“Weeds” — Doing the Backstroke
The finale of Weeds second season was so crazy in its desire to have every single character in what appeared to be an inescapable life and death cliffhanger, I found going into tonight’s season premiere I was far more interested in how the writers would get themselves out of this painted-then-nailed into a corner predicament than what the future held for our beloved characters. After all, aside from Peter the DEA agent, no one has really been that badly hurt — well, Andy did get his toes bitten off, but it seemed to be in good fun. To my great relief, 30 minutes into this new season we aren’t even remotely close to solving the problems that plagued our characters in the last. Nor should we. The full details after the break…
We start off, like we always do, with the kind of annoying, though always interesting, cover of “Little Boxes,” this time by Randy Newman. For a credits sequence, this is one of the best — even if the social commentary from early in the series run has been replaced (rightfully) with madcap zaniness. Surburbia as “a place with infidelity, drugs, nihilism and the occasional fire arm” has been done to death. We get it. Now, Suburbia as a real-life Tex Avery cartoon complete with rival gangs, idiot husbands, an enormous eskimo, Zooey Deschenal, and the million expressions of Mary Louise Parker — now that’s something. That’s a show I want to watch.
After the opening titles we’re led back to the pot-house by a family looking to use the restroom. Nancy and Conrad and being held up by several automatic weapons by two gangs. Conrad is given little to do this episode. This is OK. Nancy is released so that she can get the pot out of Silas car — a car taken by Elizabeth Perkin’s deliciously evil (or just deliciously fed up) Celia. She takes with he one member of each gang — the big guy, whose name I don’t know, is priceless (”get out of the car!”).
The biggest gems of the episode came in the form of Kat and Shane’s exodus to Pittsburgh. He, to get away from his family. Her, to get away from Abumchuk (sp?). Though none of this matters as she up and decides to leave Shane at a truck stop (with the van), after meeting a guy named Bear. This leads to a great exchange about how Shane should drive back home, despite the fact that he’s, um, nine. I also noticed here that the series is going to have to stretch out their time line a little as compressing a days worth of events over a nine month hiatus isn’t so conducive to the growth habits of a prepubescent boy. Perhaps the producers should just fracture his growth plates to keep him at the current level of cute. Of course the site of him driving the van around a truck-stop parking lot while sitting on a stack of telephone books and with cans strapped to his feet was about all you needed to see to realize the social commentary had been axed long ago.
Somewhere here in the middle is a totally weird series of scenes involving Doug and Dean and their “You F’d my wife” argument, which starts violent, then gets hateful, then gets maybe a little sad, then ultimately ends up in them raiding the medicine cabinet and getting totally plastered while wearing facial masks before depantsing and comparing the equipment to solve a bet. Funny.
One interesting dramatic choice I noticed. The mention of Peter (the DEA agent, who is presumed dead) stops Nancy cold and provides the one moment of levity in the episode. Again, the show couldn’t be sillier, but it’s nice to know that they don’t live in a world without consequence (like Entourage). People can be hurt by the decisions that are made. It’s an interesting juxtaposition for the rest of the madness that seems pulled right out of Saturday morning (albeit a Saturday morning with way more swearing and questionable behavior by adults).
Ultimately, Celia finds the pot and dumps it in the pool causing much gnashing of teeth among those people with automatic guns pointed at them.
If there were ever a show that was designed to grow on you over the long haul, it’s Weeds.
