It's downright disturbing how much I came to hate Jenny by season 6 of TLW...I don't think any character has inspired such hatred for me. I'm both amused and disturbed by my reaction, and hats off to Mia Kirshner for making Jenny so real to me.
I'd think I'd hate other characters more. Bette reminds me of a former girlfriend I had in that she was always going on about the importance of monogamy while also a serial cheater, and she kept coming after me with emotional manipulation and even some attempted intimidation and the like when I finally had enough to leave her (she was also bi-racial and used lots of profanity, but that's about the only other thing they had in common...that, and both were beautiful, though in different ways with a radically different fashion sense for one thing). That girlfriend of mine was the one person I loved and hated with such passion that was a burden (the passions of love combined with hate) to me for years, and yet I find myself strangely sympathetic to (though not excusing of) Bette in spite of this while hating Jenny, and I'm not even sure why.
That aside, I do appreciate how much comfort (if also pain) this show has given people.
And speaking of family (the one born into rather than the one chosen)...I think I may have mentioned a close friend (also an ex of mine) who is an alcohol and gets so depressed that it scares me...she can't go home because she's a lesbian atheist, and her Russian Orthodox family won't condone that lifestyle and beliefs...and yet her room is now used to house guests, including violent, tattooed gangsters (they get preached at to change their ways while there, but at least they're still given shelter and fed) while she has no criminal record and a masters in physics and yet will be turned away at the front door as no kin to them. Damn, that has got to hurt. I even liked her family once upon a time, but I can't forgive them for how they've treated her over something so trivial. I could mention other sexual immorality from a traditional Christian viewpoint that is rampant among them and other members of the Russian Orthodox church they go to as well, but somehow that's not only overlooked, it's even winked at.
My own grandmother is one of the two only relatives I came out to (though many of my kin strongly suspect the truth, but as long as I live over a thousand miles away most of them adopt a "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward me), and though she was accepting, she also talked about how she should've fought harder to gain custody of me as a child and such...that is, she sees my being lesbian as my being damaged from childhood stuff, and was essentially treating it as a disability. That hurt my feelings (which is not easy to do compared to many people), but I didn't say anything...I knew I still had it far much better than many others in my place who can't count on family support at all, and may even be physically attacked (even killed) by their kin over it.
And perhaps that's one thing that was addictive about TLW, as it portrayed a world where we are normal (if in the bad ways as well as the good ways).
I liked Shane, but never really thought she was all that. 😕
I liked Shane as a friend, but I wasn't actually attracted to her. That is I'd love to kick back with her, but I doubt it would get erotic (if it did then I can't imagine I'd attribute anything romantic to it).
I don't know if you saw the "interrogation tapes" that come after season 6 (if you haven't, I strongly recommend skipping them), but it annoyed me that Shane would confess to a serious crime after asking if she couldn't be prosecuted for it. Even if Shane was that ignorant of the law, she'd surely be streetwise enough not to trust a cop interrogating her to be honest or friendly in any sense. But then maybe she was just being self-destructive (fine, but at least show a little more dignity in destroying yourself than pretending to be that stupid). (The crime she confessed to also irked me.)
