Entertainment
Raunchy Drug-Filled Cable Comedy Went Four Seasons Too Long, But Still A Must Binge
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
In the age of streaming, it’s common to hear people say that they’ll wait for a series to end before bothering to watch it. Every year, an incredible show has its run cut short, but there are also shows that linger too long past their expiration date.
Bones, Brooklyn 99, Modern Family, Westworld, all shows that went one or two seasons too far past the story’s natural conclusion, and none of them can match Showtime’s 2005 comedy-drama series, Weeds. What started as a fun show about a suburban mom selling pot rebooted itself every few episodes by constantly upping the stakes and treating the term “status quo” like a terminal disease.
Weeds Burned It All Down And Kept Going
When Weeds begins, Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) is dealing with the sudden death of her husband, Judah (in photos and, eventually, flashbacks, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and struggling to care for her boys, Silas (Hunter Parrish) and Shane (Alexander Gould). The solution is to get into the marijuana business. Her brother-in-law, Andy (Justin Kirk), helps her fledgling business, while frenemy Celia (Elizabeth Perkins), the local overbearing PTA mom, constantly gets in the way. Local councilman Doug (Kevin Nealon) ends up being one of her best customers, and from there, the stage is set for a comedy about suburban consumerism. And it was, for three seasons.
By the time the third season ends, Nancy has become embroiled with the DEA and escalating levels of dangerous criminals before pissing off a group of bikers and turning to the Mexican Cartel for protection. The entire town of Agrestic burns to the ground (complete with the show’s opening sequence on fire), and Season 4 kicks off along the Mexican border. A romantic relationship with the head of the cartel takes a violent turn, so naturally, Season 6 has them on the run across the country, while Season 7 and 8 put the Botwins in New York to start over. Again.
Every time you think the show is going to settle down, wether it’s when Nancy early on sits around the table with the supporting cast and everyone agrees to start their own criminal enterprise, or seasons later, when they do the same scene again, or maybe when Silas starts up a front called “Headcheese” with Julia Bowen’s “Yoga Butt” character, you’re wrong. Each of the new status quo setups lasts for three episodes or less before it’s blown up again.
Mary-Louise Parker Defied Hollywood Expectations
Weeds was a huge hit for Showtime the moment it debuted, culminating in record-breaking viewership for the Season 3 finale. Part of the appeal was the setting, the comedy, and since it was on Showtime, the series didn’t hesitate to throw out nudity and sex scenes in almost every episode, turning the 41-year-old Mary-Louise Parker into a sex symbol. Even at its lowest point, in Season 5, the show kept its dark sense of humor, which worked with the gratuitous nudity to keep eyeballs on the show until it finally ended in 2012.
The show’s creator, Jenji Kohan, went from Weeds to Orange Is The New Black, another show that kept resetting the status quo on itself. Even if Kohan never works on another show in her career, she managed back-to-back successes that both overstayed by a few years but remain beloved years after they came to an end.
One of the best parts of Weeds is the opening song in Seasons 1-3, and again in Season 8, “Little Boxes” by Malvina Reynolds. Starting in Season 2, the show used cover versions from artists including Elvis Costello, Randy Newman, Billy Bob Thornton, Linkin Park, the Mountain Goats, and Death Cab for Cutie. The satirical song captured the first few seasons perfectly, which is why it’s removed when the show goes way off the rails and returns when the show finally settles down again.
Over a decade after the end of its run, Weeds might be one of the best shows to binge-watch. The off-kilter narrative 180’s keep it exciting the whole way through, but if you end up bailing after the Season 4 finale’s twist, that’s alright, as you’ve already seen the show at its best.