Weeds - Season One

I don't particularly like "drug humor," so I passed on "Weeds" when it first went on the air. However, the reviews for the show have been consistently very good, so I decided to finally watch a few episodes. I liked them. "Weeds" is about Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), a mother who lives in an expensive planned community (fictional Agrestic, California) and was left penniless when her husband unexpectedly dropped dead jogging. She turns to dealing pot to keep up her tony life-style, and it turns out that she's pretty good at it. The first few episodes show her adjusting to the absurdity or her new career and balancing her drug dealing with raising her two sons, teenaged Silas and the pre-pubescent Shane, who are adjusting to their father's death.

The show relies on this clever conceit of the drug-dealing mom for much of its humor, but at its heart "Weeds" is a devious satire of suburbia. Nancy may seem immoral selling drugs in order to make her Range Rover payments and to buy the steady stream of iced coffees she totes everywhere; however, she is far from being the most deviant character. PTA uber-mom Celia (Elizabeth Perkins), for example, has a cheating husband, an overweight daughter whom she tries to browbeat daily to watch her calories, and a teenaged daughter whom she sends to boarding school after she sleeps with Silas.

The show is well-written and offers plenty of laughs, and the acting is terrific. I'm not usually a fan of Mary-Louise Parker, as she too often seems depressed and mopey in most roles. However, she's very good in this career-defining role - even sexy at times. She's received two Emmy nominations for Best Actress in a Comedy and a win in that category at the Golden Globes. The crowded supporting cast is joined by Heylia (Tonye Patano), Nancy's sassy supplier, along with her family members, Vaneeta and Conrad. Finally, Kevin Nealon plays Doug, the marijuana-crazy CPA who helps Nancy run her business and also serves on the Agrestic City Council. Many of the biggest laughs are supplied by Heylia, although people who appreciate pot humor will probably also like Doug.

During the first season, "Weeds" does a great job of examining the hypocrisy of suburbia. Nancy's drug dealing is balanced nicely with plots involving Shane's school problems, Celia's family and their issues, and so forth. Unfortunately, mid-way through the season, Nancy's brother-in-law, Andy (Justin Kirk) arrives. Andy is a juvenile, pot-smoking, responsibility-shirking idiot, and he is on-screen far too often in the second half of the season (and beyond). In particular, as he and Doug become friends, the plots too often involve them being stoned and irresponsible - the very reasons I avoided "Weeds" initially. However, overall, the show still remains strong despite these unlikeable characters.

I generally hate television. In fact haven't had any TV reception where I live for the last 15 years. A friend suggested The Sopranos which I could watch on DVD. What a great experience that was. I'm serious, it has qualities of being the Shakespeare of our time. So I came across WEEDS in hopes of more great, daring programing. After reading several reviews I ran right out to buy Season One. Well, I tapped a few buttons and ordered it. What a fine concept! When you measure up the harm alcohol does to our society, murder, domestic violence, car crashes...I thought: SHOWTIME good for you!! A single mother surviving off of selling grass. And please, let's not lump all the drugs together, grass is fine and probably helps lots of people in our pressure cooker age. But this show...I found the lead actress SO unlikable! She reminded me of my worst girlfriends. So negative. Those ugly stares and for some reason they decided they needed to move her from one crisis to another. Sure, it's TV, I understand. Sopranos moved fast and had its share. But PLEASE, so many of the problems are so stupid! So improbable. So shallow. Maybe it is just me. Maybe I read too much and books have ruined it for me. Maybe my loathing for cheap TV sit-coms is too great. I thought the writing was plain awful! This writing is not from a person or people who have been out in life. These are from people that have spent 200,000 cooking their brains with other TV shows and trying to build concepts on balloney. The stereotype black family with the drive-by shooting, these people crazy-glued to that kitchen table. And what about the sex on the hood of the other dealer's car? The younger son is great and has a future. I think if you want something with depth, with intelligence, with some vision as in Fellini films (the early ones) and great stories of the human condition with humor mixed with angst, and tragedy blended with lust..forget it! This series is about as shallow as they come. Why did I watch it? I paid for it and I just kept hoping it would get better. It didn't. I'd say that three out of five people would feel about this show as I do. Two out of those five would never buy it. And nine out of ten of those like me that bought and watched and hated it would never go to the trouble to write a review. Bare with me, I'm just trying to understand how a show that is so bad could have so many good reviews and sucker people like me into buying it. All cast members required to log-on and sing praises? Something people are smoking? Search me!

"Weeds" is a pretty seamless show. It juggles comedy, satire, and drama so successfully that you can never really predict which scene will bring what. It's a tightly written series with a great cast that all comes together in one of the most utterly addictive television shows that is currently on air.

I love that the show doesn't condone or condemn marijuana. I love that this isn't a show you have to be high for, but it's also so intelligently and thoughtfully written that it appeals to people who just may be high when watching. I love that it isn't afraid to show the petty and ugly sides of the characters we're supposed to sympathize with. And while I usually love long, twenty-five episode seasons, I love that this season is made up of ten half-hour episodes that are more like slices-of-life than any noticeable story arc or anthology. I love that you can pretty much sit down on a lazy afternoon and watch the entire season and still have the night to yourself.

The first season of "Weeds" is an air-tight, well done show that will appeal to the stoner crowd, the Desperate Housewives crowd, and virtually anyone in between. It's easily one of the finest shows on the air right now, and I can't wait to see what directions this series takes.

8/10

This is a good show, it packs a lot of stuff into each 25 minute episode. Four stars and not five because I think we're all growing a bit weary of these "look how cool and irreverent we are living our crazy lives in LA" shows that HBO and Showtime keep churning out whether we want them or not.

Weeds was another show recommended to me by friends. Dubiously I began watching, not sure what I was getting into. Comedy? I was expecting drama. What you get is a mix of both and much more.....

The CAST is what really makes this show work. While at times, at least in season 1, the writing/story may be lacking, you can't help but laugh at Doug (Kevin Nealon), scoff at Andy and shake your head at Nancy and Celia! What's more, is that even the cast that has a slightly more supporting role, is truly talented and gives the show it's life. Happily, the pace picks up through out the season, as does the drama & the laughs. It will have you running to the store to see what is going to happen in season 2, and let me say, it only gets better!!

Way to go Showtime!