The Lovers and Friends Show [****]

I’m beginning to realize that a lot of lesbian shows have decided (or needed) to go the web series route. Maybe I’ve been living under a rock, but I didn’t know the web series genre was so popular; so, of course, I started looking for series starring women of color. Imagine my excitement when I found The Lovers and Friends Show. It’s Noah’s Ark for lesbians and on a smidgen of the budget… I don’t mind. And even though I’m broke, it gave me nothing but pleasure and pride to invest in the first season dvd to help keep this wonderful series rolling.

The cast is entirely Black and Latina: Lisa, the closeted med student; Kai, the loyal friend with the psychotic ex-girlfriend; Yasmin, the activist with family issues and a crush on her sister’s best friend; Tori, the lovable, laughable hip-hop critic who’s screwing her boss; Mercedes, Tori’s boss who has “bad boundaries”; and Dre, the stud and the player. The acting is so-so but that’s to be expected (Did anyone re-watch the first season of The L-Word? Wow.). The plot line flowed better than I expected and by the last episode, the characters really started to shine through. I can only hope Showtime or HBO finds this show and decides to pick it up, but if not, it will go down as a cult classic for black lesbians nationwide. I give The LNF Show four stars out of five with nowhere to go but up.

There is a marathon of the first two seasons up on the show's Ning network(http://loversnfriendsshow.ning.com/) for the month of August only. Netflix.com now carries seasons 1 and 2, which can also be purchased through filmbaby.com. And finally, check out news and bios at http://theloversnfriendsshow.com/.