TV Review: Weeds 8x06: "Allosaurus Crush Castle"

ML- Maybe it's the fact that I'm watching this at a reasonable hour and not after taking notes on BB/True Blood/Breaking Bad before it, but this week's Weeds was a step up from previous weeks, for me.

It's a shame that Justin Kirk has never gotten Emmy love as Andy. I know I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again before the show ends. He handles his meandering lines with expertise, while Kevin Nealon is left with crass, short-but-gut-busting spurts of immaturity. The two of them play off together very well.

I even liked Jennifer Jason-Leigh tonight in the scene where Jill and Andy discussed the possibility of raising a baby together. Probably because she didn't say much and let Andy do all of the scene-stealing. But could pregnancy be a good thing for her now? Give her a boy, she doesn't need another girl.

Nancy was back to her old tricks on the soccer field, getting close to frustrated dad Terry whose son sucks at soccer and ruins Terry's love life. Once Nancy finds out he works for a prescription drug company peddling pills "legally" and can throw her name out there for a job, she agrees to take the monster child in for a sleepover with Stevie.

The kid is a menace and Stevie ends up smacking him with a play castle. Nancy separates the boys and sits Terry's son down for a mature chat about turning your life around. She then passes him off to Shane, whose presence in the episode is smaller, doing the classic "writing someone else's papers for money then getting caught" story, though it had a happy ending. Shane also recorded a funny Occupy Wall Street parody with the young boys that will hopefully have relevance next week, or else it was kind of unnecessary.

Silas found RJ stacking cups in his hospital and tried to get him to go to the stolen weed. Instead, RJ directed him to where it was: his parents' house. Silas showed up in full robber attire expecting nobody to be home, when he walked in on a birthday party that expected him to be the stripper. He got home drunk and talked with Nancy about his issues, then did a "go stripper, go stripper" dance that allowed Hunter Parrish to be a little fun, for once.

But, as I said, the best part of the episode was Andy, Doug and Jill. Doug suggested getting Jill to go horseback riding and fall in order to abort the baby, but Andy wasn't having it. He vowed to take on the child (which he still isn't sure is actually his, yet, and I'm unfortunately guessing it won't be).

Things were looking up all around for the Botwins. Nancy got a job with Terry's company, as did Shane, in exchange for some more sleepovers. It's all worth it, though, considering the nursery set-up the company has going on in case the government OK's a THC pill. But can Nancy handle not being the big fish at this corporation?

Episode Grade: B+
Episode MVP: Justin Kirk
Original Airdate: 08/05/2012

TV Review: Weeds 8x05: "Red in Tooth and Nail"

ML- We got plenty of tastes of freaky relationships tonight, so this review will be in the form of an advice column to the characters:

Nancy & The Rabbi: We found out the creeper staring down at Nancy last week was the same Rabbi guy who met with Andy in the hospital. Coincidence? I think not. Nancy, you've ruined the lives of dozens of men (literal figure), but this is the first that really has me worried for you. Sure, he got you to dispose of all your golden parachute weed from Kiku, and has been spreading his cleansing message to all the Botwins he comes in contact with, but I still wouldn't trust him. That being said, he'll be the guy who Nancy finally forms a loving bond with and they live happily ever after.

Andy and SUGAR FROM SURVIVOR COMPLETELY NAKED: I'm not sure if Sugar's character had a name, but she definitely had a smokin' bod as she rolled around the rink. Andy pulled out some Charlie-Kaufman-in-Adaptation-level philosophy on his evolution and karma in regards to women always stripping down for him. Sugar said it's because he's always talking about the women in his life and never himself, and because her girlfriend was out of town, and because she had no more Law & Order on her DVR. Andy, you work best when you're trying to impress a girl, not fending the crazies off. Go see what Alanis Morisette is up to, perhaps she's forgiven you and can make a guest appearance before the show ends!

Jill and Doug: Ew. The void Jill couldn't fill with big savings from extreme couponing was apparently filled by Doug, a horrible decision by all accounts. Yes, she may have gotten Revenge on Andy (capitalization intentional, as Jennifer Jason Leigh will be playing Emily Thorne's mother on Revenge next season), but at what cost?

Shane and Angela: Double dates are only okay when they're with people your own age. Going to his boss' house and listening to him drunkenly complain about things, in a scene so derivative of SNL's "Drunk Uncle" Weekend Update Sketch that I almost expected Seth Myers to pop out and be smarmy, is not romantic. It worked out, though, when Angela made a move on the balcony. The end justified the means here, Lil' Botwin.

