Erin go L Word

Elizabeth Ziff in her natural habitat

Sorry about the lack of post last week. I can't remember if I was too busy or too bored to actually write something, but it was nice to see that I could roll right into last night without missing a beat. Speaking of, Ziff gave it a rest this week, so the show didn't feature any lengthy slo-mo montages set to wailing guitars. Instead, Chaiken herself took over the pen so the plot revolved around - what else?- PMS. Because as every bad female comic knows, nothing's funnier or more entertaining than "I am SO on the rag" jokes.

Almost immediately we're treated to the evil amnesiac Dawn Denbo who introduced everyone once again to "my lover Cindy" right before ripping the girls' heart out with the announcement that she is now the proud owner of The Planet (thanks to trans-Ivan's sale of his percentage). Like a true villain Dawn's parting words are meant to really twist the knife: "And I'm going to totally re-decorate!" The girls freak out, Kit snaps 'n' bends so hard it looks like she's going to hit the ground, and superheroes everywhere are quaking in their pleather boots.

I've got to hand it to Chaiken. She really used her extended vacation to do a little thinking on metaphor. The running theme of "women and their cycles" followed so nicely on the heels of last week's episode where everyone was looking ridiculous in the Bike-for-a-Cure. This week we were treated to lots and lots of everyone's favorite topic: your/her/our/my period. When in doubt, blame it on the period. She's in a bad mood? It's her period! Alice even used the period as the last word (pun intended?) in her femme-butch disagreement with Sgt. Cutie about splitting the rent on a new shared domicile: "I hope you bleed soon." I think this sums up all of our frustrations. Somebody get this show a Pamprin.


So Jenny is actually starting to get kudos from the production staff which is to say Tina (job title unknown)and the lesbian cinematographer - identified only by her bandana and lens-on-a-rope - got together in Tina's office to have some girl-chat about Jenny's "great stylistic choices." Not for long! "All About Adele" has decided to take Jenny down a peg through good old-fashioned blackmail. She's smart as a whip and cooked up a couple dozen copies of Jenny and Maxim Girl's homemade porno edited so nicely by...Wait, who is responsible for that sexy push in on the strap-on action? No matter because Jenny is caught in the net of her own undoing. With her little black hairbow and smoker's eyebags, she tries to get the cast and crew to bring down the curtain on the whole production, but only Tina and Shane stick by her side. Maxim Girl must honor her contract and remain hetero to see another day. Shane and Jenny get their flirt-on over a soda bottle bong.

Kit channels her salad days and puts on a trench coat to go "do something bad" to Denbo with her gun and her Chevy Impala. But Foxy Brown doesn't go through with it because she gets a call on her Iphone from Bette who is caught in the clutches of a deaf woman who doesn't know the meaning of no and can't find childcare. Later little Angelica nearly becomes a statistic when Foxy leaves her gun lying around. The maximum number of "Baby Girls!" allowable on cable were uttered in this one moment until the requisite knee bend stopped the flow (so to speak).

While guest hosting on "The Look," Alice meets a fashion designer (played by that Australian actress from "Heavenly Creatures) with whom she is supposed to have an instant attraction even though no two people have ever looked less interested in one another. Will she cheat on Tasha to go ride the Aussie's scooter? Stay tuned.