Weeds is a dark American comedy series created by Jenji Kohan and produced by Tilted Productions in association with Lionsgate Television.^[4] The central character is Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), a widowed mother of two boys who begins selling Cannabis to support her family after her husband dies suddenly of a heart attack. Over the course of the show, she and her family become more entangled in illegal activities.

The primary locale of the first three seasons is in the fictional town of Agrestic, California. During seasons four and five, the Botwins reside in the fictional beachside town of Ren Mar, California. During the sixth season, the family relocates to Seattle, Washington before moving to Dearborn, Michigan. In between seasons six and seven, Nancy serves a prison sentence in Danbury prison in Connecticut while her sons and brother-in-law live in Copenhagen, Denmark. At the beginning of season seven, Nancy moves into a recovery house in New York City where she reunites with her family. They live in Manhattan for the duration of the season, but relocate to Connecticut in the season seven finale.

The show debuted on the Showtime cable network on August 7, 2005, earning the channel's highest ratings. The debut of the fifth season had 1.3 million viewers, but rapidly declined as the season continued. The show's finale for season 7 only drew a .56 rating, almost a 50% decrease in viewers since the season 5 debut episode.

In 2010, TV Guide Network bought the airing rights, providing an edited version of the show to audiences free of charge.^[5] The show has received numerous awards, including two Satellite Awards, one Golden Globe Award, Writers Guild of America Award, Young Artist Award, and an Emmy Award.

As of November 10, 2011, Weeds was renewed for an eighth season of 13 episodes, scheduled to premiere Sunday, July 1, 2012 at 10 PM ET/PT on Showtime.^[6][7]

Production[link]

Stevenson Ranch, California, a filming location for Weeds.

The show is inspired by crime series such as The Shield and The Sopranos, in the sense of the antihero serving as the protagonist while retaining their own moral code, which usually goes against the norms of society. The title, according to Kohan, refers "to a lot of things", including cannabis and widow's weeds; however, it mainly alludes to "hardy plants struggling to survive." The basic premise, as illustrated by the lyrics of the opening song from the first three seasons, satirizes how off-color characters struggle with fake suburban reality, in which everything is "all style, no substance".^[1][8] According to Kohan, she initially went to pitch the series for HBO and the network dismissed it. Robert Greenblatt invested in the show and Showtime later approved.^[9]

The exteriors for the show's first two seasons were shot almost exclusively in Stevenson Ranch, a suburban area of Santa Clarita Valley, California. The shot of the large fountain and Agrestic sign seen in the introduction of seasons 1–3 was shot at the corner of Stevenson Ranch Parkway and Holmes Place.^[10] The name "Stevenson Ranch" was digitally replaced with "Agrestic" initially (and with "Majestic" in later episodes). The overhead, satellite picture displayed at the beginning of the show's introduction (seasons 1–3) is of Calabasas Hills, a gated community in Calabasas, California. The shot of the "It's A Grind" coffee shop in the introduction (seasons 1–3) is of an It's A Grind in Castaic, California.^[11] The show was originally filmed at Red Studios, previously known as Ren-Mar studios.^[12] The show moved to Universal Studios Los Angeles for season 7, and is now mentioned on the studio tour. A version of this Wikipedia page served as the introduction for the season 5 episode titled "Where the Sidewalk Ends".

Jenji Kohan, whose credits include Tracey Takes On..., Mad About You, and Sex and the City, is the executive producer of the series alongside Roberto Benabib, of Little City fame.^[13][14] More specifically, Kohan and Benabib serve as showrunners and production leaders. Kohan is also the head writer as she has written each season's premiere and finale episode. Writer Matthew Salsberg and director Craig Zisk have joined the production team as executive producers in later seasons.^[1][5][15]

Plot[link]

For the seasonal plots, see Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4, Season 5, Season 6 and Season 7.

