AS 'THE L WORD' TURNS.

Byline: David Kronke Television Critic

A FRIEND of mine who works for a gay media outlet recently said that his colleagues can't stand Showtime's inferior adaptation of the acclaimed British TV series ``Queer as Folk,'' but their readership adores the show, so they swallow their pride and run lots of stories on it.

Here's betting that Showtime's new series, ``The L Word,'' garners more respect yet turns out to be a little too low-key to emerge as must-see programming for any more than its respective audience. It flies just under the Zeitgeist's radar, despite America's seeming current hunger for depictions of alternative lifestyles.

This is no fault of the show's producers, who have capably created a nice, compactly realized series of social manners. But given larger expectations - it does not expand upon what, say, ``Will & Grace'' or ``Queer Eye for the Straight Guy'' has accomplished - ``The L Word'' buckles under its far more modest aims.

``The L Word'' is centered upon an incrementally small world of Los Angeles lipstick lesbians. Bette (Jennifer Beals) is an emerging art-world executive who is trying to have a child with her partner Tina (Laurel Holloman). Amongst their pals, Alice (Leisha Hailey) is a bisexual looking for love in all the wrong places; Dana (Erin Daniels) is a closeted tennis pro whose search for sex is more agonizingly circumspect; and Shane (Katherine Moennig) is a classic womanizer who would put most male heterosexuals to shame: Her antics have even inspired a stalker.

They gather to mull over their conquests and losses at a restaurant owned by Marina (Karina Lombard), who is pursuing Jenny (Mia Kirshner), a young Midwestern woman who has recently come to the city to be with longtime boyfriend Tim (Eric Mabius). Even when not at Marina's, they manage to conveniently bump into one another with astonishing regularity - it's like the city is made up of 30 people, 25 of whom are lesbians.

Tim is none too sharp - it doesn't dawn on him that Marina, though she hangs with other lesbians, is one herself, and he pushes Jenny to spend quality time with Marina. Though she insists she wants to avoid temptation, she goes out of her way to place herself around Marina. (After they have trysted without his knowledge, Tim dimly suggests that Jenny ``kiss and make up - or whatever you women do.'')

Dana's character strains credulity at nearly every turn. She laments she can't find love and wants to keep her sexuality a secret - both problems, one imagines, would be solved if she didn't stray too far from the women's sports circuit (invisible on this program); but her public behavior suggests her closeted status won't endure much longer.

The ``L Word'' in tonight's premiere is ``Lackluster,'' as all the sundry relationships are established in a most belabored fashion, and everyone is defined in terms more ideological than character-based (a tedious party sequence will test all but the most politically sensitive viewers).

Next week's episode represents a significant improvement, particularly in the show's sense of humor, as the girls convene to help Dana - who is abjectly unable to detect a woman's sexual preference - learn the exigencies of ``gaydar'' via a practically militarized scoping out of her infatuation. Later on, though, it's somewhat bizarre that love-'em-and- leave-'em Shane would have any credibility in advising Alice that her on-again, off-again girlfriend is emotionally unreliable, given that she has her own issues in that regard.

As ``The L Word'' continues, Jenny's attraction to Marina is more fully defined and exploded, as is Alice's self-abnegating desires. The show's cast is good, but the actors given the most comic moments - Beals and Hailey - also register strongly in the most emotional moments.

``The L Word's'' subplots, as devised by series creator Ilene Chaiken, tend toward the precious and even campy, but the acting - Beals has several rich scenes opposite the imposing Holland Taylor, as well as with Ossie Davis - conspire to make the show more intriguing and enlightened than the drab lip-service it gives to petty sexual concerns found on ``Sex and the City.''

Occasional love scenes nudge ``The L Word'' into the realm of Cinemax- After-Dark prurience, but the show aspires to much more dramatically. It'd be nice, however, if it realized those lofty aspirations more frequently.

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

THE L WORD - Two and one half stars

What: L.A. lesbians live, love, laugh, etc.

Where: Showtime.

When: 10 p.m. Sunday, also 10:45 p.m. Wednesdays.

In a nutshell: More cleverly scripted and exponentially better acted than Cinemax After Dark, but soapy, with hit-and-miss subplots.