Weeds

Good lord, this show is good. It's thought provoking. Really, so many of the decisions made are poor, so many of the characters do fairly rancid things. But you can't help loving them and you can't help loving the plots. I've fallen in love with every member of the Botwin family. This is a smart, very funny, sexy and sophisticated show. I'm not going to summarize anything here because I'm sure people are aware of the premise.

It sounds like it could be ho-hum, but you must see it- each episode, people are dealing the characters deal with difficult decisions. Sometimes there's deliberation, sometimes there's regret- the show's smart enough where it assumes we know what the "right thing" was that one should have done. Most often, the characters don't do that right thing, and yet we love them, maybe even think "I would have done that." This is a show that basically says, beneath the normalcy, everyone is pushed to the limit in some way. It's no where near as dark as "Twin Peaks," but somehow, without the freakiness/fear, it reminds me of it because it's intelligent and it shows what lies beneath a bit.

When you watch it, watch out for Shane Botwin who is the Id of the show, and Andy, his grown up version who I personally hate yet am totally charmed by.

Ah, and yes, the acting is superb.

Here's hoping it goes to DVD!

Nancy Botwin was an interesting combination of naive and capable. For awhile. Unfortunately the more she learns the less she knows. The less she knows the more despicable she becomes. That's okay. The fact the other characters in this show never seem to get it, no matter how unbelievably horrible she treats everyone, gets old. The incredibly weak circumstances that keep drawing them all back in is frustrating to watch. I do not like to leave a show unfinished. I never walk out on a bad movie. I want it to redeem itself. I am watching the final episode of the seventh season. If it was so stupid it was funny then I could endure the stupid. I just don't think I can make it through thirteen more episodes of everyone wanting to cling to the Nancy train when she clearly could not care less about any of them and makes no effort to hide it.

What a clever, well written show. Immensely watchable and well acted. Mary Louise Parker is perfect in the role of a Yuppie, widowed woman making ends meet by selling Marijuana. The show highlights well the difficulties for single women not just at the upper end of the economic spectrum, but those not quite as well off. The language, although at times is strong, is realistic and appropriate.

All of the roles are interesting. Elizabeth Perkins plays the role of the acerbic friend who never quite realized her life ambitions. Her one daughter is overweight, the other just hates her, and her husband is sleeping with the Asian American tennis pro.

Every episode offers something new. I will definitely keep on looking for the next episode.

I haven't been a dedicated fan of a TV series since Moonlighting back in the 80's but I'm totally hooked on Weeds. Mary-Louise Parker plays the role of Nancy Botwin perfectly! As a widowed housewife trying to maintain an upper class lifestyle for herself and her two sons by selling weed, she obviously encounters problems maintaining her two roles....mother and drug dealer. Parker really emphasizes this "dual role" and she does it brilliantly....you'll find yourself really feeling for the character and cheering for her all the way. Elizabeth Perkins in the role of Celia, Nancy's close friend, is phenomenal. Watch her carefully in this show, her brilliant acting and her characters dry sarcastic nature provides much of the shows' comedic value but it is sometimes very subtle. I personally think Perkins deserves a supporting Emmy for this one. In short, Jenji Kohan has scored big-time with Weeds and I hope it enjoys a good long run on Showtime....I'm definitely a dedicated fan! My only suggestion....episodes should be an hour long!

WEEDS is the anti-Christ type show for the people lobbying for wholesome story lines. The title only begins to tell all the things about this program that would have it on a Jerry Falwell morals hit list. Maybe that is why I like the show so much.

Mary-Louise Parker leads a great cast with superb veteran performers such as Elizabeth Perkins and Kevin Nealon. The premise of the show is Nancy Botwin (Parker) has to figure out how to keep together her family in an upscale Calif. neighborhood after he early 40's husband, whom we never meet, dies of a heart attack while out running around with his youngest son. This boy now has issues and doesn't quite fit in with his peers. Her older son is discovering his hormones are raging and the brother-in-law has come to visit and he is a horrible influence on the boys, the housekeeper, and Nancy despite her attempts to keep him in check. Despite it all she really loves her brother-in-law as he is her family reminder of the husband she loved and lost.

What she does to keep the roof over her house is to sell weed...pot...marijuana. She gets the stuff from a thoroughly outrageous and hysterical black family on the poor side of town. She sells in the community of Agrestic, where she lives, and she sells to her lawyer/neighbor, a guy on the city council (Nealon), and anyone else that will take, which in this community seems to be almost everyone.

Great part for Parker as she is the consummate actress. She is always a bit understated, never overacts, has a great sly smile, does dry comedy very well, and delivers her lines convincingly. Nealon is great as the burnout councilman/accountant who can't seem to be high enough of the day yet covers his bases so as not to be discovered. But I think it is Perkins who just might steal this show. She plays a very bright yet vapid wife and mother of two girls. She is an overbearing parent who chastises and spy's on her 15 yr. old and harasses her youngest because of the poor girl's weight. Her shallow nature is shown as a defense mechanism for a woman whose own mother (Conchetta Tomei) is even more overbearing than her daughter and toward her husband whom she verbally spars with when they are together.

From the opening song, a reprise of the great Pete Seger song "Little Boxes", to the weekly dilemmas for the characters of coping in suburbia the show scores. Usually HBO has the standard for cable comedy series but this one is as good as any.