Weeds: Season Three

i just happened to watch the first disc of this season last night and was disenchanted from episode one. i couldn’t agree with your insights more—the show has gone from being clever (albeit arch), to pithy and plot-driven. with generally unlikeable characters (imagine how much we’d like nancy if she looked like, say, an actual human being and not a celestial being?) doing generally unlikable things, i also found myself unmoved by the series attempts at sympathy-tugging. (i’m thinking of the scene where nancy sits on the stairs as shane tells her he’s proud of her...it wasn’t a sad inversion of their roles as much as pathetic evidence of nancy’s neediness and general selfishness as a mother).

why does this happen to good shows? because good shows shouldn’t run longer than two seasons. evidently on american tv, it’s impossible to construct an indefinite narrative arc that relies on character and tone rather than guns and nonsense. for all of their attempts at being HBO, this series and californication have proved that showtime is merely engaged in a souless pantomime with good-looking people. jenji kohan handed them a diamond and they scrubbed it until it turned into a turd.

Comment by d.burnett from California — June 27, 2008 @ 11:20 am

While I wouldn’t agree with everything you said - I still find the show enjoyable enough that I’ll buy the fourth season when it comes out - I have to agree with a lot of it. I actually told my friend after watching the third season that it didn’t qualify as a comedy anymore. Instead it’s become darker and more ridiculous simultaneously. Seriously, a military that would send two recruits to the middle of nowhere to aim missiles at them? A man almost murdered by a group of bikers who only survives because animals kept pissing on him? An overweight lesbian model who has to be one of the most obnoxious and unlikeable characters ever created? No wonder Elizabeth Perkins character is such a bitch - if I was her, I’d buy her ex-husband and daughter a house in Amityville and lock them in.

Season two was great - the idea of everyone working together to grow a cash crop was perfect. Season three revolved around the main character trying to escape slavery (always good for a laugh or two) while her family went straight to hell.

Still, I can’t help but hope that season four bounces back. Yes, American television runs far too long, d.burnett, but sometimes shows can bounce back (in its fourth season, Desperate Housewives finally returned the show to the level it lost in the second and third seasons).

Comment by Tommy Marx from Portland OR — June 28, 2008 @ 5:45 pm