Monday, October 12, 2009

Watching Weeds Television

By Dan Levine

One American comedy-drama that has been making a hit recently is the popularly known show "Weeds". This show is created by Lionsgate television under the supervision of a woman called "Jenji Kohan".

Weeds' plot is basically about a housewife whose husband dies suddenly and thus must find a way to make money and continue her affluent suburban lifestyle. She becomes her neighborhood's marijuana dealer in order to keep her income up and continue her lifestyle.

Weeds, the tv series' name, means both the plant that the protagonist sells (marijuana) as well as "widow's weeds" which is the type of clothing one wears when one becomes a widow. Some also point out that Weeds is a good metaphor for the suburban community which grows quickly like a weed and which involves many houses and people who are indistinguishable like weeds.

Weeds' opening theme song is called "Little Boxes" which is played along with images of many small houses in a typical American suburban neighborhood. This is to further enforce the weed like mentality that was spoken about in the preceding paragraph.

Weeds has five seasons as of date and made its debut in 2005. It is Showtime's highest rated series during its first year playing and it is the channel's definite success. The season has attracted 962,000 viewers on average.

1.2 million viewers and an additional 500,000 for the rerun later that night meant that the season 5 premier was a definite success and with a total viewership of 1.7 million, it is safe to say that the Showtime channel was probably quite happy.

The exteriors for the show are shot mainly in California in the Santa Clarita Valley region. Some other shots are taken in Calabasas, California.

Nancy Botwin is the protagonist who is the housewife whose husband dies. She lives the typical affluent suburban life style in a very nice neighborhood where one wouldn't think much about drugs or other seedy type activity. However, after her husband's quick death while out jogging, she must find a way to make ends meet which leads her to begin selling marijuana to her neighbors and friends. Later on, she must continue to expand her customer base which brings on more challenges and obstacles.

Celia is Nancy's best enemy and friend. She is in a marriage that is particularly unhappy which may explain why she is so attracted to various vices like alcohol and trying to take others down in order to "teach them a lesson". However, her friend/enemy status is interesting in contrast to Nancy.

Weeds' Season 1 begins with Nancy's husband dying which is the catalyst for the basis of the show which involves Nancy entering the marijuana dealings to keep her affluent suburban life alive.

Both of Nancy's children attend public school but for Nancy to live and keep going on in her upper middle class lifestyle, she has to make ends meet and this involves her entrance to the marijuana market when she begins to sell to her friends and neighbors.

When some customers of Nancy's begin to go to a marijuana dispensary, Nancy is forced to become innovative and thus uses her baking skills to make delicious baked goods in order to sell her inferior marijuana. She later goes on to open a bakery as a cover up. She buys baked goods from Costco and puts them on the shelves as her own in order to cover this up.

Weeds is a very good television show and if the plot and characters seems like something that you might like, you should definitely check out Showtime and see the show for yourself. If you cannot watch it right now, you can at least look at the clips and other videos online about the show by searching for "Weeds" in any search engine. - 2361

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