Review of Weeds: Season One

Introduction

If HBO is the popular, cool kid of US pay-per-view subscription cable, with the swearing and the sex and the ra-ra-ra, then Showtime is its dirty little minx of a cousin - just that little bit edgier, likely to do the kinky stuff, with word of mouth notoriety and a proclivity to go just that little bit further... for a premium. Both channels go above basic cable expectations by delivering a catalogue of programming that adheres to a manifesto of sharp, well written comedy and drama with a sailor`s gob full of cussing and more sex than you can shake a bottle of chocolate body spread at. While HBO can boast of such widely-known, high-end offspring as `The Sopranos`, `Six Feet Under`, `Sex and the City` and `Deadwood`, Showtime is and was home to some of the best, not to mention most acclaimed, US television in the forms of `Dead Like Me`, `Dexter`, `Fat Actress` and `Huff`, and a screed of others. Yet Showtime shows almost always fall under the radar of popular culture, despite being of that special caliber that`s turned US Television into the most quality-saturated entertainment medium of the new millennium.

Okay, but what the hell has that got to do with this review? Read on, people, read on.

`Weeds` was 2005`s big gamble for the broadcaster. The set-up - that of a recently-widowed suburbanite who takes up the middle-management position of a pot-dealing enterprise to maintain her comfortable lifestyle - slightly nudges on the boundaries of what sort of stories Middle America want to see beamed into their living rooms. And while star-studded HBO was always more likely to be the target of the ad-hoc moral crusaders of the day, the central theme of cannabis dealing in `Weeds` was surely going to earn them a little more crossfire than they were used to. But it was a gamble that paid off, with it becoming the most watched Showtime series of 2005, and with it not only picking up a couple of official pats on the back in the form of Golden Globe, Stony and Satellite awards, but its bloated list of recognition and nominations from both the SAG and the Emmys was in danger of tipping the metaphorical turtle onto its shell. As of March 2007, `Weeds` has a second season under its belt, with a third due to start production later in the year.

Which is great, because `Weeds` is bloody excellent.

Mary-Louise Parker (`Fried Green Tomatoes`, `The West Wing`) plays thoroughly modern mommy Nancy, with her fingers in a very specific `pot`. She acts as a beacon from which an assortment of wacky characters in her home town radiate, including best friend, PTA leader and uptight fashionista Celia (Elizabeth Perkins); her CPA, city councilman prospect and regular customer Doug (Kevin Nealon), and her drug source - a close-knit, inner city black family from whom she also finds a little solace from the dose of the crazies that seems to have infected her neighbourhood - the interestingly named `Agrestic` (cigArets?).

This first season, originally broadcast in the UK on Sky One (but MIA from the schedules since) gets a 2-disc treatment and is set for release in April, courtesy of the folks at Lionsgate Home Entertainment.

Video

A typically solid transfer of a recently-filmed TV show. Grain crops up now and then, but that seems to be a par for the course with US TV-to-DVD. There`s a tendency to lose definition and contrast in some of the darker scenes, but it never detracts from the viewing, and if you`ve invested in any sort of new TV box-set with the show`s origins seated across the Atlantic recently, you`ll know what to expect. Ultimately,`Weeds` boasts fine visuals, and as you can see from the screenshot, we in the UK have the added bonus of anamorphic 1.78:1 over our American cousins, who, despite having television sets bigger than the walls in the average British house, have yet to fully embrace widescreen and have to put up with chuffing full-frame on their R1 release.

Audio

`Weeds` seems like an odd choice to favour Dolby Digital 5.1, but it`s a welcome addition to the DVD. Very clear, with most of the channel separation coming from the show`s musical soundtrack, it`s not the in-your-face, ear melting swath of sound you come to expect from anything labeled as 5.1, but it`s more proof that surround is becoming the optimal audio track on even the least likely of shows. A Dolby Digital 2.0 track is also featured on the disc, and there`s full English subtitling.

Features

A fair bevvy of extras accompanies the set:

* There are entertaining and fairly informative [commentaries for episodes 1, 3, 5, 6, 8 and 10], each of them performed by a sole cast or crew member who each have their own personal take on the show, with their own individual input welcomed.

