In playing Tina on The L Word, Laurel has taken on the responsibility of portraying one of the shows’s most loved characters. Tina has grown in so many ways within just three seasons of the show, something that makes her such a fascinating and watchable character, but also makes her very difficult to summarise under a heading such as this. But let’s have a try:

When we were introduced to Tina at the beginning of Season 1 we found out three important things about her:

1. The lucky ***** was living with that cute chick from ‘Flashdance’. We hated her.
2. She REALLY wanted a baby and we knew she’d be really good at it. We loved her.
3. She knew a lot about bush confidence. Let’s not go there.

When we first got to know Tina, her main character trait was her committed and passionate love for her wife. We so wanted it to work for them. They had lesbian bed-death, but we didn’t care. They needed to stay together forever or the world would end. But Bette was naughty and the world as TiBette fans knew it had ended.

But then we watched as a new Tina emerged. Bruised and battered, but stronger and more assertive. Long gone was the woman who had that overwhelming urge to merge. When we left her at the end of Season 2 we were leaving an individual with many more obvious and adorable traits; her love of children, her passion for her career, her ability to stand up for herself and to get the respect she deserves, and of course her buoyancy even under extreme physical exertion (two words: swimming pool).

And then we were introduced to Daddyof2 and the world changed again. Tina’s heterosexuality was re-emerging and we saw the struggle she had to come to terms with it. But then it wasn’t easy for most of us either, let’s face it. Tina’s decisions and actions in Season 3 certainly gave us all pause for thought and left us wondering who on earth she was going to be sleeping with in Season 4.

In Season 1, Tina’s relationship with Bette was the glue that held the show together. In Seasons 2 and 3 it was their conflict over their relationship and their daughter that gave the show its core drama. Though many of the group seem slightly disturbed by Tina’s return to the world of men, she still remains an integral part of the group. She is the mother-figure every group needs. Great to have a giggle with, but she’d make up the spare bed and ply you with hot chocolate and warm blankets if you were feeling sad and lonely. She has a patience and a sense of humour that’s appreciated by everyone. She’s as happy listening to Alice’s bizarre ideas for LA magazine (LA’s best nipples, anyone?) as she is trying to offer support and understanding to Jenny in her most troubled times (and there are many). After all, this is the woman who is able to see the funny side of ping pong balls being thrown at a velcro womb. All we need is a twitch of the eyebrow and we know Tina thinks it’s all a bit freaky, just like us. And maybe that’s why we like her so much; because she has the same confusions and complications in her life as most of us do, and her reactions to them (though we may not always like them) are always real.

© Debbie Anderson for Laurel Holloman Online. Not to be reproduced without permission