Weeds: Last season was bad, next season will be worst!
By fred | May 12, 2008
When a little show about a suburban widow, portrayed by Mary Louise Parker, who had to sell marijuana to her neighbors in order to make ends meet premiered on Showtime, I was curious and I tuned in. It was a great idea, because the show turned out to be really good, and pretty funny as well. It was a very nice a refreshing show that I loved to tune in to every week.
Sadly, during last season of Weeds things have changed, a lot. Everything changed, because the show wasn’t about Nancy selling weeds to a few parents of her kids’ friends so she could pay for food anymore, now we had her being a drug dealer, a driver during drive-by shootings, and sitting on a pile of heroin. Clearly, the show wasn’t the same. It was also not so funny anymore, and complete crap on more than one occasion — I’m sure those of who who remember that whole plot with Andy joining the army and other shit like that know exactly what I mean.
But it will only get worse. For proof : no more “Little Boxes” !
I used to like Weeds, it was a really good show. But last season was a complete mess, and for anyone who liked the show it was really painful to see the show going downhill week after week, killing all hopes. Their rant against the war in Iraq didn’t have a place on the show, and made for the worst plot ever, but it wasn’t alone. I mean, did anyone care about Nancy going to made a new friend in the ex-wife of her recently dead DEA-agent of a husband, only to feel guilty for some reason and willing to give her money ??
Or Nancy becoming a new bitch only to magically see everyone around her die so that her problems could all be resolved, while she still had no clue of what to do, ever. From the start Nancy didn’t really know what she was doing, but as long as she kept things small, selling just a little weed and listening to Heylia’s advices, she could manage to do ok while being clueless.
Of course she did not keep things small, and it kept growing and getting worse and worse, yet she never had a clue about what to do, she always acted before thinking, and soon enough the show had lost everything that made it good in the first place. In fact, the last good thing I remember from this show was Zooey Deschanel’s great performance and awesome, though a bit crazy, character.
In the season finale Nancy made sure her house would burn down, and it seemed like we were heading towards some big changes for the show. Well, we are, but I’m not sure this is such a good idea. Nancy and her family are moving, which makes sense, even though what seems a bit odd is that she won’t start fresh and try to stay within the law, but go back to selling drugs, because things went so well the first time, no one died, and her children were never in danger, right ?
Anyways, everyone moves, except two of the most important characters, underused last season : Conrad and Heylia. Both Romany Malco and Tonye Patan are leaving, they won’t be part of the new season. Somehow everyone else will move along with Nancy though : Dean, Doug, Celia…
This could be seen as a good thing, but I can’t see it be any good. Either they start back and try to do season one all over again, and I liked the first season so I don’t care for another one just like it, or they keep with a new Nancy much deeper into the whole drug business, and as we’ve seen last season, that cannot be a good thing.
Executive producer Roberto Benabib said that “what began in the original pilot as a suburban housewife who was making ends meet by dealing dime bags has turned into the story of a woman who is a drug dealer. As she’s changed the show has changed.” Yes, both for the worse, and maybe I should have more faith, but I don’t see how things could be for the better. It will be a new town, so Doug won’t be Doug, not really, not with his classic City Council meetings or any of that.
I don’t know how you felt about last season of Weeds, and how you feel about this upcoming season and this new changes, but it doesn’t sound good to me. And a good illustration of this, is how the show will not use “Little Boxes” during its opening title sequence, which will also be redone by the way. I liked that song, it was attached to the show and its identity. Now everything is changing, and given how last season had me loose faith in the show’s writers, I am worried.
I loved the show, I really didn’t like (hated on occasion) last season, and I’m not confident this reinvention of the show will be really good. What about you, did you like last season ? Are you happy / excited about those changes, or worried ?
Season 4 of Weeds will premiere on Showtime June 16. I guess I’ll be there, but I’m not sure I’ll come back after that… you?
I know you’re dying for attention, but isn’t it just a tad, um, unfair to call something “the worst” when you haven’t, you know, seen it? Give it a chance is all… Weeds has never been safe, never been predictable, never been anything like other half-hour comedy. Which is why it’s so good — unlike so much on TV, Weeds refuses to repeat the same likeable ordinary characters in likeable ordinary situations year after year…
I’m not dying for attention, thank you. And sure, I haven’t seen it, and I hope I’ll be proven wrong, but while I used to really love Weeds, I was also sorry to see this season go down the way it did, because it wasn’t good. Don’t tell me you watched last season and liked any of the things involved in the whole army plot, because I couldn’t believe you!
It was the worst season to date, and given what seems to be coming up for the next one, I’m afraid it will be even worse, which would therefore mean it would be the worst season of Weeds. Then again, I’d love nothing more for the show but to be proven wrong on this one!
I’m not basing my feelings only on what seems to be in store for next season, but also on what last season of the show was…
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such a biased review, i can see right through you like a puff of hot weed air.
I have seen all of season 4, if only for the sake of continuity; that is, just to see what happens. It was very difficult to get through most of the episodes. The show was interesting until about midway through season 3. It then unraveled completely and lost itself. Why doesn’t anyone come out and say it, without the undeserved diplomacy. Season 4 sucked. The show’s quirkiness gave way to being ridiculous - stupid. The characters became empty and so boring. I used to look forward to Doug’s take on things. Now he’s become some washed up pussy that barely draws screen presence. The show has become unrecognizable, with characters that have degraded into weak egotistical air bags that I couldn’t give a shit about. Andy ought never to have become a regular. He, along with some other characters, are best used peripherally. I don’t think another season could put the show back on track. If there’s any chance, the first order of business is to fire the present writers. “They can go work on a revival of Beavis and Butthead - which is the caliber “they” seem to be in line with.