I couldn't have said it better myself- Why weeds is so great

The main reason I love Weeds so much is the characters. It’s the funniest ensemble I have ever seen, but there are two other things that I love. I couldn’t put these things into words until I watched this interview with the cast and creators of the show.

#1 I love the political incorrectness. Just as Elizabeth Perkins said, the blatant political incorrectness of the show teaches us about political correctness; and it does this without ramming it down our throats. It uses humor to help ease us into this learning process. In a show centered around illegal activity and filled with racism, sexism, stereotypes, dirty jokes, etc, the audience is actually given a window into our society. Into the behavior that needs to be corrected. In the flaws of the characters, we can see the flaws in ourselves. In a show that seems like one big joke, there is really a lot of depth. Who knew that a show so funny could also provide us with a moral compass.

#2 I love how Weeds stirs up the debate on the “war on drugs”. As Jenji Kohan said, weed “is the funny drug” and “people don’t take it all that seriously”. You could say that Weeds argues for both sides in this debate. Clearly pot dealing lands Nancy in a lot of awful predicaments including near death experiences and trouble with the authorities. However, if marijuana was legal, these things would seize to be a problem. All the gang violence, drug trafficking, and police work would no longer exist. So, I’d say that Weeds is absolutely FOR legalizing marijuana. Like Jenji said, these characters are doing something that has been deemed wrong in our society but they’ve created their own moral code and we love them. Elizabeth Perkins even argued in another segment of the interview that pot is less dangerous than alcohol. And this year, legalizing marijuana will be on California ballets. Not just medical marijuana, recreational marijuana! I’m all for it. If alcohol is legal weed should be too. And think of all the gang violence and police hours wasted on making it illegal. Let’s just legalize it and tax it. That’s one way to get out of debt…”U.S. pays back China with drug money”. Haha I like it.

It's quirky

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dOxHc4Ix7c (sorry for some reason my computer was not cooperating with the video)

I love Nancy Botwin. Her character is so honest. The mothers I see on TV are always portrayed as these selfless, loving creatures who always put their children’s’ needs before their own. Nancy is not one of those mothers. She is flawed. Terribly flawed. Some may even say she’s a bad mother. Never the less we are always on Nancy’s side. TV and movies puts too much pressure on moms anyway. I like Nancy's style. She makes a lot of bad decisions, but she’s tough, she’s smart, she’s funny, and she protects her family like a lioness protects her cubs (we ignore the fact that she’s the one who put them in danger in the first place). She’s just Nancy. She always seems just lucky enough to get out of trouble. Except of course when it comes to having sex talks with her sons. You have to feel for her in these scenes where it should be Judah talking to the boys and not Nancy. AWKWARD…

This clip reminded me of our class discussions on Freud and the Oedipus complex. Both of the boys have it. Shane takes it to a whole new creepy level . We might assume that because Nancy is constantly wrapped up in her own issues, Silas and Shane a feeling a bit neglected. These “mommy issues” have led them to seeking motherly connections elsewhere. Gross.

Nancy has been losing the boys since she got into the dealing business. Silas purposely impregnates his girlfriend, joins the family business, gets arrested for stealing public property, and dates a mom. Shane starts smoking pot, “talking” to his dead father, having threesomes at age 13, hitting people over the head with croquet mallets, and whacking off to pictures of his mom. I’d call that a fail Nance.

She does get very upset about it. She often needs to self medicate with iced coffees, diet cokes, and alcohol. Though she never smokes her own product (control issues). I think Nancy has just accepted that boys will be boys, she has lost control of them, and she should just pray they turn out alright in the end. She has enough to deal with. All I worry about is Stevie Ray. Shane made it to about age 9 with a father and a more sane version of Nancy; but he’s still screwed up. What is this kid going to turn out like?

