I think that in its heart of hearts, "Weeds" wants to be a black comedy. After all, when her husband drops dead, Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) decides to support her family, which consists of her two sons, Silas (Hunter Parrish) and Shane (Alexander Gould), by selling marijuana in suburbia. Not just in any suburb, but the gated community of Agrestic, California, where the other women might look like they are from Stepford but their topics of discussion are strictly Peyton Place. But I do not think we need to go back that far to example the dynamic of "Weeds," because what we are talking about here are the "Desperate Housewives" of Wisteria Lane on drugs, and as the title gives away, the drug of choice here is marijuana. Actually, that would be the "herb of your choice," because that is the special ingredient in all of the Agrestic Herbal Recipes includes on the special features of the season one DVD.
Marijuana is not a gateway drug in the wacky world of "Weeds," and Nancy might be a dealer but she is also a mom, so if somebody starts dealing to 10 year olds she is more than willing to find them jumping on a bed in their underwear and to sit on them and read them the riot act (okay, actually she has to use coercion, but you get the moral position here). The people of Agrestic do not do harder drugs, they just smoke weed, and eat brownies (and hash browns and pot roast and, well, you get the idea). So, yes, just about everybody on the show is doing drugs, but they are not doing bad drugs, they are just smoking (and eating) weed. In other words, weed is not a hard drug it is a soft drug and people who take it get silly and or horny, which for a half-hour dramedy (black dramedy?) that airs on Showtime would pretty much be a prerequisite. Funny that things have not really progressed all that much from the classic anti-marijuana films of the 1930s, like "Reefer Madness" and "Assassin of Youth," which proved once and for all that smoking grass makes you giggle uncontrollably.
Selling weed is only part of Nancy's life, because both of her sons are presenting her with problems. Silas wants to have sex with her girlfriends and Shane, who was with his father when he dropped dead, likes to respond aggressively to being bullied, which means he gets suspended from elementary school a lot ("You Can't Miss the Bear"). One of the few people in Agrestic who is not smoking Nancy's weed is Celia Hodes (Elizabeth Perkins), the president of the Agrestic Elementary School P.T.A., whose older daughter is the one Silas wants to have sex with. Celia is the sort of person who thinks diet soft drinks should be available to the kids at school and who calls her youngest daughter Isabelle (Allie Grant) "Isabelly" as part of constant pressure to lose weight. This is a mother-daughter war that gets dirty a way you have seldom seen before ("Good S*** Lollipop"). Then again, Celia does teach us that there are clearly worse things in this world than having Coke bottles from a Cessna fall through your roof ("Fashion of the Christ").
"Weeds" could be an interesting show without the marijuana because, after all, we are talking about Mary Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins here, which is a pretty dynamic duo (Parker grabbed a Golden Globe for her role and Perkins is up for an Emmy this year). But some of the funniest stuff here happens when the white lady goes to the house of her supplier, Heylia James (Tonye Patano), and proves how far in over her head she is in this new business venture. Fortunately Heylia's nephew Conrad Shepard (Romany Malco) takes a liking to Nancy or she would really be up the proverbial creek without a paddle ("The Punishment Lighter"). Nancy's C.P.A., Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon) is helping her hide her income when he is not buying her weed, and over the course of the first season she slowly puts together a support group that can help her move up the food chain of her chosen business. Unfortunately her brother-in-law Andy (Justin Kirk) has showed up and moved in and the guy is a walking advertisement for weed being too much of a good thing at some point that he apparently reached years ago ("Lude Awakening").
In terms of ideological assault "Weeds" burns its satire at both ends of the political spectrum, which would mean everybody will find something to laugh at and/or be offended by, or probably both. This might be an idealized version of the marijuana business, but Nancy has spunk and it suddenly occurs to me that this show might also be "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" on drugs, because we have the feeling that Nancy just might make it after all. That is until the final shot of the first season when she turns on the light in the bathroom and sees what is embroidered on the shirt she grabbed to put on when she got out of bed in the middle of the night ("The Godmother"). The second season should be interesting and hopefully Showtime will keep "Weeds" around longer than they did "Huff." Final Note: Gould was the voice of both Nemo in "Finding Nemo" and Bambi in "Bambi II," which is why he sounds so familiar but you cannot place the face.
