Weeds

With its fantastic comedy series Weeds, cable network Showtime finally gave up its also-ran status to HBO and found itself with a controversial, buzz-worthy show that was as hilarious as it was dark, one about a truly desperate housewife. A recent widow with two growing sons, Nancy Botwin (Golden Globe winner Mary-Louise Parker) looks like a typical resident of the affluent Southern California suburb of Agrestic. She keeps a clean, upscale house (with the help of a live-in maid), attends PTA meetings, goes to her kids' soccer games, makes frequent stops at the local coffee franchise.... and sells marijuana in order to make it all possible. Left with no way to support herself after her beloved husband's fatal heart attack, Nancy turns herself into the "suburban baroness of bud," dealing to her neighbors in the area, with the help of her supplier Heylia (Tonye Patano) and point man Conrad (Romany Malco). Nancy's clients run from the local councilman (Kevin Nealon) to the just-barely-legal students at the local community college, but many in Agrestic are still in the dark as to how she keeps her family afloat, including her best friend, the sardonic Celia (Elizabeth Perkins), a wife and mother whose blistering, withering put-downs could make Dorothy Parker cringe in fear. But like many small-business owners, Nancy yearns for more success and cash, and like her workaholic neighbors, finds keeping a balance between work life and home life to be extremely precarious at best.

The first season of Weeds ended with a shocker: Nancy (Mary-Louise Parker) found a dreamy new boyfriend, but he turned out to be a DEA agent (Martin Donovan). Luckily, she manages to find some pretty creative ways to "deal" with it. Despite that new obstacle, she decides it’s also time to "grow" the business to higher levels, and all these risky moves lead up to another fabulous season finale cliff-hanger. Elsewhere in suburban utopia, comic relieving brother-in-law Andy (Justin Kirk) tries to dodge his army commitments by joining Rabbi school, while the hilarious Doug (Kevin Nealon) battles it out with Celia (Elizabeth Perkins) to maintain power over the Agrestic City Council. Plot aside, Season 2 of Weeds took this potentially great show to the next level. No matter how hard they tried in the first season, the show’s makers had a heck of a time trying to shake the impression that they were mimicking the edginess of HBO’s original programming. (Some might have gone as far as to say they were trying a little too hard.) This time around, the characters and the story have grown into their own skins, and they offer something much more authentic and convincing. The second season also starts a great new tradition: Malvina Reynolds ‘s "Little Boxes" is still the opening theme song, but it is performed by a different artist for each episode (from Elvis Costello to The Shins). Just one more thing to keep us "addicted."

The suburbs have never been darker or funnier than in this buzz-worthy series from Showtime. To the outside world, Nancy Botwin (Mary Louise Parker, ANGELS IN AMERICA) appears to be an average mom still recovering from the death of her husband. But making a living as a single mom is tough, so Nancy does the most logical thing...and becomes a pot dealer. Surrounded by her cannabis-craving accountant (Kevin Nealon, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE), her scheming friend (Elizabeth Perkins, BIG), and her slacker brother-in-law (Justin Kirk, FLANNEL PAJAMAS), Nancy attempts to support her family without arousing suspicion from the cops or her neighbours. Contains all the episodes from series three

Nancy goes on a long, strange trip as Weeds celebrates its fourth year. After Mary-Louise Parker's drug-dealing mom burns down the Agrestic rental, the Botwin clan flees to Bubbie's beach house, near Tijuana, where they reluctantly join forces with Nancy's cranky father-in-law, Lenny (Albert Brooks). While Celia (Elizabeth Perkins) does time for renting out a grow house, Nancy cozies up to a Mexican drug cartel. With nowhere else to go, Doug (Kevin Nealon) joins Nancy, Andy (Justin Kirk), Silas (Hunter Parrish), and Shane (Alexander Gould) in Ren Mar.
Sometimes change is a good thing, sometimes not. As creator Jenji Kohan explains in her commentary, "The writers were getting kind of restless." Adds writer Roberto Benabib: "We were done with suburbia." Fortunately, the new location adds interest, and Brooks makes for an inspired (albeit brief) addition, but Celia's punishment--humiliation, beating, pistol whipping--for selling out Nancy goes on too long. (The original theme song and opening credits also disappear after the premiere.) When a cigar-chomping politico (Demián Bichir) and an attractive divorcée (Julie Bowen) with an eye for 17-year-old Silas enter the picture, events take a darker, sexier turn. Even 13-year-old Shane, who longs to join the family business, acquires a couple of groupies.

As in previous years, the season ends with a cliffhanger, but in light of the insurmountable scrapes she's got herself into before, Nancy seems likely to emerge unscathed in year five when Jennifer Jason Leigh joins the show. If comedy takes a backseat to drama this time around, Weeds remains compulsively, addictively watchable. Bonus features include seven cast and crew commentaries--Parker and Gould are the only key players missing--and eight featurettes, including a tour of Bubbie's tchotchke-filled abode and a look at the Drug Enforcement Agency, which plays a regular part in the program.

The hemptress returns in the complete fifth season of the Showtime's Original Series, WEEDS. When pot-selling soccer mom Nancy Botwin took her homegrown business south of the border, she found the grass wasn't greener on the other side. Now she's pregnant with the child of a powerful politician turned dangerous drug lord; or is she? Doug and Silas are trying to branch out on their own, Andy is looking to score, and Celia attempts to turn the tables on her kidnappers. With enemies out to smoke the Queen of Green, Nancy's sure to find a whole new crop of trouble in an all new season of WEEDS; starring Emmy and Golden Globe winner Mary-Louise Parker.