This is just like the super dome

At the end of season 3 Agrestic (name changed recently to Majestic) is destroyed in a massive inferno started by Mr. Guillermo Garcia Gomez. Guillermo lights a marijuana field on fire after Nancy hires Guillermo to be the “muscle” for her business. The crops he destroyed belong to a pot-growing, motorcycle gang who beat up Silas. In Guillermo’s attempts to get even, he burns down the entire town. And so ends the Agrestic chapter of weeds and the “little boxes” intro that I love so much.
While the good people of Agrestic’s worldly possessions are being consumed by flame, they are evacuated and staying in Agrestic’s version of the “super dome” that sheltered the people in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Doug is kind enough to point out the differences with his banjo accompanied signing. For instance he sings, “This is just like the super do-ome, except everyone is white and middle-class...” As he walks around notice the things that are going on in the background. There are girl scouts selling cookies, pedicures being offered, yoga circles, and plasma TV’s. Oh and please believe there was a man on a Segway. And 4 people roaming about the room selling pot.
Are these the things that comfort us? YES. Who doesn’t feel a little more secure with a tagalong cookie in hand? Or in Agrestic’s case, a joint in hand. Time and again I see the characters on Weeds turning to the bottle or the bong in hard times. Of course, it happens in real life too. Why is that? What is it about losing control or losing our inhibitions that makes us feel better? Maybe it brings our super ego’s a little closer to our id. Maybe under the influence, people are more in touch with their desires and they care a little less about their self-presentation?
As for yoga, mani-pedis, and TV. Well, these are some of the things that have become a part of our pop culture. The familiar is always a comfort. No matter how superficial and ridiculous it may seem. Pop culture critics may frown upon these activities, but are they really that bad? Yoga is like exercise and meditation. Surely, they can’t argue with that. Watching television is like entering a fantasy, similar to reading a good book. Getting a pedicure is a way to relax. It could be compared to taking a hot bath or something. Smoking pot is an escape, much like a glass of brandy or whatever they use to drink back in the day (plus they totally smoked weed too). The segway I have no excuse for. The point is, “high culture” and “mass culture seeks to accomplish the same things. Humans all have the same needs. We just choose to fulfill them in different ways. The people of Agrestic are in no way injured, sick, hungry, worried for the safety of family members, or in need of water. So obviously their needs are a little different then the needs of the people in New Orleans. They just needed the comforts of home.

Thug means never having to say you're sorry

Where to begin with this clip…First of all, why is Nancy mixed up with this gangster U-turn? Well she “owes” him about $13,000. She owes him because she didn’t have weed when U-turn wanted to steal from her. Why didn’t she have it? Silas stole the weed from his mom and then Silas had it stolen form him by Celia. Then Celia drowned all of the weed in Nancy’s pool. Do you follow? This was all in the season 2 finale.
Now in season 3, U-turn has decided to make Nancy pay off her “debt” by making her do his dirty work. For the next couple of episodes he makes Nancy his “bitch” and starts training her to be like his second in command (which would be replacing poor Marvin). In this clip, Marvin is suspected to have been shot by rival gang members and Nancy gets dragged into her first drive-by shooting. This clip comments on several elements of modern pop culture.
First, I saw the race issues. Of course this all starts a gang war that is basically a black gang vs. a Mexican gang war. Of course the minorities are the gang members. Then we have Nancy, the innocent white woman who is completely shocked by the drive-by and completely above U-turn’s normal payment punishments. If she had been another black guy and hadn’t paid U-turn back, he probably would have shot her. So once again white people are portrayed as blissfully ignorant to the street life…safe in their little bubble. Where as the Mexicans and the blacks are tough. They’re gangster.
But what does gangster mean today? U-turn and Guillermo are gangsters and this show makes them look cool. They are respected, tough, rich and untouchable. Our pop culture is really into gangster right now. Half of our top 40 music is hip hop. And half of those hip hop artist like to sing and rap about gangster life. That is how they want to be portrayed. They think it makes them look bad-ass. Is it really bad-ass? No. The real street gang members live on the crappiest bits of real-estate. They don’t have record deals or fame. They’re just constantly watching their friends get shot. I have no idea where this illusion comes from. It’s not cool at all.
They last and probably funniest thing I noticed about this clip was its comment on going green. Even U-turn, this big thug, is interested in buying an ugly little Toyota Prius. I guess you’re never too gangster to save the planet. Way to push the “green” ideology Weeds!

Mary Kate loves Jesus

Sorry everybody, but I had to comment on Mary Kate Olsen’s guest appearance. I, like every other girl my age, was obsessed with the whole Olsen twin movie phenomenon from about age 6 to age 13. Lately the twins may be out of work, have no talent, and be plagued with eating disorders, but there will always be a place in my heart for them. I was so shocked when Mary Kate turned up on Weeds. For one, to me she belongs on feel good family movies. Secondly, I kept expecting Ashley Olsen to show up. Little Mary-Kate is by herself!? No frickin’ way! At least MK is staying close to her roots with the whole abstinence bit. That’s the stuff Full House taught us. We’ll just ignore that she smokes and deals marijuana. And the fact that she and Silas like to hang out around “third base”. Oh what is the world coming to…
I like this little Weeds insight into religion. We don’t really see that much religious practice in TV shows and movies unless it’s a holiday or someone is dying. At that point people start turning to God after they’ve been ignoring him forever. Funerals are big too. Six Feet Under- case and point. But really, what is the place of religion in pop culture today? It seems to me that religion has fallen out of popularity or been made to look ridiculous. In season 3 we get to hear Doug’s song about “Jesus freaks”. Obviously we can see Shane’s strong feelings on Creation and Andy’s view on euthanasia when he asks Nancy to smother his grandma (who is in a vegetative state) with a pillow. And then there are movies like Saved and Religulous that poke fun at Christianity. How about Hamlet 2? Who didn’t enjoy “Rock me sexy Jesus?”
Then again, the Botwins have engaged in some Jewish religious practices over the years. Mainly Bubbie’s shiva and baby Steven Ray Botwin’s bris. We see religion infiltrating our politics but not so much our entertainment…or am I wrong? I’m kind of at a loss for this one.

