I started watching Weeds on a lark. It was a free preview of the 4th season. I've never had Showtime but had been hearing that their shows had gotten really good. And indeed they have. created by Jenji Kohan Weeds is initially about a housewife, Nancy Botwin, played with a fascinating wide-eyed shock by Mary-Louise Parker, who's husband dies suddenly (in the first episode no less) and then needs to find a way to support her family. It just so happens that he was also their McMansion development's weed dealer. It's a great conceit and nod to the now classic template perfected by David Lynch in Blue Velvet that all's not right in Suburbia. The initial season reveals that Nancy was living in a world where everything was provided for her. She drives a Prius, but has a perpetual plastic cup in her hand filled with ice coffee. The visual contradiction is hilarious.
I was worried that when she met her husbands connect it would lapse into a stereotypical bit about "urban" vs "suburban but it tread the line quite well. The true treasure ins all of this was Romany Malco who most will remember from his scene stealing turns in The 40-yr old Virgin and Baby Mama. The initial tension between his character and Nancy propels us for 3 seasons of will they or won't they. But there's a caveat. Everyone Nancy has sex with dies, gruesomely and frequently hilariously. So for 3 seasons you are forced to root for them, they do like each other, but we don't want Conrad to die, he's genuinely likable. I won't spoil the show but this gets resolved in an amazing way. The show-runners have a very good grasp of when and where these characters are going unlike some other shows I will write about later like Prison Break.
