Watch This: Weeds

One of the Promotional Pictures for Weeds

For the past few years I have been sitting on the line of being entertained and being dragged along when it came to the television show Weeds. I got into the show back when it was first starting, loved the first three seasons right away, and I actually was out recommending it to friends. Then the series hit an all-time low for me where I was not satisfied with the series for the next three seasons. And it was not until season seven that I started to feel that this show was starting to rise-up and get better again. Now, in its final season I am once again telling people that if they have not watched this all the way through that they should. Here's my review of everything currently available for Weeds.

Weeds [2005]

Weeds is one of those shows that starts out with a very strange beginning. In the first episode you are not very sure if you like the characters yet, but their actions leave you wanting to know more about where they are going and the lives that they live. You have the main character, Nancy Botwin (played by the fabulous Mary-Louise Parker), who is this widowed suburban mother trying to make a normal family life for her two children, Silas Botwin and Shane Botwin (Hunter Parrish and Alexander Goulde, respectively). I'm also going to just throw in a mention that Andy Botwin (Justin Kirk) is Nancy's brother-in-law and he appears rather quickly but then remains on the show throughout all the seasons. And there are a bunch of side characters that come into play as well. But all the while through that first episode, you are wondering if this show is supposed to be a drama or a comedy as you watch it hint vaguely at elements of both but never pursuing much farther into it.

That is all the first episode though, for with each episode after that the writers begin to dive deeper and deeper into being either more comedic or more dramatic. And what you get is an excellent show where by the eighth season and where we currently stand, you have an adventure both memorable and interesting. And I hate to say it because I know there are hours upon hours of golden television to watch here, but even I want to go back to the beginning and start over again.

Weeds Season 1 Trailer

For this review, I think it would be best if I broke it up into what I have come to understand are the three periods of the Weeds Show. So if this seems a bit weird, it is because I want you to understand how each part of the show actually comes together to make it as good as it is. And I think my friend, Jordan, that I watched a lot of this show with will actually agree with my assessment of the entire series as it stands now.

The Rising Dealer (Seasons 1-3)

So the first three seasons are what I consider to be the hook, the reason that everyone gets involved with this show and why everyone was waiting so intently for the writer strike to end and for season four to begin. This part of the show I also consider to be the non-moving portion of the series, because for all three seasons the Botwins will stay in the exact same house. That means you really get to know the neighborhood as well as how the community works. Also, this part of the series is separated from the rest by actually having an opening sequence accompanied by a theme, something that was dropped in season four and I will explain that later. Just know that the theme actually plays an important role and you should listen to it.

Anyway, I consider the first three seasons to be my favorite. These are the trifling scenes where you really see Nancy start to rise up above the other marijuana drug dealers in her Californian neighborhood. She starts out small, selling her pot to local adults that just want to get high, and as such she makes a small penny doing so. But of course, a small penny is not enough to pay for two growing kids that are both expanding their American values in the education system provided. So she instantly starts looking for ways to expand her business, trying her best to become better than the rest and sell the goods that will get her farther in life.

This is also the part of the series where you meet what are considered the most memorable characters, though in later seasons there will be others that stick, these are the true originals that stay with the show and appear through multiple seasons afterwards. These characters include neighboring kids, neighbors, business owners, law enforcers, and even investors. They all have unique personalities that really make them fun to watch, but they all stay within their own world that at the end of the day they really are not involved with Nancy and her dirty business (outside of buying). So it is interest to hear about their problems and how they feel about things, but from that third person perspective of always remembering their lives could be worse and that their problems are first would problems. Then there are the drug dealers, the growers, and the other set of characters that are into doing bad things that she will obviously get involved with when dealing with drugs. As she tries to climb the ladder to get more money for hers and her kids social-economical needs, she deals with larger and worse characters. And all of these characters are unforgettable and interesting as they show off their own lifestyle choices and attempts to ascend the drug dealing business of life. 

But really, the reason I bring up the characters and the two different set is what they mean for our main heroines. With Nancy trying to keep her children away from the darker side of her life and still trying to become a bigger part of that darker side for money reasons, the view really gets to see a struggle with herself and managing everything. So it just becomes interesting to see how she handles trying to be a good samaritan and balancing out this "evil" business that she has going. What it turns into is this very interesting and unique tale that captivated and kept me and my friends watching.

The Moving Manifesto (Seasons 4-6)

The next three seasons I tend to classify as the time when Nancy moves out of the original house that the entire show has taken place in up until now. She does not stop there though, but rather continues moving for this portion of the show, going from place to place as need be. So I separate them out. I would like to also note that at this time none of these seasons have an opening sequence or theme song, which I think started out interesting but over time irritated me. It was like a symbol for how both the Botwins were lost and the show was changing. However, as I look back I realize now why I did not like this set in the series. To put it in short, the show took a major change from being mainly comedy and slightly drama to being more drama and slightly comedy. Granted, there are still points in these seasons when I laughed, but it just did not feel like the same show I had started watching in the prior years.

And really this is where we also lose that conflict that I loved between Nancy, her family, and the two worlds around her that she is trying to keep separate. Instead, we see a much more sexy, business oriented main character whom is less concerned with the inflictions her actions have and more concerned with growing. But without that grinding tension of what is good and what is evil, which the first three seasons not only played up but used to well enhance what was happening, we see this downfall into just actions to get somewhere. So I feel like I did not see as much character development as I would have hoped for in these three seasons from our main character, Nancy.

I would like to note that the side characters, which up until now played a very off-balanced roll in comparison to Nancy's performance, really come more into play here and start developing. And maybe it was because I was not seeing that tension in Nancy's performance that I stopped looking for the what is good-evil tension that buildings in the other characters. However, there is a TON of tension between them as they slowly start to find their own paths to the answer of that question. Specifically, in this part of the show we see huge developments with Silas, Shane, and Andy. There are some side characters that also have building tensions, but as I look back I think they did less than I thought or just completely switched over without any problems. Again, not helping me to like this portion of the series on my first time around.

Final note for this part, I did not like these three seasons the first time, but the second time through I thought they were much more memorable and interesting. So do not despair if you feel that this part is boring or slow, a lot of stuff is actually happening and you just do not realize it yet.

The Mounting Conclusion (Seasons 7-8)

When I first started watching season seven I was curious as to how they were planning on continuing it after the abrupt ending that happened in season six. However, it is because of the very bashing, wall smashing ending to season six that I do like to separate the final two seasons away. And also, I was told that season seven was going to be the final season, so after putting in so much time I felt like I really had to go through and just finish this one off. Turns out they decided to give it one more and that is why there is now a season eight.

Now remember how I said the theme song plays an important roll in this series for stating when they are moving and when they have settled, or something of that nature? Well there is again no theme song in season seven, and for that respect it felt a lot like the previous three seasons as the Botwins try to find their way in this world and struggle to survive. But there was a catch this time around, they were all striving to be more together, more of a family than they were before, and for that I found this season the first one that was easy to watch. Then at the ending, the creator (Jenji Kohan) really brings it all back around as they settle down in a house and the season ends. There is more to it than that, but I do not want to ruin that for you just yet. Anyway, season eight begins and finally, for the first time in four seasons, they pick up the original theme song and add back in an opening sequence for the viewers to watch.

Which brings me around to why you should watch this series. It is plain brilliant how in the final season they bring back all the tension that was in the first part of the show while complimenting it with the current drama of the second part of the show. It is a classical, cool, and very intuitive way to go about making a television show that makes you think back through the whole series and want to watch it again.

So if you have the time, this is a show to pick-up and start watching.

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