There’s something about the way Mary-Louise Parker saunters as she effectively multi-tasks - Running her underground business while trying to meet the needs of her brood, inevitably falling from grace episode after episode, only to stay afloat and do a public service (Juggling hats again!) by supplying every inch of the food train with much-needed “happy” relief in the form of marijuana.
I’m not advocating drug use here. I’m quite anti-pleasure derived from substances other than chocolate or ice cream. It’s just Nancy Botwin (or Mary-Louise Parker’s character on Weeds) is such a prime example of a social antipreneur.
She has her principles and stands by them - She won’t deal in elicit drugs like crack or cocaine, traded her SUV for a Prius in a way that even Al Gore might have to slap her on the rear for just out of sheer adulation, and she puts her family first before her work. Read More…
Season 4 of Weedspremiered last night and I, for one, couldn’t have been more giddy. As a huge fan of the show, its premise, and in spite of my repressed jealousy for the fair Mary Louise Parker, the show’s start did nothing to sway my belief that this show represents one of the finest half-hour slots in entertainment on TV right now.
Last season ended with Nancy (Mary Louise Parker) torching her house and the entire Agrestic going up in flames. The police go into the basement of Celia’s (Elizabeth Perkin) house and discover Nancy’s booming pot operation and of course come to Celia looking for answers. Without disclosing too much here and potentially spoiling the experience for viewers, Albert Brooks joins the cast as Nancy’s father-in-law and the stereotypical Jewish father who regrets that his son married a goyishe woman. Brooks also doesn’t think much of Nancy’s eldest son, the one with the “goyishe punim” nor the fact that Nancy is eating the German dish, spatzle, and that she smells like gas. References to the Holocaust abound and you start to understand that the Jewish humor jokes are only going to increase exponentially with Brooks’ presence on the show.
The big open-ended question series’ creator Jenji Kohan had us all wondering last night is what’s going to happen with the storyline involving the show’s incredibly talented and witty supporting ensemble (Kevin Nealon, Elizabeth Perkins, etc) who get left behind in Agrestic now that Nancy, her kids, and her brother-in-law have shacked up with Albert Brooks just north of the border. Kohan leaked to E! that a spin-off show might be in the works that would center around the the rest of the cast. Unfortunately for Nancy-Conrad fans, Kohan sees the split has something irrevocable:
“I love those characters; I just think those relationships wore themselves out, and I wanted to be true to where the characters were. Truthfully, Heylia and Nancy had nothing more to say to each other. Conrad and Nancy weren’t going to be the loves of each other’s lives, so it was time to move on.”
On the flipside, a spin-off might be a welcome relief as it will translate to a whole hour of Weeds entertainment back-to-back and that the Call Girl show will have move to another night. Nothing against the show or anything (’twas better than expected and I’ll admit it has more potential than Sex in the City as it lives up to its sexed-up hype and shows actual sex taking place in the city), but as David Hinckley of the NY Daily News said, “Secret Diary of a Call Girl is sexy enough, but ’tis a pity she’s a bore.”
For a sneak peak of Episode 2 of Weeds click here.
Showtime ushered in a new season of the hit showWeeds. Unlike last season’s climatic season opener, Season 3 opened with more of a whimper (with the exception of the episode’s ending, which is a must-watch), but also a reminder of what we’ve come to love about this show since it began - flawed, f*cked up characters, funny dialogue, and ridiculous, brilliantly-timed comedic situations. Sure, it’s no Office but watching Elizabeth Perkin’s husband bond with Kevin Nealon (who incidentally had an affair with Perkins last season) over mud facial masks and genital size comparisons isn’t without its merit. Not to mention that Mary-Louise Parker is my doppelganger, or so some have told me.
Stay tuned for a brand spanking new season of Weeds on Showtime, airing Mondays at 10 PM.
The summer season is lackluster when it comes to the production of new, interesting television. There was a piece published a few months back in Entertainment Weekly that described the transition from Summer being a season of re-runs to new pilots. On the flipside of re-runs was the chance to catch up on any episodes you missed during the regular season and to get you all jazzed up the Fall season. There was a roundness/cyclical nature to such network programming strategy. Now it’s all about bombarding viewers with as many new game shows starring burned out 80s stars on the major networks, and on the more provocative cable networks, intense dramas with big-name movie stars.
Given this new formula, it’s not surprising to see Chris O’Donnell back on the small screen (after all, we saw him on Gray’s Anatomy playing Meredith’s boyfriend not too long ago) starring in a Goodfellas-type Ridley Scott/John Grishamesque drama called The Company with Michael Keaton and Alfred Molina. The show debuts tonight on TNT at 8 PM and since my favorite show Weeds doesn’t start up for another week (neither does The Hills btw, but how much fun will that be without the pervasive presence of Heidi Blow-up doll Montag), I just might be forced to give Chris O’Donnell a little TLC in the form of company tonight.
In the meantime, to satiate Weeds fans in anticipation of next week’s Season 3 opener, here’s a sneak peak. Oh, did we forget to mention that Mary-Kate (the formerly troubled, newly rehabilitated of the Olsen twins) is slated to join the cast this season as Sylas’ girlfriend? We can hardly wait…
Season 4 of 
Showtime ushered in a new season of the 
The summer season is lackluster when it comes to the production of new, interesting television. There was a 