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Which Weeds Season Finale Is Your Favorite?

BuzzSugar — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:30:20 -0700

Last night Weeds said goodbye to season five with another classic cliffhanger, and as usual I can't believe I'll have to wait a year to see the aftermath. The show has had its up and downs, but it has never failed to make my jaw drop come finale time. Over the years there have been some truly shocking episodes, but which Weeds season finale is your favorite?

Photo courtesy of Showtime

TV Tonight: Weeds and Nurse Jackie

BuzzSugar — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:30:15 -0700

"The Hemptress" is back - and this time, she's bringing a friend. Weeds returns to Showtime tonight to start its fifth season, and the network is using that opportunity to launch a high-profile and intriguing new series, Nurse Jackie.

I'm especially curious to see what this season of Weeds will hold considering the total transformation the show undertook last year. (Yes, this would be your cue to stop reading if you haven't seen season four.) The show officially shed Nancy's roots as a small-time suburban dealer, moving the show to the Mexican border and plunging Nancy into a relationship with a powerful Mexican mayor-slash-drug lord. Now, Nancy's told Esteban she's pregnant with his child; when season five starts, that baby seems to be the only thing keeping her family out of serious danger.

Following Weeds, we'll get our first look at Nurse Jackie, one of the more interesting new series to come along in a while. The show stars Edie Falco as a nurse with a drug habit and a very particular sense of justice (for example, the first episode involves a scene where she flushes a patient's ear down the toilet). Jackie's attitude is probably best summed up by her mantra - "Make me good, God, but not yet" - and the episodes I've seen are both smart and darkly funny.

Will you be tuning into either show tonight? To watch some behind-the-scenes clips of both shows, just read more.

Photos courtesy of Showtime

Was This Season of Weeds as Good as the Others?

BuzzSugar — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:30:41 -0700

Showtime's Weeds wrapped up its fourth season on Monday. The show shook things up this time around, leaving behind suburbia for a new life on the Mexican border - not to mention ditching its signature "Little Boxes" theme (and Conrad!). Did you think Weeds was as good this time? Or did it suffer without the Agrestic/Majestic setting?

Photo courtesy of Showtime

TV Tonight: Weeds

BuzzSugar — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 05:45:29 -0700

Weeds is starting its fourth season tonight by burning the show's whole premise to the ground. This is definitely not the same show where latte-sipping Nancy Botwin got into small-time drug slinging to hold on to her lifestyle after her husband's death. All of that is gone now: the luxury, the lattes, and even the relatively innocent Nancy who just happened to get caught up in something way over her head.

I know many of you are just catching up on earlier seasons, so I'll save any discussion of the specifics of season four - I've seen the first two episodes - till after the jump. If you're ready for a few details on the new season, just read more.

When the season starts, Nancy and the rest of the Botwin clan are headed for the border, where Judah and Andy's father lives and where Nancy realizes she can probably make some money by working in cahoots with Guillermo, the drug trafficker and recipient of Nancy's "brick dance" in season three. Meanwhile, back in the burning-to-the-ground Agrestic, Celia finds herself in jail taking all the heat for Nancy's growhouse - with no help from Doug or Dean, naturally.

Season four has a few major absences. Cosmetically, the "Little Boxes" theme song is gone after the first episode, as are the opening credits (which, like Agrestic itself, go up in smoke in the premiere). Harder to take is the loss of Conrad and Heylia, who were such an important part of the show's tone in the first couple of seasons. Without them, the whole show feels darker and gloomier. In fact, the feel of the "brick dance" episode is a good reference overall: Nancy's no longer an innocent but a wiling partner in crime who keeps digging a deeper and deeper pit for herself and her family.

I admire the show's producers for trying to literally burn everything down and start fresh for the fourth season, but after the first two episodes, I'm not sure how successful the experiment will be. Albert Brooks is a welcome addition as Nancy's surly father-in-law, but the material dealing with his aging mother mostly falls flat. Still, Weeds does a cliffhanger better than any other show on television, and the final two minutes of the second episode - the final episode Showtime sent me - brought back some of the magic. I'm definitely not ready to give up on Nancy Botwin yet.

Weeds starts at 10 p.m. EDT and PDT tonight. Here's a little taste of the season:

Photo courtesy of Showtime

First Look: Weeds Season Four

BuzzSugar — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:30:21 -0700

Ever since Nancy Botwin hopped on that scooter at the end of the third season of Weeds, I've been waiting to see what the writers would come up with for season four. The new season premieres two weeks from tonight, on June 16, and frankly, I'm still not entirely sure how it's going to look.

What news has slipped out about this season has been interesting, though some might find it troublesome. Without getting terribly spoiler-y: Nancy's living somewhere new, and Heylia and Conrad are no longer regular characters (where to go for my Romany Malco fix?). There's something to be said for reinventing a show in its fourth season - but will it be the same Weeds we know and love?

The video clip below, which has interviews and a few short scenes from the start of season four, doesn't necessarily answer that question - but it does whet my appetite for more. We see Nancy's new home, her new drink (diet root beer - presumably there's no It's A Grind where she's living now), and the new Botwin: her father, played by Albert Brooks.

