Weeds

So me doing a "complete review" of the Weeds series is a task that I don't really know my brain can handle but more importantly at this point my fingers. I am right now watching the series premier of "The Deep End", so thoughts will follow. My thoughts about "Weeds", I think that most people who have watched the series are under the impression that Seasons 1-3 are the best of the seasons, probably because of the dynamics that, the fictional, Agrestic, California present us. The way that the recently widowed Nancy Botwin, her sons Shane and Silas, and brother in law Andy Botwin are very dynamic. There is something that captivates most of us with the mostly "Hollywoodized" world of South California and the wealthy people that live there. In the case of this show, it's some people with money that like to smoke pot and/or sell pot. The show tackles interesting things that we all face, though Nancy's issues are amplified. The show reminds me a little of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" in the sense that Nancy Botwin is Larry David, the world likes to take a shit on the best of us sometimes. In the case of Larry David, it's funny, it's what the show is about and what we all expect. In the case of Nancy Botwin, it is what the show becomes about, it is what captivates us by the end. There is something sadistic in all of us that loves to see failure, depending on the character it alters whether we want to see those people pick up and get back on their feet or we want them to fall again. So Nancy creates an empire of drug selling, that when gets going falls and she has to start all over again. This seems like a monotonous plot to a show, but it never gets old. Jenji Kohan does a fantastic job of scribing a story that is compelling to say the least. Watching Nancy raise her children, sometimes with the help of her adolescent brother in law and at other times in spite of him, in the world of drugs that is Agrestic California is interesting to say that least. As she gets in trouble she does everything in her power to not bring her children in to her problems, but inevitably she fails at that. Her family and everyone in her life gets drawn in to the crimes that she is committing. The show has interesting questions of family values, illegal drug use, and questions of race relations. I think that as the show goes on it gets better, the family is forced to uproot and resettle in another location and Nancy has to find new ways to support her family. The cast is brilliant, the little known Mary-Louise Parker portrays what I assume is everything that Jenji Kohan was looking for in an actress for this character. I find it a little irritating that some of the main characters from the first few seasons get written out of the show as it goes on. This show is very good, it's not The Wire, the Sapranos, or Gilmore Girls but is certainly worth watching all five seasons. Good viewing to everyone.
JP