Bong Voyage!

Legalize it, finalize it etc.

Trawl through the televisual tedium and every once per aeon, you may just discover there is just something - something that gives you a remit for those hard-earned two-hundred plus dollars a month you may be plonking down for you cable TV subscription. And then you find perhaps there is a way
your subscription to the modern world of television wasn't for nowt. 

I happened upon this extra-leafed clover way back in the year 2005, just in time for it's episode of inception. WEEDS. Now I have to admit being initially taken aback for titular reasons, but one very
guffaw inducing thirty minutes later, came to respect that very title, for what it commands through it's brazen (blunt)ness. And -dare I say - it did not take long before I was head over heels hooked on WEEDS.

           Little Shane before that certain little bludgeoning incident

Monday evening ( the original weeknight it would air) television, thanks to Jenji Kohan and the Showtime network, now had a purpose where I would week by week, find myself blissfully indulgent, sans the guilt and the threat
of gaining a few stone as the result of cases of unquenchable munchies, and I could sit back and just
enjoy the WEEDS, and yes that's right, I didn't even inhale.



Ritualistically, I would follow the Botwin brood, from season to season, and elaborate adventure, to elaborate adventure. And if you have seen the show, you would find that hard to refute, for these journeys were labyrinthine and seemingly never-ending. And you wouldn't necessarily intuit that from the pilot episode You Can't Miss The Bear where our first encounter with Nancy Botwin (the marvelous Mary-Louise Parker) we learn she is the soccer-mom, not necessarily of the year, but the moment who led an affluent lifestyle before her husband Judah's sudden death and didn't want to stop sitting on luxury's lap and needed a get-moolah quick scheme. Ahh - suburban marijuana dealing, that's the ticket! 

               Nancy's ex-hubby, you say politician, I say drug cartel leader


One thing for sure Nancy is the proverbial feline that always lands on feet, and quite the feat, from the height she often had to fall from. In one of the more recent adventures, during a toast to her family in the middle of a garden supper on a sunny suburban afternoon, Nancy takes a bullet to her head. Don't worry, she's alright, but was it Esteban Carlos Reyes (Demian Bechir) Nancy's Mexican politician husband slash
leader of the Tres Seis crime cartel. Was it to avenge the killing of Pilar Zuazo (Kate del Castillo) after Nancy's youngest, Shane bludgeoned her to death with a croquet mallet? No, and no. That was  actually Conrad the progeny of Peter Scottson (Martin Donovan) the DEA agent she would quickie marry in Las Vegas, after a few nights of passion and much to the chagrin of little Conrad.

              Yes, I am wearing your clothes Nancy (you biiiiitch)

Another highlight of this eight-season beaut, was in 2009 when the staggeringly talented Jennifer Jason Leigh would enter stage as prodigal sister Jill, a hausfrau and mother, who is more practical but a tad over the top in the sibling rivalry department, who ultimately becomes carer to little Stevie, the child that Nancy had with her ex-drug kingpin husband Esteban. When bad mama Nancy is locked up in the big house, Jill takes over rover to a shocking degree by the time Nancy is released and sent to a half-way house in New York City, only to discover via Skype, that her son doesn't know who the bloomin' hell she is. See I said elaborate. If only that were the most of her troubles, desperate to be exonerated somehow, Nancy tries to make positive changes with her life - but only now she is working for company right smack dab in the middle of a ponzi scheme and even screwing her boss Foster Clive ( Aidan Quinn) would still leave her screwed. Needless to say, the cat still had many lives to go and manages to escape that unscathed after some under the table deals go her way.

              Andy Botwin, official scene stealer


And many more messuganah moments would take course, and perhaps mostly from brother-in-law
Andy Botwin ( The wunderbar Justin Kirk who from quick glance may fool you he is perhaps Harry Connick Jr) And we get the pleasure of meeting Andy in episode four of the first season, Fashion of the Christ. Now talk about your sexual tension, in all of the ninety-nine episodes that Andy Botwin graces,
there was nary a moment he wasn't thinking of Nancy in - that way. I am phrasing that gingerly, as he did once go the deep-end route after holding an unrequited obsession for the lass. Justin Kirk always knows how to burgle a scene or three. You can always depend on a mordant quip, and you can always expect the most warmth out of this character, and as a matter of fact, that quality of Andy's was examined in episode nine of this eighth and final season, when Rabbi David (David Julian Hirsh, who shiksha Nancy just happens to be bedding now shhh) refers to him as having a 'gorgeous pulpy heart.' And heart is what this show has. 

                     Please don't talk to me until I've had my third latte for the day


Perhaps the very reason for my lament, is that the underwhelming television of today has become far too detached, cynical and clinical. WEEDS is a far different kind of animal. Sure, it's satirical and there is always a bit of sniping and sarcasm occurring. There are also quite disturbing moments, dare I go into the one with Saturday Night Live alum Kevin Nealon as Doug's, botched suicidal, auto-erotic moment? There are some shameful incidents that would make Peter Griffith himself blush, but in the end, you find yourself, loving these characters with all your might, even the ones that are headed for Dante's favorite haunt. I clinged for dear life to these fuzzy little moments that I surmise will be hard to find in television future. There is one more week left before this series takes it's final bow, and all I have to say now is -  roll on box-set, please.



The series finale of Weeds will air on Showtime on Sunday, September 16. Check your local listings.