Series outset[link]

Nancy Botwin is a single mother who lives in Agrestic—a fictional suburb of Los Angeles—with her two children Silas (aged 15) and Shane (aged 10). A few weeks before the series' pilot, the untimely death of her husband Judah, who died of a heart attack while jogging with their younger son^[16] leads to Nancy selling cannabis in order to support her upper middle class lifestyle. The series follows the ups and downs of Nancy's life as she gets drawn into the criminal system, developing a client base, starting a front to hide her selling, creating her own strain of weed called MILF, and trying to stay out of jail and protect her children. Together with them, her brother-in-law Andy and financial adviser Doug Wilson and others, Nancy gets into all kinds of trouble but mostly seems to pull through in the end.

Cast and characters[link]

The leading character is Nancy Price Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), a housewife from southern California who becomes a pot dealer after her husband Judah (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) dies. Although her drug-dealing career only achieves mixed success, she eventually rises to the highest levels of an international drug-smuggling cartel. Nancy remarries twice during the series. First, she has an under-the-radar wedding with Peter Scottson (Martin Donovan), a DEA agent, who was later killed. In later seasons, she marries Esteban Reyes (Demián Bichir), the fictional mayor of Tijuana and leader of a cartel, who is also murdered by the seventh season. Nancy also establishes a long-term relationship with Zoya, a woman convicted for burning her boyfriend alive.

Throughout most of the show, Nancy lives with Judah's brother Andy Botwin (Justin Kirk). When Andy arrives in Agrestic, he is little more than a fun-loving slacker without any direction in his life, and Nancy views him as a personal burden. However, he later emerges as the primary father figure in the Botwin household. He falls in love with Nancy during the fourth season but eventually realizes that she will never return his feelings. Instead, Nancy manipulates Andy's emotions to keep him in the family. When he is not helping the family, Andy engages in a laundry list of business ventures ranging from marijuana dealer to bicycle salesman.

Nancy begins the series with two sons, and post-Judah's death, they are raised haphazardly. The elder, Silas (Hunter Parrish), who was sexually promiscuous since the show's debut, later follows in his mother's footsteps as a cannabis dealer, grower, and dispensary operator. Shane (Alexander Gould) is an intelligent boy who is poorly socialized and deeply affected by his father's death. Moreover, he was bullied in his local public school during the first three seasons, and he begs for and rarely receives attention from his mother. His psychological issues reach a critical level many times. Just before leaving Agrestic, Shane has conversations with his dead father. Upon moving to Ren Mar, Shane loses his virginity and becomes a temporary alcoholic. He later executes Esteban's dangerous ally Pilar with a croquet mallet by the pool deck, as she had a hostile discussion with Nancy and threatened her sons' lives. In the fifth season, Stevie Ray Botwin (portrayed by uncredited babies) was born to Nancy and Esteban.

Celia Hodes (Elizabeth Perkins) was Nancy's friend and principal antagonist. She is obsessed with her personal image and alternatively manipulates or ignores those around her that do not fit neatly into that image. She has a distasteful marriage with Dean (Andy Milder), whom she regards as a "loser asshole"; they eventually divorce. Many other characters also despise her. Her older daughter, Quinn (Haley Hudson), kidnaps her as revenge for shipping her to a reform school in Mexico. She is demanding and manipulative over her younger daughter Isabelle's (Allie Grant) "weight problem" and is critical over her sexual orientation. By the end of season one, she has breast cancer and is cured with chemo therapy.

Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon) begins the series as an accountant and city councilman for the town of Agrestic. Doug is friends with many characters in the series including Andy, Dean and Sanjay Patel (Maulik Pancholy); all four aid in Nancy's career as a marijuana retailer. However, due to poor choices and misfortune, Doug loses his privileged lifestyle and his marriage to his wife Dana. He becomes a drifter who follows the Botwin family during seasons four through six until settling in New York City as chief accountant for a Ponzi scheme posing as a hedge fund.