* [Smoke and Mirrors] is a 13-minute FAQ on the green weed, or as cast member and host Romany Malco puts it, "The dope on marijuana". It`s illuminating, and will either flesh out your knowledge of the world`s most popular soft drug, or perhaps even lightly educate you on something you knew nothing about. Still, it comes across as slightly unbalanced, pro-dope propaganda which could`ve been written by Cheech and Chong - or maybe the old hippy who proclaims his support for Cannabis here... through slurred speech and gargling!

*[Suburban Shakedown] is a selection of cast and crew interviews masquerading as a `making of`, put together in a more sleek fashion and certainly more enjoyable than the content may suggest.

[Smokey Snippets] is a selection of outtakes from the extras spread across the discs.

[Agrestic Herb Recipes] features graphic-only recipes, each of which includes adding "A herb of your choice" - smooth guys, very smooth!

[Showtime Original Series Shorts] is clearly some sort of between-programmes filler used by Showtime, similar to the quickfire question vox pops used by C4 at end of ad breaks, featuring the cast answering, well, an assortment of goofy questions.

[Showtime Original TV Spot]

[Music Video]

Conclusion

Fiercely provocative comedy-drama at its very best, `Weeds` is `Desperate Housewives` without the fanfare in its ears, without the monolithic sense of self-importance in its head, without the `chicks only` landing pad strapped to its back and without the `new Sex and the City` expectational albatross hung around its neck. It`s a top-flight production with gallons of acerbic wit, a multitude of lusty shenanigans, plenty of taught drama and is packed with the sort of water cooler material you wax lyrical about and then follow with "I didn`t know they could do that on TV!". It`s a little shot of reality, and yet it`s dense with the sort of material we desperately want to believe is purely unrealistic; low-profile love trysts, bizarre sexual behaviour, social one-upsmanship, children making faux terrorist videos for entertainment, pre-teen girls exploring a sexuality they don`t even know exists, and not mention that the entire neighbourhood and their mother needs their regular pot fix. Yes, it`s fictional, trumped up and glamourised to become entertainment, but underneath the gloss of absurdity lie the home truths. Middle-America, say hello to your real back yard: a modern tale of immorality.

Golden Globe winner Mary-Louise Parker, a relatively low-profile actress (at least up until all that yellow journalism and tabloid publicity over the Billy Crudup fiasco) is a revelation, a real gem of a performer and fits the role of Nancy perfectly - vulnerable and sexy, yet homely and believably conflicted about how she makes a living and hiding it from her nearest and dearest. In fact, the entire cast of characters suffer from some form of social agitation or other seeping into their perfectly modeled suburban life - usually the 21st century trauma of over-complacency and boredom - and it`s taken advantage of by the slick writing and rich acting which finely juggles the funnies with the more grounded dramatic aspects. Portmanteau fans will be quick to label it a dramedy, but the heart of the show really is in the comedy, where even the most touching and serious moments - the show deals with themes of grief, loneliness and even suffering from cancer - never gain too much pace on a rip-snorting laugh. Darkly dramatic, darkly comedic, a finely tuned example of the best of both worlds.

This debut season is structured perfectly, in one instant setting up the characters and their recognisable lives, the next shattering all preconceptions, with creators clearly on the ball from the very start in quickly casting aside elements from the pilot that don`t quite mesh, or could be improved upon for the full run pick-up. These changes are for the most part beneficial to the show, and the roll through the episodes leads nicely to a corker of an ending, and although you can see it coming over the hill for miles, it`s great to have you suspicions confirmed and that they actually are "going there", leaving you chomping at the bit for the second season. It`s a show that could conceivably run and run, and if it does, there won`t be any complaints from this direction.

Showtime plays the silly-numbers game regarding episode count with its shows, and `Weeds` is no exception. Forgoing the US TV standard request of 13 or 22 episodes, 10 episodes make up this first season, and each one is no more than 30-minutes long. With such a risqué central theme, it`s not a big surprise they ordered a small run, but `Weeds` never suffers for it, as with so much packed into an individual episode, there`s pound-for-pound more going on in these 5-hours than the entirety of your average 22 episode season. Short, but very sweet and weighing in at around £20-25 with retailer discounts, the first season of `Weeds` is 300-minutes of TV gold just too good to pass up.