It’s unusual for a show to redefine itself every season it’s on the air. But if you’ve lost sight of what Weeds was initially about (a very understandable occurrence), you’d imagine that the show has been doing just that. A widowed mother of two turns to pot dealing in order to support her upper-middle class family; she moves to corner the weed market; she falls under the thumb of a dangerous drug dealer and a DEA agent; the Mexican smuggling tunnel; the Mexican drug kingpin boyfriend; and finally, the happy family. There’s been a lot going on.
But many viewers (and some might argue the writers themselves) may have lost sight of the fact that, ultimately, Weeds is still about a mother raising her kids after the death of their father. Is it traditional? Um, did you read the above? And yet, that remains what the show boils down to.
Season six picked up immediately where season five left off, just a moment after Shane plunked Pilar in the head with a croquet mallet and she fell lifeless into the pool. The return was so in-the-moment that Silas was still waiting in the car for everyone to meet him, and Andy was kicking himself for having left Audra (Alanis Morissette) alone to deal with a crossbow-bearing Gayle (Matt Peters). Which is to say that season six’s makeover has yet to take place.
But it’s one that I’m looking forward to. Unlike some, I’ve enjoyed Weeds for most of the five seasons it’s been on the air — not every single plot, but certainly something in most all episodes — but I’m looking forward to seeing the Botwins get back to basics. And from the little I’ve heard about this season, the plan is for them to do just that … only while on the run.
Anyway, back to the premiere. For a long time I didn’t enjoy Shane; I found him to be far too odd, and not even a little entertaining. But for some reason his crazy tickled me last night. Maybe it’s that he didn’t change after killing Pilar — I loved the entire mallet gag — and his personality has always been too extreme. Meaning he finally has the resume to back up his personality. Somehow it now fits.
I’ve always enjoyed Silas, and I like how he seemed to be alone in struggling with how Shane evolved into a killer. I worry that a Botwin family on the run will hamper his ability to stretch his wings like last season — Silas and Doug together were amazing — but Silas was great even when he was madly in love with the deaf girl down the street. I’m not all that concerned about him.
Andy and Nancy’s relationship has always been inappropriate, but I wonder what will happen now that he’s lost Audra. Will the feelings that have been awakened inside of him turn him into a better man, or will his depression spiral him back into a bearded bum? I love that he knew it was Shane who’d killed someone.
I knew that the Botwins needed to be on the run from someone, and my assumption was that the someone would be from Pilar’s organization — which includes Esteban and Cesar (Enrique Castillo) — but I didn’t expect the incident to play out as it did, with the whole thing getting captured on a tape that Cesar pocketed. I’m not sure how, or if, this will change things (that admittedly only exist in my head), but I hope the break the family makes is a clean one (with a stopover to pick up Doug on the way).
Not what I expected, but I’m definitely in.
“Don’t play the whole ‘I’m a killer now’ card. That is unacceptable.” – Nancy
“Fine.” – Shane
“Are you a killer?” – Lupita
“I don’t like labels.” – Shane
“I’m not going until everyone’s buckled. Someone has to be a role model around here.” – Silas
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Aug 17, 2010 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