Reviewed By A2NJO6YE954DBHMarijuana is not a gateway drug in the wacky world of "Weeds," and Nancy might be a dealer but she is also a mom, so if somebody starts dealing to 10 year olds she is more than willing to find them jumping on a bed in their underwear and to sit on them and read them the riot act (okay, actually she has to use coercion, but you get the moral position here). The people of Agrestic do not do harder drugs, they just smoke weed, and eat brownies (and hash browns and pot roast and, well, you get the idea). So, yes, just about everybody on the show is doing drugs, but they are not doing bad drugs, they are just smoking (and eating) weed. In other words, weed is not a hard drug it is a soft drug and people who take it get silly and or horny, which for a half-hour dramedy (black dramedy?) that airs on Showtime would pretty much be a prerequisite. Funny that things have not really progressed all that much from the classic anti-marijuana films of the 1930s, like "Reefer Madness" and "Assassin of Youth," which proved once and for all that smoking grass makes you giggle uncontrollably.
Selling weed is only part of Nancy's life, because both of her sons are presenting her with problems. Silas wants to have sex with her girlfriends and Shane, who was with his father when he dropped dead, likes to respond aggressively to being bullied, which means he gets suspended from elementary school a lot ("You Can't Miss the Bear"). One of the few people in Agrestic who is not smoking Nancy's weed is Celia Hodes (Elizabeth Perkins), the president of the Agrestic Elementary School P.T.A., whose older daughter is the one Silas wants to have sex with. Celia is the sort of person who thinks diet soft drinks should be available to the kids at school and who calls her youngest daughter Isabelle (Allie Grant) "Isabelly" as part of constant pressure to lose weight. This is a mother-daughter war that gets dirty a way you have seldom seen before ("Good S*** Lollipop"). Then again, Celia does teach us that there are clearly worse things in this world than having Coke bottles from a Cessna fall through your roof ("Fashion of the Christ").
"Weeds" could be an interesting show without the marijuana because, after all, we are talking about Mary Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins here, which is a pretty dynamic duo (Parker grabbed a Golden Globe for her role and Perkins is up for an Emmy this year). But some of the funniest stuff here happens when the white lady goes to the house of her supplier, Heylia James (Tonye Patano), and proves how far in over her head she is in this new business venture. Fortunately Heylia's nephew Conrad Shepard (Romany Malco) takes a liking to Nancy or she would really be up the proverbial creek without a paddle ("The Punishment Lighter"). Nancy's C.P.A., Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon) is helping her hide her income when he is not buying her weed, and over the course of the first season she slowly puts together a support group that can help her move up the food chain of her chosen business. Unfortunately her brother-in-law Andy (Justin Kirk) has showed up and moved in and the guy is a walking advertisement for weed being too much of a good thing at some point that he apparently reached years ago ("Lude Awakening").
In terms of ideological assault "Weeds" burns its satire at both ends of the political spectrum, which would mean everybody will find something to laugh at and/or be offended by, or probably both. This might be an idealized version of the marijuana business, but Nancy has spunk and it suddenly occurs to me that this show might also be "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" on drugs, because we have the feeling that Nancy just might make it after all. That is until the final shot of the first season when she turns on the light in the bathroom and sees what is embroidered on the shirt she grabbed to put on when she got out of bed in the middle of the night ("The Godmother"). The second season should be interesting and hopefully Showtime will keep "Weeds" around longer than they did "Huff." Final Note: Gould was the voice of both Nemo in "Finding Nemo" and Bambi in "Bambi II," which is why he sounds so familiar but you cannot place the face.
This review was cited from Amazon.ca.
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