Teen comedies are so often a bore, it was refreshing to see Montrealer Phil Price take a good stab at kicking up some adolescent-angst fun in Prom Wars, now out on DVD. The premise is simple enough: two boys’ schools battle it out for the right to take an entire girls’ school to the year-end prom. Nothing inspires vicious fighting like suddenly emerged, raging hormones, and these kids have gallons of them.

Alia Shawkat (of Arrested Development fame) plays the prize that two boys battle over, one from the geek school and the other from the privileged-jock school (yes, there are jabs at certain Westmount schools that shall remain nameless). The cast is nicely rounded out, with Montrealer Kevin Coughlin earning special mention for his slick performance as a snotty and evil rich kid.

Niche programming is now a staple of the TV landscape, with broadcasters aggressively pursuing any and all manner of audiences, from African-Americans to gardening enthusiasts to gay men to home-reno aficionados. And though it’s hit and miss, they got it right with The L Word, the sometimes-titillating, often-hilarious Sapphic soap opera.

While not perfect, the keen writing often puts most similar shows to shame, featuring a broad, shifting spectrum of characters, with a lovely ensemble cast bringing them to life (including Jennifer Beals, Cybill Shepherd and blaxploitation icon Pam Grier). All five seasons of The L Word are now out on DVD, and if you’re hankering to lez out, I highly recommend devouring them.

It’s impossible not to think of The L Word’s sickly cousin, the Americanized version of Queer as Folk, which never quite reached the heights that this series has. It’s a strange irony: for years, lesbians rightly complained they weren’t getting the same kind of attention in pop culture that gay men were. But with the accolades for The L Word and the whopping ratings that Ellen routinely racks up, it seems lesbians are winning the sweepstakes on the telly.