Weeds Season 1

 

On a whim I picked up the first four seasons of Weeds. Target was getting rid of a lot of dvd tv sets after Christmas nearly two years ago and I picked up a few things including these for about 10 bucks apiece. They finally surfaced in the house and I've started to watch them. Its often like that around here. The goods churn, eventually something shiny winds up near the top, and I watch it. Mary Louise Parker plays a lady who's husband has just died. They live in a nice swanky suburb of Los Angeles and she needs a pile of cash to keep her and the kids living there. She has two boys, Shane played by Alexander Gould who is about 10-11 when the series starts, and Silas who is played by Hunter Parrish who is about 16-17. Mary louise decides to sell some weed to pay the bills. She starts off with her friends but in order to increase the cash flow she branches out and moves into other territories. That causes some trouble and things occasionally get a bit scary. As a type of show it lies somewhere between The Sopranos and Arrested Development. It's not quite as serious as the first and not quite as funny as the second. It's on Showtime so they can have some nudity, swearing, and humping. There's a lot of swearing, which I like, and the nudity picks up as the series continues. You can watch all 7 seasons here. That's Mary Louise over on the left and Hunter on the right. Below from left to right we've got Elizabeth, Alexander Gould and Justin Kirk with Kevin Nealon and Romany Malco below. Their photos are mosly tagged with their names. Most of these people aren't actors I normally see. Mostly they were entertaining.

There were only 10 episodes in the first season. Nancy is starting out pretty green in the business, learning as she goes, making some mistakes. She buys her weed from a black lady who lives in Los Angeles. Tonye Patano plays Heylia James and she's a great character. Romany Malco plays Conrad, Heylia's nephew. He works for her and two of them show Mary Louise some of the tricks of the trade. Elizabeth Perkins plays Mary Louise's sort of friend. She's a real bitch who, like most everyone on the show, makes one bad decision after another. She treats her husband and daughter really awful and is punished greatly for it. Most everyone has some sort of bad thing happen to them pretty regularily. Good things happen too, it is a comedy, but a dark one with the occasional dead guy. Justin Kirk plays Mary Louise's brother in-law Andy. He's a fuck up. Pure and simple. Kevin Nealon is highly entertaining as the local crooked councilman and accountant. His fall through the series turns him from a somewhat likeable pothead to a dark bitter creep. The show keeps pushing the trouble people get into higher and higher; like when Mary Louise finds a nice guy and it turns out that he's in the DEA. The season moves Mary Louise deeper and deeper into the culture and the series moves her further and further up the ladder in the drug chain. Not a place you want to go, better to watch the glamorized version on the tv. The scripts are brisk and tight paced, the profanity laced dialog entertaining, and the production values pretty darn good. There's lots of social commentary and plenty of personal drama. The characters are mostly entertaining but they do make some of the stupidist decisions sometimes. Of course we can relish their pain. I enjoyed watching the shows and look forward to season 2.