'L Word' reality spinoff: Does L stand for Lazy?

Showtime has greenlit nine episodes of The Real L Word: Los Angeles, which is both an awful title and way too reminiscent of The Real Housewives of [Some City]. Oh, but it’s not a coincidence! Showtime thinks the series could have franchise potential à la Housewives! According to Autostraddle.com, production company Magical Elves (Top Chef) was actually in talks with Bravo until Ilene Chaiken brought the project over to Showtime. Variety says the project is “dependent on casting” and that “if all goes as planned, The Real L Word would debut sometime next year.” Chaiken told the press, “Even though we concluded our sixth season of The L Word on Showtime this past March, I believe we are not nearly finished telling our L Word stories.”

I believe “our” may have been the wrong word choice there. Sounds to me like the plan is to go around to different cities picking the prettiest lesbians, styling them according to designer sponsorship (in the true spirit of the original Word), and letting the real people’s lesbianny drama play out so that Ilene Chaiken doesn’t have to write anything else original about lesbians. And if it sucks, they can just blame the lesbians. And then, to soften the blow, Jane the Producer from PopWatch’s favorite canceled show ever, The Comeback, can pop up and say “I just think your ‘reality’ could be more interesting.” As magical as the Elves have proven themselves to be, this proposal just sounds bad to me.

What do you think — could a reality show reflect “the way that [lesbians] liiiiiiiiiive…and loooooooove” better than a scripted series, or is this idea as awful as the entire Max storyline?

Photo Credit: Showtime