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Hands Up: Who Still Likes "Weeds"?

Posted by Bryan Christian


Fuck a 4:20 Report. We gotta know: are you guys still interested in Weeds? 'Cause we're having a bit of crisis where that show's concerned, thank you very much.

For one thing, we're angry that Albert Brooks is gone. He was the first actor in some time provide any actual human gravity to the show without being arch or smug, and now he's gone. He might come back, sure -- but what are we supposed to do till them? Take Nancy seriously?

Which brings up problem number two: we're really starting to dislike Nancy. Normally, we'd say that we don't have to like anti-hero drug dealers like her, and furthermore that she's doing what she can to help her family, except that whole speech she gave at the end of the last ep -- where everyone she knows was basically showing the bruises of the life they've lead following her (a bit on the nose, don't ya think?) -- was... well, what? It was sincere, yeah, but also clueless. Like when your pretty friend goes "Why can't I meet the right guy?" after screwing it up with your very nice co-worker. Enough already, Nance; you're not in Agrestic anymore. No matter how pointed the two-minute montage depicting you working in the maternity store was, you're hardly trapped in another "little box." Which means that you're not a rebel, or bringing down the system from the inside, or sticking it to anyone. You're a screwup, Nance: a not-great mom, a (now ex-) drug dealer whose ambitions and greed always seem to outstrip your skills, and it seems, you're now a willing spoke in the wheels of the only economy more depressing than the narcotics trade: human trafficing.

All of which leads us to problem number three: the show's getting repetitive. First Nancy had to learn how to sling weed, all those many eps ago. Awesome, funny, ha ha. But this season she had to learn how to be a courier, and now she's gonna learn to shuttle Mexicans and whoever else across (under, actually) the border? And she's still supposed to seem plucky? Urgh. Again: enough already.

Let's be clear about a couple things: we still love all the actors on the show, including Mary-Louise Parker (who's, like Katherine Heigl, is forced to work with what the writers give her) and especially Justin Kirk, who we've pretty much crushed on since back when he was sucking face with Jaime Pressley on Jack and Jill. (Yeah, we'll totally cop to that!). It's just, you know, like we were saying: enough already. Something needs to happen. Something not cute, not undoable, and -- while we're shooting for the moon here -- something that doesn't keep Nancy thinking she's "doing OK."

PREVIOUSLY:
Our Weeds Archive


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Comments

Scott Williams said:

As a fan, you're entitled to sling arrows at your favorite show all you want, but to say that an actor is "forced" to work with the material given them is absurd.  The reason you fell in love with the show to begin with was the writing.  Mary Louise Parker's character was invented by the writers.  Try watching a half hour of those marvelous actors riffing and improv-ing and you'd want to kill yourself.  Do bad scripts happen to good actors?  Sure.  But coming up with fresh story lines over a full season, let alone several seasons, is way tougher than what Katherine Heigl and MLP are confronted with every morning when they're handed fresh pages telling them what to say and do.  No one's holding a gun to their heads "forcing" them to say words conceived by writers, whose previous words made them stars to begin with.

July 22, 2008 9:25 AM

About Bryan Christian

Bryan Christian has worked as a writer for Epicurious, GenArt and ID magazine; a web producer for WWD and Condé Nast; and a cameraman for his friends. He's married and lives in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

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Lindy Parker has worked as a ghostwriter, editor, dance instructor and a purveyor of dreams, one beer at a time. She loves Charles Dickens and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and also, straight-to-video releases with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. It's possible she reads more teen fiction than she should. She hails from Los Angeles, her hometown and soul mate, but she lives in Brooklyn, the fling she'll never forget.

Olivia Purnell left Ohio for sunny Los Angeles; then found that she couldn’t ignore New York City’s call, and brought herself to Brooklyn where she has worked with GenArt, BlackBook, the School of American Ballet, and finished an M.A. in Creative Writing from N.Y.U. She loves one-liners with sting and hates the stench of the subway in the summer. That said, she can’t get enough of either.

Jake Kalish is a freelance journalist and humorist whose work has appeared in Details, Maxim, Stuff, New York Press, Spin, Blender, Men's Fitness, Poets and Writers, and Playboy, among other publications. He is also the author of Santa vs. Satan: The Official Compendium of Imaginary Fights.

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Ben Kallen is an entertainment, health and humor writer who's been lectured to by Sidney Poitier, argued with by Lea Thompson and smiled at by Jennifer Connelly. He's the coauthor of The No S Diet and author of The Year in Weird, along with hundreds of magazine articles. He lives near the beach in Los Angeles, just like the gang from Three's Company.

Nicole Ankowski has lived in Ohio, Oakland, and on the high plains of South Dakota, but is now proud to call Brooklyn home. She wrote for alternative weekly papers in the first two states, and tried to learn Lakota in the last. (The vowels can be tricky.) She just earned her MFA in Creative Writing and has been published in Beeswax literary journal. She is unable to resist good writing or bad TV.

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