Showtime’s original series “Weeds” boasts both Golden Globe wins and nominations, and just had its second season premiere Monday. Can you smell it? Marketing tactics to promote “Weeds” have included a scented strip on an ad in Rolling Stone Magazine that smells like “hippies and patchouli oil,” according to one MediaWorks employee.
Season one of “Weeds” hit viewers like a double perk with ice. Filled with ups and downs, “Weeds” brought a 30-minute roller coaster ride each episode. For those television audiences not up to date with “Weeds,” the show follows Nancy Botwin, a recently widowed woman living in Agrestic, California, where housing consists of sub-divisions full of little boxes that all look the same. After her husband’s sudden death of a heart attack, Nancy decides to go into business selling marijuana to sustain her lifestyle for her and her two children. Nancy learns about a family who sells marijuana in the “bad” part of town; they provide Nancy with her product, and she pushes it hard to the suburb of Agrestic.
Nancy once introduced herself as “the suburban bareness of bud.”
Nancy’s clients include a wide array of Agrestic residents, such as Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon), a questionable CPA who also sits on the city council. Other stoner suburbanites looking to relax and forget where they live flock to Nancy’s business, which quickly turns lucrative.
As for Nancy’s life at home, her children are still coping with their father’s death, and the now rather dysfunctional household they live in: Housekeeper Lupita is aware of Nancy’s drug business and has job security for life. Andy, the brother of Nancy’s deceased husband, lives with the family, occasionally delves into marijuana and is now studying to be a Rabbi to get out of going to Iraq (a few years back, he was drunk and signed up for the U.S. Army).
This week’s launching episode for the second season of “Weeds,” was predominantly catch-up. Viewers learn that Silas, Nancy’s oldest son is still with “the deaf girl down on Dewey St.,” Megan. Shane, Nancy’s younger son, is still observing everything he shouldn’t, such as in the first season when Silas came home high on Ecstasy and Shane just sat watching.
The new season begins with Nancy absent from her house, engaging in a sleepover with potential love interest Peter Scottson, a DEA officer. In this scene, The “Weeds” soundtrack is dead on, and artfully expresses characters’ feelings through music. When Nancy exits Peter’s house for her walk of shame home, “Fuck Was I” by Jenny Owen Youngs plays as Nancy realizes that she is sleeping with the enemy.
This season of “Weeds” is sure to bring a number of interesting plot lines, including Nancy’s endeavor into botany, and a fire at her “fakery” bakery, the shop that serves as a cover for Nancy’s true business. The fire may have been planned for insurance purposes (isn’t that so “Sopranos”?), but viewers will have to tune in to find out more.
A little mob, with a dash of stoner humor and an emotional story line that crosses every line. Marijuana might not be addictive, but “Weeds” certainly is.