You can't be a lesbian just because you're fat

In this scene Celia hits on two things; weight and sexuality. In American society there are definitely preferred sides to both of those categories. Our pop culture clearly tells us to be skinny. I can’t watch TV for an hour without seeing at least 5 weight loss supplement commercials. I’ve never scene a Cosmo, Seventeen, Vanity Fair, or Vogue cover featuring a woman over 135 lbs. And leading male and female characters in the movies I watch are hot 99% of the time. As for sexuality, lesbians and gay men are portrayed more often in the media recently. However, they are more than often the extreme character, someone put in for comic relief. Rarely are they leading characters (I am happy to say there are more and more exceptions to this lately).
Celia Hodes is taking the “equipment for living” she’s been fed by the media and putting her daughter Isabelle up to these standards. Celia has always been on Isabelle’s case about her weight. Calling her Isabelly, putting laxative chocolate bars in place of Isabelle’s secret stash of real chocolate bars, and refusing to let her model for Huskaroo’s plus size children’s clothing are just a few examples. And now Isabelle pisses her mother off even more by being lesbian.
Celia’s excuse for her own behavior, as she continually tells her husband Dean, is that she wants Isabelle to have a better life. In this country, the beautiful people get ahead. Some may say it’s a myth, but it’s actually true. I’ve learned from several of my communication classes that attractiveness (which includes weight) affects how other people think of you. According to the “what is beautiful is good” hypothesis, when people are attractive other positive qualities are associated with them. People automatically assume that a more attractive person is nicer, smarter, more interesting etc. The media is partially to blame for the pressure we all feel to look good; however, some of our prejudice against unattractive people starts at birth. In research done by Alan Slater, babies as young as one day old became more fixated with pictures of attractive human faces than unattractive ones. Other studies show that attractive people get better jobs and higher salaries. Even teachers subconsciously give attractive students (of all ages) more attention in the classroom.
So is it really so wrong for Celia to put pressure on Isabelle to lose weight? Or what about pressuring her to be straight? We all can see that the gay community has a lot of haters. People put obstacles in their way that make there lives harder, including the U.S. government.
I’m still going to go with NO. A resounding NO. Research also shows that children who feel that their parents are disappointed with them/don't love them get screwed up for life! Kids need love not ridicule! Celia is hilarious, but she’s an absolute nightmare of a mother. I love the later seasons when Isabelle starts to get even.

There were no weapons of mass destruction!

In this episode Andy gets a letter from the Army telling him that they’re sending him to Iraq. Just before this scene, Andy admits to Doug that he signed up for the Army Reserves to impress a girl a long time ago. This makes perfect sense, because we all know that Andy Botwin is no hero. Through out the episode Andy tries to find a way out of his predicament. First, he considers marrying a man. At one point, he asks Nancy to cut off his big toe (he chickens out when he realizes she’ll actually do it). Finally he decides to go to Rabi school. Apparently that exempts a person from service.
I like this particular clip because it’s hilarious and because it shows us a different, less shallow, side of Andy. He actually has some opinions about politics and he doesn’t want to fight in a war that is contributing to the “corporate take-over of America”.
In a scene later in the episode Andy is floating face down in the pool. Nancy hits him in the head with a beach ball and asks,
“What the hell are you doing?”
Andy- “Practicing to be dead in case I go to Iraq.”
Nancy- “There is very little water in Iraq.”
Andy- “Then I’ll float in a pool of blood. Or oil. Whatever they’ve got, I’m ready to float.”
I love Weeds because the writers aren’t afraid to make statements, take sides, or take risks. Usually it’s the shows on HBO and Showtime like Weeds that get a little more courageous with their political commentary. The only network show that comes to mind is Boston Legal (love that one too). This episode came out in 2005. This was right after Bush was re-elected and still relatively popular with at least half of the country. So, this little dialogue was a pretty bold statement. I see it as a reflection of the democrats’ frustration that Bush actually got elected to a second term.
In this scene Doug represents the stereotypical stupid American-blindly going along with whatever his government wants him to believe. He defends the war without actually knowing what the hell he’s talking about. There were tons of “Dougs” tricked into believing there were weapons of mass destruction and terrorists hidden in Iraq. Since finding out that neither one was true, people have just been accepting the new excuses. It’s not exactly popular to be into politics. Some people don’t concern themselves with it at all. To them, politics don’t matter until a policy directly affects them. Start a war-I don’t care, keep gays and lesbians from getting married-I don’t care, but you try to take away my gun and I will start a revolt! People like that absolutely infuriate me and I’m glad someone said something about it. Thanks Weeds :)

