Weeds - The Complete First Season [Blu-ray]

Is the grass really greener on the other side? Yes, and it smells better, too! So when Nancy Botwin (Golden Globe winner Mary-Louise Parker) faces both sudden widowhood and poverty, she’s determined to do anything to keep her kids in suburbia, including taking a job as the neighborhood pot dealer. Subversive, satirical and hilarious, the first season of this groundbreaking Showtime hit is guaranteed to spark laughter!

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.

While Desperate Housewives yearned to be a suburban satire with bite, Weeds was the real deal, skewering upper-middle class mores with a sharp eye, a keen wit, and a mostly forgiving heart. In episode after episode, the show’s creative team (led by creator Jenji Kohan) pulled back the layers of Agrestic’s superficiality to show what lies beneath the squeaky-clean exteriors and smiling faces; it turns out that hunger, fear, desire, and, yes, desperation aren’t that far down. However, Weeds forsakes pulpiness and florid drama for biting yet affectionate humor–its heroine is a woman with sliding morals, but one you’ll root for to the very end. The effervescent Parker, the only actress who can mix perkiness with morbidity in just the right amounts, anchored the show with her amazing turn as Nancy, who by the end of the first season had become a kind of soccer-mom version of Michael Corleone, entering a corrupt world with both trepidation and fascination–and totally enamored of the power it brought her. Also perfectly cast, Perkins found the role of a lifetime as the bitterly hilarious Celia, and entering the show in its fourth episode, Justin Kirk (Parker’s co-star in Angels in America) proved to be a potent secret weapon as Nancy’s brother-in-law Andy, a slacker who wasn’t above peddling t-shirts to elementary school kids. As icky as these characters might appear on the surface, Weeds made them all immensely appealing and great company to be around. Don’t say we didn’t warn you: one hit and you’ll be hooked on this show. The DVDs feature six episode commentaries with cast and crew, outtakes, original featurettes, a music video, and most enjoyably, Agrestic Herbal Recipes (for entertainment value only, we assume) and the “Smoke and Mirrors” marijuana mockumentary. –Mark Englehart

Weeds - The Complete First Season [Blu-ray] Review

The pilot opens almost mid-story it seems, acclimating you to the characters and their interpersonal dysfunctions subtlety and sparingly. The richness and vibrancy of the characters makes it “ok” that you don’t get all the nitty-gritty details of why and when and how things started- you feel as if you know these people and will continue to learn about their why’s, when’s and how’s as the “plot thickens” in season 2.

A fascinating exploration of suburban life- so common, easily identified with and yet totally beneath the surface. Of course it is dramatized, but after living in OC for over 10 years I can testify to the validity. The premise of this show is a terrific commentary on what suburbia has done to humanity as people try to make sure that all their “Little Boxes” stay the same. Our HOA recently sent letters to residents who were unfortunate enough to have brown spots in their lawns. I live in the desert and it’s been unseasonably hot across the nation- but the semblance of normalcy must be protected in suburbia. They may want to worry about the growth patterns of a different type of grass in our quiet little neighborhood.

I admire the main character, Nancy, who judges none and accepts tragedy and criticism both with grace and dignity. When a fellow mom and friend attacks her parenting by citing a book on parenting she is not baited by the comment, but retorts with an amusing grin and wryly delivered, “Wow, Celia. (effective pause) I didn’t know you read books.” The timing and rapport between these two characters is pure magic-the steel magnolias of the “soccer mom” set.

She is a real person in a real world, as plastic as it may seem- and she makes irrational, emotional decisions; she acts impulsively and impetuously, balanced with a carefully controlled, tender-hearted, frailty which makes her all the more likable. She displays the civility so rarely seen in our barely civilized civilization, while weathering the social slings of the socialites in her society.

The supporting cast of characters provide a rich and intricate skein to weave throughout the threads of storyline, some are a skosh stereotypical but in a way that works- making them familiar. Like real people we know, all of Nancy’s “people” are imperfect and interesting - making it easier to connect the dots between the (probably purposely) missing why’s, when’s and how’s.

A must see for the open minded. Plus the special features are more interesting than most TV series’ DVDs.

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