Weeds Season 6 Preview

The new season of Weeds begins August 16th, and I was recently able to check out the first episode.

No one I know who likes Weeds speaks highly of seasons four and five, and it's easy to see why: the show began as a suburban comedy about a widowed wife who turns to selling weed to support her family, but at the end of the third season, the show decided to set suburbia literally up in flames and start anew with a bit of Mexican flare. Add some ganglords and a baby, and the lighthearted show many appreciated turned into a pitch black "comedy" about a woman who makes increasingly poor decisions*.

*In this respect, the show reminds me of Breaking Bad, as both main characters begin their stories as seemingly decent people who were forced into selling drugs as means to survive. Over the course of their respective shows, however, after being presented with plenty of opportunities to do the right thing for both themselves and their families, they choose to push forward into situations that bring them increasingly closer to their self-destruction. 


Fortunately, from the teaser trailer released by Showtime a few weeks ago, it looks like the Botwins might be separating themselves from the Mexicans, starting what is sure to be an arc-long chase resolving itself in the finale:



And the first episode seems to start these events in motion, with the family packing up their old life and separating the remaining ties to Ren Mar - essentially Andy breaking up with Alanis Morrisette and the rest of the family coming to terms with Shane's murder of Pilar. While everyone treats it lightheartedly, there wasn't much by way of big laughs throughout the episode, the jokes failing to connect under the dark cloud of Nancy coming to terms with how her life is about to change yet again, and why these things continue to happen to her. It's sad, because the audience can see why, and the it's frustrating to watch just how stupid this woman can be.

Regardless of how good or different seasons four and five may be in comparison to seasons one through three, I can't help but respect the brave decision to change the show's focus three years into a successful sitcom. It's a bit incredible to believe that in five years a nice suburban mother of two has become a drug smuggler on the lam from hitmen with her illegitimate child of a Mexican mob boss, a homicidal son, a different, drug-dealing son, and an infatuated brother-in-law. I partly watch because I'm invested this much time already, and partially because I hope it will get better. There's no way a person in real life would be able to escape this much peril time and time again, but if I wanted to watch real life, I'd turn on Shark Week.