ll be a version of The L Word that has a trans woman in it.

    Some day.

Comments are closed.