(Season 1, episodes 5-10)
I wrote earlier about how I’ve gotten over my aversion to potheads and have started watching Weeds. I enjoyed the first part of the season, although there were a few things that bugged me and the first five episodes left me with several questions. I’ve finished the second five episodes of the first season and this is where we stand: None of my questions have been answered, but I am officially hooked.
Here are my thoughts on the second half of season one:
Nancy still doesn’t seem to be making enough money, so she tries to expand her empire. One of the ways she does this is by starting to sell at the local college. This is funny to me mainly for how it comes about. Nancy goes on campus and apparently sees hordes of students just openly smoking pot on the quad or whatever. First of all, I call bullshit. Again, I don’t care if they are in California, there is no way that 80% of the students who are outside are just randomly doing drugs out in the open.
The other part of this that I find hysterical is the fact that Nancy is so surprised. She’s looking around and it’s like the apple just hit her in the head. Yes, Nancy. Sometimes college students, by virtue of being young, crazy, and out of their parents’ house for the first time, do things like smoke pot. It’s like she’s spent so much time selling to accountants and soccer moms and trying to keep it out of the hands of teenagers, that she’s forgotten the main market for what she’s selling. It’s like running an ice cream shop geared solely to people who have recently had their tonsils removed while completely overlooking, you know, kids.
My favorite part of Nancy’s expansion into the college world is Sanjay (Maulik Pancholy), aka Jack Donaghy’s assistant! I love him on 30 Rock, even though he doesn’t show up too often, so it’s nice to see him in a situation where he at least gets costume changes.
Speaking of familiar faces, I was also excited to see Martin Donovan join the show as Peter Scottson, but I think that may be because I had him confused with D.B. Sweeney. In any case, I like him as a possible love interest for Nancy. They seem like they would be a good match — after all, I can’t imagine that it would be too easy to meet a guy who would still talk to you after your son bites his son during a karate match.
I understand why Nancy backed off. She’s a recent widower and it seemed completely natural. However, that brings me to something about which I am very confused: Nancy’s dirty alley sex.
Okay. She’s sexually frustrated, stressed out and lonely. Fine. If she decided to have dirty alley sex with Alejandro because of any of those reasons, then fine. It may not be advisable, but I don’t see anything really wrong with it. However, he spent time damaging her property and intimidating her. He’s a rival drug dealer who was angry because she was encroaching on his territory. If she had sex with him as a business decision; or as a way to keep herself safe, well then that’s something else entirely. If that’s the case, then she has stepped over the line between soccer mom trying to make some money and … something else.
I like how things are getting kind of dangerous for Nancy. Drug dealing, even in the suburbs, isn’t the safest thing in the world. The first few episodes were overly quirky for the subject matter, and I like the slightly darker turn Weeds took in the second half of the season. I’m excited to find out what happens with Nancy’s bakery and if the campus police officer is the worst nemesis she has.
Stay tuned as I watch the second season….
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Jan 26, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
The dirty alley sex is just the tip of the iceberg! It gets soooo much more messed up as the show goes along. Nancy Botwin is one screwed up woman. I can’t wait to hear what you think by the time you get to season 3, let alone 4.
It’s been a while since I was at university, but that was a decent representation of the smoke scene on a sunny afternoon.
As someone who recently graduated from a northern California university, and currently attends a southern California university for grad school, that wasn’t an accurate representation. Few would be so dumb as to smoke on campus, that could get you kicked out of school. At parties, at home, or anywhere other than campus would be far more likely.