By Curt Schleier
The biggest problem I have with WEEDS is that it’s only a half hour show. There is so much going on, the show moves so quickly and offers so cynical a sense of humor perfectly attuned to the times – or at least my times -- that I just can’t get enough. And frankly Mary-Louise Parker is brilliant. And I would say that even if I didn’t have a crush on her.
Where to begin? Perhaps because it’s easiest, let’s start with her television family. Brother-in-law Andy (Justin Kirk) gets a job catering at a porno shoot, but his food gives the star flatulence and the runs. The result, he has to interrupt the shooting of the potential classic Peckers of the Caribbean to attend to private matters.
Son Silas (Hunter Parrish) has hooked up with Tara Lindman (Mary-Kate Olsen), a Jesus freak who will take care of all his needs except one; she is saving her virginity for her husband. I assume you understand what I mean there. If not, let me know and I’ll be more specific.
Son Shane (Alexander Gould) may also have landed himself a shiksa. He’s attending what turns out to be an evangelical summer school. He begs his mother to take him out, but she doesn’t heed his pleas. In the school, his fellow students are so anxious to spread Christ’s message that they are prepared to beat him up until he accepts Jesus. He’s saved (from the bullies) by an attractive fellow students who wants to save him (from hell). Shane doesn’t need to be saved, but would like his needs taken care of, too. But their lunch plans go awry when she meets someone who needs saving me even more than he does.
Upset, he confronts her: “I’m a blasphemous, wicked Jew. What could be worse than that?” Turns out that on the sinner scale, being a lesbian is even worse than being a Hebrew.
Meanwhile the Agresta City Council, unsatisfied by the level of bribes it received to link up with Majestic, the new evangelic development next door, turns the proposal down. But Celia Hodes, who is more than satisfied with the house she received under the table, suggests developer Sullivan Groff (Matthew Modine) do an end around the council and petition for a referendum on the matter.
This brings us to Nancy Botwin (the delightful Ms. Parker). At the beginning of the episode, she is attending the funeral of U-Turn (Page Kennedy) the man who held her in involuntary servitude over a drug deal that did not work out. Mr. Turn was sadly murdered by an associate, Marvin (Fatso Fasano), who now believes he is in charge. But he doesn’t have what it takes.
He arranges a meeting with several competitors and insists Nancy come along on the theory that no one wants to shoot a white lady in broad daylight. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable going to a gang summit,” she tells him. But he insists – even after she tries to warn him off.
Marvin is of course grabbed and threatened with a violent end if he doesn’t return the heroine U-Turn had stolen. Of course, Marvin has no idea what’s going on; he doesn’t know that the recently deceased left a trunk full of H in the Botwin garage. She insists Marvin absolve her debt before she returns the trunk; the Hispanic gang members holding pistols to his head help move the process along.
And finally it appears Nancy is free. She is happy enough to sleep with her legitimate job boss Sullivan. But happiness is such an ephemeral, temporary thing. A rain storm washes away the dirt where her former boyfriend, Peter, the DEA agent, was buried after he was murdered.
If you haven’t been following WEEDS, I know this sounds complicated in the retelling. But it’s not convoluted in the viewing. The show is one of television’s few consistent delights.