Lupita owns Doug and Andy

Lupita is a great character. I really miss her in the later seasons. This hilarious clip is an excellent representation of her. Even though Lupita is a housekeeper/nanny for the Botwins she is, in a way, so above them all. She's kind of the only sane one in the sea of idiots-Doug and Andy being prime examples.

It's pretty obvious that Lupita is living up to a stereotype. Housekeepers are typically minorities or foreigners in TV land. I'd say 50 percent of the time they are, in fact, Latina. The people they work for are also typically white. So why would a more liberal/unconventional show like weeds fall into this racist trap? Lupita is Mexican, she's cleaning a white woman's house, her cousin is a drug dealer, and she watches telenovela. You may think...come on Weeds! Not cool! But the way they present it all is actually kind of great. An intelligent audience member will recognize that the stereotypes surrounding Lupita are so in-your-face that they are meant to be a joke. It points out how ridiculous the stereotypes are. Her character is a satire in itself.

And, like I said, Lupita isn't just some cleaning lady running around in the background like we see in shows like the O.C. or Gossip Girl. She's a key character and shows everyone who's boss. Like when she finds out that Nancy is selling pot. She hands the stash over to Nancy and says, "I want a raise." And she doesn't clean a thing ever again. She just stays and watches the madness unfold :)

Weeds Intro

This video was the introduction to Weeds for the first 2 seasons. The video doesn't introduce any characters and it's not your typical montage of clips from the season. The intro simply introduces us to the town of Agrestic, where the Botwins live.

Agrestic is a fictional suburb of Los Angeles, where everyone is upper middle class, works out, drinks coffee, has a respectable job, drives an SUV, etc. It's funny to think of adults as wanting to fit in. It sounds so high school, but that desire to feel "normal" lasts a life time for some people. In fact, I can think of several towns that are just like Agrestic. Well maybe the intro is slightly exagerated. It's like conformity on steroids actually, but you get the point.

I might go as far as saying that Agrestic represents middle to upper-middle class America in general. If you listen to the lyrics, one of the lines reads "and the people in the houses all went to the university, where they were put in boxes and they came out all the same." I think that's a fairly accurate statement. You go to college and you're expected to graduate, get a good job, buy a home, start a family, put your kids in good schools blah blah blah. For an individualistic society, I think Americans have a generally narrow view of success. I like to feel that we've moved passed the whole white-picket fence ideal of society from the 1950's and 1960's (when this some was written) but based on towns like Agrestic, I'd say many people haven't.

The intro even comments on the smaller trends of modern day society. When all the business men are shown coming out of the"It's a Grind" coffee shop, who didn't instantly think of Starbucks? Maybe its just me, because I used to work there. But seriously, there are places where 2 Starbucks will be right across the street from each other and still do great business. We're obsessed.

Then there's the comment on America's obsession with body image. We see it when all the guys are running outside in the same workout gear. In another version of the intro they show the housewives out running too.

Then there's the Range Rovers, commenting on our obsession with luxury SUV's and America's addiction to oil...I could go on forever. Several of these trends will be addressed in actual epsiodes.

Anyway, my favorite part of the intro is the end when we see the shadow of a marijuana leaf on the sidewalk. It reminds me that although people may look the same on the outside, we all have our secrets. Obviously we're not all drug dealers like Nancy, but things do tend to get interesting behind closed doors.

My blog

Weeds is my favorite TV show of all time! Season 5 wrapped up at the end of the summer and Season 6 won’t start up until May. So, in the meantime, I’ve decided to analyze some of Weed’s commentary on contemporary society. If you haven't seen it already I'll give you a brief idea of the show’s premise. The main character is Nancy Botwin. When Nancy’s husband passes away and leaves her stranded with two boys in suburbia, Nancy starts selling weed to make money. The five seasons that follow include all of the shenanigans that she finds herself, her family, and her weed dealing/smoking friends getting into. The writers and producers of this show, in addition to being comedic geniuses, also make some interesting statements about pop culture today. For the next few months I plan on sharing some of my insights and criticisms with you. I may look at specific episodes, characters, quotes, and whatever else moves me. If anything, I hope I can inspire people to watch!