The show has a changing cast of major supporting characters. Heylia James (Tonye Patano) and her family — Conrad and Vaneeta, portrayed by Romany Malco and Indigo — play a key role during the first three seasons. They are wholesalers who supply marijuana to Nancy, who in turn distributes to retail customers. Conrad later develops his own strain of marijuana (MILF weed) from which Nancy sells. Season 3 features Sullivan Groff (Matthew Modine), an unethical, womanizing real estate developer with big plans for Agrestic. When Nancy moves to Ren Mar, the characters in Esteban's drug cartel take a leading role, primarily Cesar (Enrique Castillo), Ignacio (Hemky Madera), and Guillermo (Guillermo Díaz), the latter first appearing in season 3. Other key characters included Nancy's housekeeper, Lupita (Renée Victor); rival drug dealers; over one dozen law enforcement characters; the romantic interests of Andy, Silas, and Shane; and the residents of Agrestic and Ren Mar. This trend continues during the sixth season; however, as the story sees Nancy on the run, most introduced characters have only minor roles and only appear in one or two episodes. An exception to this is Warren Schiff (Richard Dreyfuss), who also has an affectionate love for Nancy after being her math teacher in high school. When the Botwins and Doug settle in New York City, another set of supporting characters emerge.

Episodes[link]

As of September 27, 2011, 89 original episodes of Weeds have been produced and broadcast. The first season began August 8, 2005 and consisted of 10 episodes. The second season premiered on August 14, 2006, airing 12 episodes. The third season debuted on August 13, 2007, airing 15 episodes. The fourth season began June 16, 2008, the fifth season on June 8, 2009, and the sixth in August 2010, each with a total of 13 episodes. The seventh season began airing on June 27, 2011.

In 2006, before Season 2 started airing on Showtime, the first few episodes were leaked online.^[17] Before the third season began, the first two episodes appeared online on July 22, 2007 (nearly a month before the August 13 premiere date). The third episode appeared online on July 24, with the fourth appearing just three days later. The fourth episode was, however, an incomplete version—among other things, some dubbed lines were not complete (notably part of a voice mail message by U-Turn is spoken by a distinctly different actor), and a card simply reading "End Credits" was inserted instead of the actual credits. On August 1, 2010, the first episodes of season 6 leaked online. Due to the high quality of the leaked episodes, downloaders of the torrents speculated that they were leaked intentionally to garner interest in the show and to create internet buzz.^[17] Episode leaks of other Showtime programs such as Californication and Dexter were seen as giving weight to this theory.^[17]

Jenji Kohan has stated that she does not mind episodes being distributed on the internet in this way, saying, "Revenue aside, I don't expect to get rich on Weeds. I'm excited it's out there. Showtime is great, but it does have a limited audience."^[18]

Media[link]

Opening music[link]

"Little Boxes" is the opening song for the first three seasons of the show; the version recorded by the composer, Malvina Reynolds,^[19] is used during the first season. In seasons 2 and 3, the song is performed by various artists. In season 4, the Malvina Reynolds version opens the first episode. Thereafter, the original titles and music are replaced by a short clip, different for each episode, which bears relevance to the plot or some scene later in the episode. During the opening credits of the show's eighty-fourth episode, a woman is heard humming the tune to Little Boxes as she arranges knickknacks on a shelf. The song is also subtly referenced in Season 4 Episode 8 when Nancy sleepily tells Shane that he's going to "become a doctor or a lawyer or a business executive."

Soundtracks[link]

The music supervisors for the show include Gary Calamar (along with music coordinator Alyson Vidoli) (27 episodes), Amine Ramer (4 episodes), and Bruce Gilbert (3 episodes). The original score is provided by composers Brandon Jay and Gwendolyn Sanford.

