Season 1 premiered in the United States on January 18, 2004, on Showtime and featured 13 episodes presenting several entwined story lines. Set in West Hollywood, the series first introduces Bette Porter and Tina Kennard,
a couple with a seven-year relationship who want to have a child. Tina
eventually becomes pregnant through artificial insemination but has a
miscarriage during episode 1.09:
Luck, next time. Later in the series, Bette develops an affair with Candace Jewell.
The pilot introduced a coming out/love triangle storyline involving Tina and Bette’s neighbor, Tim Haspel, his new-in-town girlfriend, Jenny Schecter, and Marina Ferrer.
Marina is part of Tina and Bette’s circle of friends, and owns the
neighborhood café, The Planet, which serves as the group's hang-out and
focal point for the show. The season also introduces Shane McCutcheon, an androgynous, highly-sexual hairstylist and serial heart-breaker; Alice Pieszecki, a girly, bisexual journalist looking for love in any way she can, and Dana Fairbanks,
a professional tennis player who is still in the closet and torn
between pursuing her career and finding love. In the first season, Dana
falls for a sous chef named Lara Perkins whose sexuality is questioned by the group until Lara has an unexpected meeting with Dana in the locker room.
