WEEDS

This series has just finished on Sky telly but it is bound to be on Channel 4 soon so watch it then, I implore you! Basically it sounds like a “gosh gasp, behind the smooth exterior of suburbia weird things happen, who would have thought it!?” type thing but it is better than that rather clichéd scenario would suggest. Basically Mary Louise Parker plays Nancy, a 40ish suburban housewife with two sons who decides to make ends meet by selling pot to all the other suburban denizens after her husband dies and leaves her up financial shit creek. Weeds = “widows weeds” and also “reefer”. Do you see what they did there?

MLP is very likeable and good as the widow and should secure best actress noms aplenty. Also her best friend Cynthia is a cracking character as played by Elizabeth Perkins (ditto for her with the awards noms). She starts out as an evil, icy control freak bitch, spying on her teenage daughter with hidden cameras, mercilessly tormenting her other “fat” daughter and drugging and shaving her husband when she finds out he’s been having an affair. But then she gets breast cancer, turns into a more sympathetic character (but is still way acerbic and watchable) and goes on a hilarious mid life crisis style bender. I also like the maid character and the cool deaf girlfriend. As the program airs on cable in the US, it has proper swearing and shagging too. Hurrah!

Unfortunately it is not all plain sailing – Nancy’s brother in law character (a stoner waster who moves in and inexplicably is allowed to stay, even though he is an annoying bastard) is irritating and not funny and takes too much screen time from the ladies. The eccentric younger son is also kind of annoying, though I liked the Godfather spoof (with him in the Diane Keaton role) in the last episode. Nancy buys all her drucks from a black family in a rough part of town and the sassy matriarch character is sometimes very stereotypical. It is hard to tell if this is ironic or not. Sometimes the plots are a bit worthy and didactic too, ie when brother-in-law has a rant about the War in Iraq and when Cynthia uses her bitch powers to stop a gay teacher from being sacked – all valid points but coming across as rather out of place. Still, these faults are bearable in the post-Friends sitcom wasteland when all we have to keep us happy is “Joey” (how to improve Joey = kill off any character not played by Drea De Matteo or Jennifer Coolidge)) and “Will and Grace” (how to improve Will and Grace = kill off any character called Will or Grace).