Monday, December 3, 2012

Weeds (TV Series)

(Review originally posted in Feb. 2011. The reviewer stopped watching after the sixth season.)



Many years ago a new television series came out on Showtime that caught my attention as something that could be fun. A suburban housewife with two young boys and a recently-deceased husband trying to make ends meet by dealing the most popular recreational drug in the country. Nosey neighbors, PTA, and a bakery "front" for creative pot recipes... It was a cute concept, and for the first couple seasons, a cute show.

The after a couple seasons, the neighbors became hardcore drug dealers, the PTA gave way to the FBI, and the bakery turned into a tunnel for drug and human trafficking. Somehow the show was beginning to lose its familiar charm.

Another season goes by and the drug dealers are taking each other out, along with the FBI, and the lead character now has three sons..one of whom has gone homicidal... and that's just for starters.

Take a quick peek at the trailer for Season One.

Cute, right?

Now take a look at the one for Season Six:



Yes, within six seasons the show has gone from a fun comedy to a very dark drama with a few remotely-funny situations peppered into it to attempt to keep in the genre. Normally, I don't mind dark comedies, but the transition this show has taken is downright disgusting. Even if the moral to Nancy's story is "Weed is a gateway drug to Mexican drug lords, human trafficking, and gang murder", they've gone way over the top to give it any credibility.

One thing I will give them credit for when it comes to character development is how completely unlikable the ditsy drug-peddling housewife has become over the run of the show. While some used to cringe thinking that she would get busted for selling a quarter-bag to a city official, now some viewers are just hoping that she gets gunned down in the streets for her behavior.

Also missing from this past season are most of the likable and funny characters, and those who remain have been beaten down so hard that you're hoping that they too are put out of their misery.

To be honest, I had a very hard time convincing myself that watching the season through to the end would be time well spent. I doubt I'll be able to sit through a new season.

And it's a shame, because the show did start out as being light-hearted and funny with just a little darkness around the edges. Now it's jumped a whole school of sharks and keeps looking for more.

My advice to the curious? Watch the first two seasons and then make up your own ending. No matter what you fill in that blank with, it will probably be more amusing and credible than the direction the show is actually going.



Info on IMDB: Weeds





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