Silas and RJ: This came out of nowhere- one minute they're bonding growing weed, the next RJ is trying to get Silas to go down on him, spouting some business about how it will help him express his manliness. Then RJ freaked out and stole all of the product, on account of him being off of his meds? The whole thing was too weird and didn't add up to the rest of the episode. I hope this isn't completely abandoned next week.

Celia and Dean: Just kidding, they're not back on the show. But wouldn't that be great?

Episode Review: B-
Episode MVP: Justin Kirk
Original Airdate: 7/29/2012

TV Review: Weeds 8x04: "Only Judy Can Judge"

Warning: This article contains plot spoilers and some language suitable for only those mature enough to be watching Weeds. Reader discretion advised.

ML- For once, Doug's storyline really hammered home the episode's theme, and also what has been lacking in this home stretch to the Weeds finale: Different day, same shit.

Doug was shocked to find a heaping pile of it on his daily newspaper, and he immediately blamed his neighbor's prized pooch. When it happens again, it spurs a war in which Doug spray-paints the dog, the neighbor calls the police, Doug outsmarts them, and the neighbor sends a bag of feces right onto the table during Nancy's family dinner speech. Hey, at least it's better than a bullet!

I take this as a strong metaphor of the problem currently plaguing Weeds- much of the same old stuff is happening. Nancy is reverting to her drug kingpin, bad mom ways. Andy is back to fawning over her. Silas is doing weird stuff with his lady friends and growing weed again. Only Shane seems to be progressing in an interesting direction, which could spell trouble if he does, as RJ the headship employee warns Silas, goes wild with power and rats them all out.

But after 7 seasons, double as many locales and triple the twists and turns, the show has become like an elderly person in the slow crawl of death. Occasionally there's a spark of life, but no, the end is near. We're all hoping for a spectacular finish to, at best, a hit-or-miss series. Perhaps this is Jenji Kohan's way of letting us know that the show isn't going to stop being what it is, love it or hate it.

I lost interest quickly in Nancy's backslide into the drug game by helping Kiku get out of a jam and finding Demetri at laser-tag. Andy and Jill breaking up over him wanting to cook Nancy a meal was plain stupid. Again, I echo that Shane's advances with his girlfriend (asking her to dinner while grabbing her boob) were the only fresh parts, because we've never really seen Shane, or anyone, with a normal significant other. He really may be the only one to escape unscathed.

Mary-Louise Parker had some good stuff again this week, particularly crying after accidentally calling Stevie "Judah", which isn't even his father's name. The woman has three children from three fathers, and I think that is finally starting to dawn on her. She doesn't want to be a zombie of a mother, she wants to be better. Funny, as in scenes for next week she's tempted back into her old tricks.

Back to the metaphor at hand, the episode ends with Doug checking the surveillance tape he set up, only to find the phantom pooper was Doug himself, under the influence of Ambien. What does this imply for the characters and the show going forward? Drugs are the reason we do dumb things, or at least the same shit on different days? Or that it's these characters that are so well-defined now that there's little excitement left for the audience? The writers probably mean the former, but I'm still giving the latter some thought.

Episode Grade: B-
Episode MVP: Mary-Louise Parker
Original Airdate: 7/22/2012

TV Review: Weeds 08x03: "See Blue and Smell Cheese and Die"

The following article may contain plot spoilers. Reader discretion advised. 


ML- It's the final countdown of Weeds episodes, the end of a long, dangerous journey by the Botwin clan, and we get an episode full of roller derby and Mae Whitman (Parenthood, Ann from Arrested Development) blowing an albino. Is it too much to ask for a little Weed?


I have to give the writers credit for keeping the pace of random, hilarious dialogue up over these 8 seasons, especially in regards to Andy. Justin Kirk never got any Emmy love for this show, which is unnerving, as he brought his A-game tonight apologizing for a forged Raquel Welch signature. But the storyline in which this dialogue exists doesn't stack up.

Seeing Nancy actually try to help someone who wronged her was another big development in her growth towards an "After Botwin", but the end result was about the same as her usual vindictive ways: his life was ruined. Tim goes off to jail, another casualty of Hurricane Nancy's reign of terror throughout the country (and Mexico).

But everything else in the episode was lacking for me. Doug's business story lines are always a drag on this show, and though it looks as though they'll be transitioning to something else now that he transferred lots of Vehement money to a Wilson/Tillerman "non profit", he still feels like a vestigial structure of the show's past, kept around solely because he's a desperate actor with a semi-big name. He ruined what could have been a perfectly peaceful Steve Martin banjo cover of "Little Boxes", too.

