"Weeds" continues creator and executive producer Jenji Kohan’s absurdist tale of suburban survival; an off-kilter yarn that takes the perfectly cast Mary Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin, and weaves us through her sketchy high wire of a life, post-widowhood.
Mary Louise Parker - The 59th Annual Primetime EMMY Awards - Arrivals - Shrine Auditorium - Los Angeles, CA, USA © Glenn Harris / PR Photos
Nancy dives deeper into the lucrative world of marijuana dealing, and by this time all her family and even neighbors are in on the deal. Nancy just keeps upping the ante and rationalizing the deed while trying to keep a roof over her family’s head, and resume some semblance of a sex life while keeping herself out of prison.
Last season ended with the pragmatic Nancy on the run after proactively torching her house before a ravenous southern California wildfire consumed it anyway.
Her grow house operation has been busted, Celia, (Elizabeth Perkins) is singing like a canary to the cops and pot partners in crime Conrad (Romany Malco) and Heylia (Tonye Patano) have just disappeared from the scene.
Nancy and Celia
Season four of the fearless Showtime series has a cavalcade of delicious surprises, and guest star casting that includes Albert Brooks as Lenny, Nancy’s less than enthusiastic degenerate gambling father-in-law.
He is amazingly vindictive and vile, ruing his dead son Jonah’s “Not Francie” choice of a mate, as he clucks over the goyishe punims of his grandchildren, save for Shane (Alexander Gould) who reminds him of his side of the family.
Change is afoot at the circle K of the Botwin family saga.
Agrestic is now behind them; the beachside San Diego County home of Lenny conveniently near the border is the frame of Nancy’s ramped up commitment to dealing drugs; she is playing with more fire.
Last season saw Nancy's breakout sexuality blossom: Her steamy direct moment with Matthew Modine’s character Sullivan Groff in a great desk top seduction, and her hot grappling with Conrad. Also foreshadowed was her Mexican mafia potential lover and business partner Guillermo, who first entices Nancy in her infamous “brick dance” pool table scene. Nancy is primed for lots of love this season.
We also see more of Andy (Justin Kirk) and Doug’s (Kevin Nealon) antics, as they provide comic relief along with Celia’s scorned husband, Dean Hodes (Andy Milder). Nealon is an astute comedic actor, and his scenes always kill.
Also keeping up her profile is the prickly Celia (Elizabeth Perkins), in the clink the first couple of episodes as she tries to convince the cops it's Nancy they want. One scene where she begs Dean and her daughter to get her out is a genius visual sight gag, as Celia has had an unwanted Chola prison makeover foisted upon her by a new cellmate and “special friend.”
Season four of "Weeds" is going to bring lots of surprise to fans, but welcome ones with a still familiar thematic feel despite the different location and ridding of the little boxes.
“Weeds” is one of the best series on television.
This Monday, June 16 on Showtime.
Grade: A Not for the impressionable, a grown up series. Sex, nudity, drugs, language
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