DVD and Blu-ray releases[link]

The Region 1 Season One DVD is only available in 4:3 pan and scan format. The Region 2 and 4 releases are all in anamorphic widescreen. Season one was released on Blu-ray on May 29, 2007, and Season two was released on July 24, 2007. Both seasons include all episodes in 1080p widescreen with Dolby Digital EX sound and either DTS-HD (season one) or LPCM (season two), as well as extras exclusive to the Blu-ray release. Season three was released on Blu-ray on June 3, 2008. Seasons one to three on Blu-ray are multi-region discs; however, season four has been region-locked to region A only. This is due to a lack of broad international pick-up by non-US broadcasters at the time of release. This implies that Showtime does not wish to prejudice any future transmission rights negotiations by having the season available to own before it could be broadcast in the countries concerned.

In late 2009, Weeds seasons four and five have been aired in at least one region B country, namely The Netherlands.^{[24][dead link]} Subsequently, a region 2 DVD of Season 4 has indeed been released.^[25][26] However, the region 2 DVD release was not accompanied by a region B Blu-ray. Showtime has not commented on whether they ever anticipate releasing a region B Blu-ray version, or if any further non-US transmission rights are agreed. The same region locking has been applied to Blu-ray for season five.^[27] In November 2011, Seasons 2–5 were released on Region B Blu-ray in Australia with Season 6 Region B Blu-ray released December 16, 2011.^[28] Blu-ray season seven is now available.^[29]

An extra feature on the Season Two DVD was rejected by the British Board of Film Classification since it was regarded as "likely [...] to promote and encourage the use of illegal drugs".^[30][31]

Books[link]

On August 7, 2007, Simon Spotlight, a division of Simon and Schuster, published In the Weeds: The Official Guide to the Showtime Series by Kera Bolonik, which features interviews with the show's creator, its writers and crew, and the entire cast. It also features detailed character and plot descriptions, recipes, trivia and behind-the-scenes information.^[32]

Reception[link]

In its first year, Weeds was the highest rated series for Showtime. Its fourth-season premiere attracted 1.3 million viewers to Showtime, the channel's highest-ever viewership; the season as a whole averaged 962,000 viewers.

Slate magazine named the character of Nancy Botwin as one of the best on television and one of the reasons they were looking forward to the return of the show in fall 2007.^[33] TIME magazine's James Poniewozik named it one of the Top 10 Returning Series of 2007, ranking it at #9.^[34] The New York Times opined the show is "transforming for Showtime."^[35] Metacritic scored season two, four and five a score of 78, 67 and 73 respectively.

Awards and nominations[link]

Won[link]

Nominated[link]

Golden Globe Awards

Best TV Series-Comedy (2006, 2007, 2009)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-series, or TV Movie Elizabeth Perkins (2006): Best Performance by a TV Supporting Actress Elizabeth Perkins (2006, 2007)

Best Performance by a TV Actress in a Musical or Comedy Mary-Louise Parker (2005, 2007, 2008)

Best Performance by a TV Supporting Actor Justin Kirk (2007)

Screen Actors Guild

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Mary-Louise Parker (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)

Ensemble In A Comedy Series (2007, 2009)

Satellite Awards

Outstanding Actress in a Series-Comedy Elizabeth Perkins (2005)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-series, or TV Movie Elizabeth Perkins(2006)

Best Actress in a Series, Comedy or Musical Mary-Louise Parker (2006, 2008)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series, or TV Movie Justin Kirk (2007)

Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical (2007, 2008)

Emmy Awards

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Elizabeth Perkins (2006, 2007, 2009)

Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series Craig Zisk, for the episode Good Shit Lollipop (2006)

Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series (2006, 2007)

Outstanding Main Title Design (2006)

Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series, for the episode Good Shit Lollipop (2006)

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Mary-Louise Parker (2007, 2008, 2009)

Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series, for the episode Mrs. Botwin's Neighborhood (2007)

Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series, for the episode Crush Girl Love Panic (2007)

Outstanding Comedy Series (2009)

References[link]