Exes & Ohs: The Complete First Season (review)

It’s nice to see a television show approach the lives of lesbians as if it’s they were, you know, real people, as this dramedy from the cable network Logo does as it follows the romantic disasters of Seattle lesbian Jennifer Butler (played by series cocreator and writer Michelle Paradise), a thirtysomething documentary filmmaker, and her circle of friends -- including exes who’ve morphed into pals (and exes who haven’t), a couple embarking on a baby adventure, and a younger woman struggling to find her own way in the world, perhaps as a musician (played by the cast’s best-known name, indie star Heather Welcome to the Dollhouse Matarazzo). It’s too bad, then, that these six half-hour episodes vacillate between eager earnestness and too-cutesy preciousness: Jennifer’s search for Ms Right is puncuated by a lot of too-solemn talk about Feelings and Orgasms that sucks the life right outta life, which alternate with Jennifer’s handing down, directly to the camera, lessons from the world of lesbian love that aren’t, actually, as different from the rules of straight love as she’d like to think. Still, it’s hard to begrudge a long-neglected minority its moment of coming out of the closet, even if it’s only into the world of safe, dry, middle-of-the-road television. Extras include “extrasodes” (mini episodes), interviews with the cast, behind-the-scenes footage, and more.