TV Series: More on Weeds – unraveling the suspense and self-ref

One aspect I didn’t touch on yet concerning the various TV series that I have been reviewing is how the seasons dovetail (or not) into each other. Many of the series – Dexter, Justified, and Treme to name a few – pretty much wrap up the season on the last episode and things start fresh (with some throwbacks naturally) the following season. Other series – Weeds, Nurse Jackie, especially Breaking Bad – leave you hanging at the season finale and breathless for the following season to begin. So here I just want to look at how this happens in Weeds.

Season 1 ends with the creation of Nancy’s weed cartel so not that big of suspense leading into season 2 other than how things are going to play with Peter, her DEA husband. By the way, the Latino guy that Nancy slept with once and who was part of the cartel seems to disappear completely from the storyline after S01E13. Season 2 starts where S01 left off but is able to develop its own plot lines relatively quickly around the grow house and Nancy’s relationship with Peter. The end of the season is the cliffhanger in the aftermath of Peter’s death and the standoff between the Armenians and U-Turn. Season 3 needed about four episodes to unravel the end of Season 2 before its own plot around Guillermo and the death by fire of Agrestic. It ends, of course, with the meltdown and the flight of the Botwins who are spread out all over creation. Season 4 deals with the aftermath of Season 3 over the first 3 or 4 episodes before settling into the Esteban theme. When Nancy squeals on the tunnel in S04E13, it takes Season 5 about 4 episodes to get Nancy and Esteban back together and start on the new plot. This, of course, goes pear-shaped leading to Shane’s murder (in pre-emptive self-defense) of Pilar in the finale and once again the flight of the Botwins. In Season 6 (I am currently watching this one), it takes 6 whole episodes to deal with the rest of Esteban’s connections and the new identify of the Newmans before moving onto the plot.

My point is that sometimes perhaps they should get on with the story rather than diddling around with last year’s plot. What do you think?

Another interesting couple of dialogs in S06E06:

• the only slightly veiled reference to Dexter: concerning Shane “he’ll only turn into a serial killer that hunts other serial killers”. Now, tell me, if Dexter wasn’t on Showtime like Weeds is, would they have been able to make this comment in the script? Interesting self-ref there…
• when Andy calls Nancy out on being a lame drug dealer. This is interesting because despite her rise to being married to the head of the Mexican cartel, she really has done it by the skin on her teeth and more based on sex and seduction than any raw talent in drug dealing.
• the whole Andy being set free by Nancy thing: I have a feeling this means that they will indeed sleep together before the end of S06 but I thought the the interaction and dialog about their strange, platonic relationship was really well-written and poignant.
• and it is hard to believe that Silas is reading
  Infinite Jest

  by
  David Foster Wallace. I can barely get past page 10 and Silas who can barely read his driver’s license. Poetic justice that the stuck up bitch daughter is a junkie although how would she be so brilliant in school?