The roller derby stuff with Andy was there to get the girls to hate him and turn back to bloodthirsty dad Scott, but it felt so unnecessary. The twins began attacking Andy by destroying his shoes in the oven, so immature Andy retaliated by cutting off the Dread Menace's red dread. This lead to a moderately funny slap fight with Scott that was enhanced by some seriously funny heckling from the twins. Scott's vent was extremely uncomfortable and slightly unbelievable, as he ranted on about how he never wanted twins and, when he saw the sonogram, hoped for an abortion and a new boat instead. No dad would talk like that in front of his kids, but it did get them to side with Andy, the whole purpose of the ridiculous B-story.

Mae Whitman was pretty hilarious as Tula, Tim's girlfriend with some severe issues of her own, and another vessel for some out of this world dialogue. I'd like to see her return, but with so few episodes left in the series, I'd much rather they devote time to important plot lines and character progression.

Speaking of character progression, it was great to see Shane as a cop, and even greater when Nancy was so caught up with Tim that she didn't realize her son's accomplishments. He didn't use the gun he got from Tula to shoot Tim, he tested it against the shells. She was so focused on the darkness she had brought to that boy's life that she didn't notice the shining presence Shane had become, at least in part under her guidance.

One last thing- the title was taken from Tim's line regarding someday Nancy's bullet repositioning in her brain, and her seeing blue, smelling cheese and dying. I know I haven't seen past the first season of The Sopranos but I have a blanket knowledge of just about everything TV, so this made my foreshadowing sense tingle in the same way Sopranos mentioned RANDOM SOPRANOS SPOILER ALERT everything going black and not hearing anything at the moment of death. Will we end with things seeming great for Nancy, then the screen going blue?

Episode Grade: B-
Episode MVP: Mae Whitman
Original Airdate: 7/15/2012

TV Review: Weeds 8x02: "A Beam of Sunshine"

Warning: The following may contain spoilers. Reader discretion advised.


ML-"I think I was a bad person."


Never did I ever expect to hear Nancy Botwin utter those words. Never! She was the worst person imaginable, but never seemed to give a damn about it. Getting shot in the head must early change a person.


Or does it? I posed a similar question in my True Blood review as well. What does it take to cause a person to change their ways? Nancy may think she's on the path to righteousness, but she's still technically dealing marijuana. How long before the reality of her hospital bills set in (did you notice they were at around $420,000?) and she reverts back to her dark and twisty ways?


My guess is not long. As Shane so thoughtfully pointed out in his little colorful diagram, she has plenty of enemies that still want her dead. If Nancy is going to get vicious against a clown imagine what she'll do when confronted by Guillermo again. She thinks now they can be the "After Botwins", like the people in the Before & After ads on TV, but she seems to have forgotten she already tried changing her identity as a Newman last year. 


Mary-Louise Parker is having a blast in this new season, and I'm happy for her. She's done a brilliant job of portraying Nancy and creating a complex character. She was never afraid of playing unlikable, and nails those scenes just as much as she can the comedic ones. She truly is a beam of sunshine in this show.


Speaking of sunshine, a weather analogy factored heavily into Andy's story this week. As he fooled around with Jill, Scott, her estranged husband, returned to visit the kids and spread his newfound zen energy (and cookie dough bars) with his family. He notes how when the sky is gray, it's not the sky, it's the clouds. The sky is blue the whole time, you just can't see it until the clouds pass. This is a lovely thought and gives me hope for the Botwins as the series comes to a close, as maybe they can find a way to break through all those clouds (like a beam of sunshine) and have nothin' but blue skies from here on out.


Andy made a big step as he barged in on Jill's dinner with Scott. He was clued in by the twins' pre-emptive packing, as they told him whenever mom and dad have dinner, they reconnect. This is a great scene that shows how in-tune children are with their parents; often, kids know their parents better than the parents know themselves. Silas and Shane have spoken more truths of Nancy than she ever has. So jealous Andy distracts Jill from Scott's plea to screw in the bathroom of a chinese restaurant. "this is more than just sex", he tells her. Again, is he changing, or is his love for Nancy just transferring over to her sister? 


Doug definitely hasn't changed, as he bought into the "tri-kini" product that will problem spell bad things for him down the line. Silas didn't have much to do other than spank his agent in some S&M, 50 Shades of Hunter Parrish's Hair business. Shane managed to track down the shooter, Tim Scottson, after noting how 85% of all male juvenile offenders come from fatherless homes. This is the true test of whether people can change- will he bring Tim to justice using handcuffs or a croquet mallet?


Grade: B+
MVP: Mary-Louise Parker
Original Air-date: 7/8/12