The show's third season got mixed reactions (at least among my friends), but while I missed some of the lighter bits from earlier years, I still liked it enough to make the new DVD set one of my must-haves for this month and circle June 16 on my calendar. What about you? Will you be back for more, wherever the show might wind up? To check out the video, just read more.

Photo courtesy of Showtime

Buzz Brainteaser

BuzzSugar — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:30:23 -0700

Welcome to Buzz Brainteaser, the trivia feature on BuzzSugar! Every weekday I'll test your knowledge about TV shows, music and movies. If you enter in the correct answer, you win points! In what mid-90s movie did Mary-Louise Parker play Robin, a real-estate agent with a grave secret?

Source

Which Season of Weeds Is Your Favorite?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:25:14 -0800

Showtime's dark comedy Weeds wraps up its third season tonight (don't worry - it's already been renewed for a fourth). I didn't love this season at first, but the past few episodes have sucked me back in and made me wonder where everything will end up tonight - especially because few shows do cliffhangers better than Weeds. Overall, though, I still think season two was my favorite. How about you?

Photo courtesy of Showtime

TV Tonight: "Weeds" and "Californication"

BuzzSugar — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 07:30:00 -0700

Happy day! The return of "Weeds" - clearly a favorite here - is finally upon us tonight, as is the premiere of the highly anticipated David Duchovny comedy, "Californication."

I've chosen to remain blissfully unspoiled about the goings-on in the season premiere of "Weeds." I finished season two on DVD recently enough that the crazy cliffhanger still looms large in my mind, and I wanted to wait and see the resolution when everyone else did. (Granted, "everyone else" has probably either watched it online or downloaded those leaked episodes by now, but hey. It's the principle of the thing.)

I did check out the premiere of "Californication," though, in which Duchovny plays a sex-crazed, self-destructive novelist in a writing rut. My hopes were high for the show, but I ended up feeling a little disappointed, mostly because I felt like I'd seen everything done better on another series before. It seemed a bit like a paint-by-numbers version of a pay-cable show - a dash of expletives here, a shot of bare breasts there. Two things will keep me hanging around for at least a couple of episodes, though: 1) Duchovny himself, whose aloofness is amusing here, and 2) Madeleine Martin, who gets all the funniest lines as Duchovny's potentially screwed-up daughter.

To watch previews for both "Californication" and "Weeds," read more

Photos courtesy of Showtime

"Weeds" Preview and a Naked Mary-Louise Parker!

BuzzSugar — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:33:11 -0700

Two "Weeds" posts in one week?! It's intense, I know, but I couldn't resist writing about these "Weeds"-related things I came across today.

For starters, holy cow does Mary-Louise Parker look nice naked (and sure, there's probably some retouching going on, but still!). I actually feel a little dirty looking at this promotional shot for "Weeds," which you can see in full after the jump.

What's more, there's a 4-minute sneak peek in which the actors discuss some of what we can expect to see in the upcoming season of "Weeds" which starts August 13. Apparently, a whole new town moves in next to Agrestic... and it's called Majestic.

In this video they talk a lot about the major cliffhangers from the season finale of Season 2, so if you haven't yet seen those episodes, rent them and then you can check out this Season 3 preview (and the nude pic!) if you read more

What to Netflix: "Weeds" Season One

BuzzSugar — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 14:48:34 -0800

It is so great to see Showtime's "Weeds" nominated for a couple of SAG awards (Mary-Louise Parker for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series and the stellar cast for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series). I recently Netflixed the first season of "Weeds" and I am totally loving it. The writing is superb - including the dialogue, which is where so many shows fall short.

Even more spectacular is the casting, as I can't even imagine better actors playing any of these characters. Mary-Louise Parker is sarcastic yet sympathetic as Nancy Botwin, a suddenly widowed mother of two who starts selling marijuana to the wealthy soccer moms and dads in her suburban community of Agrestic, Calif. She gets to know her dealers, a family governed by the steely, sassy mama Heylia James, played with strength while somehow avoiding cliche by Tonye Patano. Heylia's nephew is the kindhearted (not to mention sexy) Conrad (Romany Malco), who becomes Nancy's ally in "the business."

Elizabeth Perkins is also fantastic as Celia Hodes, the catty, self-medicating housewife, who does things like berate her husband's mistress then buy her rounds of drinks because she's "a good listener." Kevin Nealon provides generous comedic relief as Doug Wilson, one of Nancy's best clients as well as her accountant.

Initially I was afraid this would be some kind of campy, silly comedy with no substance, but it's not at all, so read more

"Weeds" is remarkable in its ability to combine smart humor with poignant moments of loss, anxiety, and bitterness. Also, the use of music in the show is extremely impressive. I thought one person had written all of the music, because each song is so pitch-perfect for the scene with which it's paired. But according to the "Weeds" website, the music is not just performed but also written by a variety of artists, including Regina Spektor, Snoop Dogg, and The New Pornographers. All in all, the portrayal of this "perfect" town in which many of the most successful-seeming inhabitants lead double lives is refreshing and relatable.