Our Rating:
Date of Series: 2005 - Present
Network: Showtime
Studio: Lionsgate
Writer/Producer: Jenji Kohan
Awards (If Any): Golden Globe Best Actress (Mary –Louise Parker), Numerous SAG and
Golden Globe nominations
Principal Actors: Mary –Louise Parker, Elizabeth Perkins, Kevin Nealon, Justin Kirk
Comedy-Drama, 54 Min, MPAA Rating: R, Color, Seasons 1-6 Available On DVD and Blue Ray.
SHOWTIME’S “WEEDS” DELIVERS HIGH COMEDY
If you are not a Showtime cable subscriber, you are
missing the most cutting edge television around.
Showtime seized the mantle from HBO last year after the
Soprano’s closed with their final blackout and the original
uncensored Sex and the City episodes left for heavilyedited
reruns on syndicated free TV. Showtime has not
been shy in launching its lineup of comedies and dramas
aimed at an adult audience comfortable with compelling
stories and lots of skin. Among these are The Tudors (the
sexy side of Henry VIII), Californication (an oversexed
writer), Dexter (a detective who is secretly a serial killer),
and Diary of a Call Girl (exactly what it sounds like). But
the best of the bunch, in my opinion, is Weeds.
In season one, we meet Nancy Botwin (Emmy winner
Mary-Louise Parker), a suddenly widowed soccer mom
who maintain her suburban lifestyle
by dealing “pot” in the California
suburb of Agrestic. From the opening credits we know this comedy satire is going to be special as Malvina Reynolds’ song “Little Boxes” plays over images of cookie-cutter McMansions, joggers all dressed alike, and Range Rover SUVs lining the well-manicured streets. Besides Nancy’s two sons, the rebellious teenager Silas and younger precocious Shane, the cast of characters include the Mayor Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon) who is Nancy’s best customer, the slothful womanizer Andy Botwin (Justin Kirk) brother of Nancy’s late husband, and Heylia James (Tonye Patano) the world-wise supplier of
Nancy’s stash.
A special comment must be made about Elizabeth Perkins who plays Celia Hodes, the self important
over-the-top neighbor, PTA chair and eventual city council member whose is Nancy’s foil for much of
the series. Perkins player her with such self importance we can’t help but chuckle as her unwitting life
spins out of control, episode by episode. Hodes completes her fall from grace at the end of season three
when, as the leader of the Say No to Drugs campaign, she is revealed to be renting to the owner of the
grow house used by Nancy and her merry band (where Nancy is using a stolen cross from a local church steeple and using it as a grow light for her stash.)
Over subsequent seasons, Hodes lands in prison, then winds up working for Nancy in a maternity store which acts as a front for Mexican drug smugglers, while getting hooked on the white powder herself. Then Nancy hooks up with a Mexican politician who happens to be a major kingpin. When he discovers she has informed on him to the police he decides to kill her only to discover Nancy is carrying his unborn son. Nancy spend the next season unhappily married to the drug lord who has higher political ambitions that do not include having his new American wife or her family around. That is when Nancy's youngest son, Shane, kills the drug lord's campaign manager with a croquet mallet and the entire family spend the next season fleeing to Seattle, then Minnesota, where the drug lord and his hencemen catch up with the Botwins in the airport as they attempt to flee the country. At the end of seaosn 7, it looks like Nancy is again about to be killed when the local police suddenly surround all of them at the airport with guns drawn. Stay tuned.
This story line might sound grim, but in the capable hands of show creator and head writer, Jenji Kohan each inspired episodes is more funny and outrageous than the last. Kohan’s previous writing credits include Mad About You, Sex and the City, and Gilmore Girls. Major acting talent seems to be falling over themselves to get cameos on this show. Last season alone saw Alanis Morrisette as an OB-GYN pursued by a smitten anti-abortion crusader and Richard Dreyfuss as a college professor who robs a post office.
The highlights for me have been the visit to a pot convention where everything you can imagine is being sold, the bakery where every cookie has a special ingredient, and of course infamous “advice Andy gives to the younger son Shane about how to
masturbate using a banana. Yes there is plenty of skin also, as Andy seems to get his way effortlessly with every female guest star, Silas has no trouble having affairs with the neighborhood cougars, and Nancy has one disastrous fling after the other including one with a DEA agent. And I forgot to mention at the end of one season she accidentally burns down her entire town as she attempts to hide the evidence while the police are closing in. Yes, Nancy is definitely in over her head but she doesn’t realize it, and somehow finds a way to survive to sell another day.
If you can't follow the synopsis above, don't worry about it. The writers definitely have been using too many recreational drugs! You don't have to follow the plot to follow the fun.
