I caught the season premiere of Weeds last night, thanks to an advance screener I was lucky enough to score.

I have to admit, I wasn’t that excited about the show’s June 8 return. Partly that’s because of the way the last season ended, with Nancy driving to Esteban’s lair and, in the face of certain death, revealing her pregnancy. I just couldn’t buy that she would take that chance or that it couldn’t end badly for her.

Since the show is indeed returning with Mary Louise Parker on Monday, it’s no great spoiler to say that in the season premiere he doesn’t shoot her on the spot. (And that’s about as spoilery as I plan to get here.)

The other reason I wasn’t giddy about the show’s return is that it’s gotten so far afield from its initial premise of a pot dealing suburban widow. Nancy Botwin has since gotten herself tangled in gun, drug and human trafficking not to mention organized crime. From the dealer down the street, she’s become something very different, both unfamiliar and unrelatable.

That’s too bad. Then again, there’s a reason I keep watching. It’s still a really well-written show with a mostly great cast of characters.  (I can do without the Botwin boys.) I can not like what’s happening but still like how it’s playing out.

That’s been my take for about two seasons, and it’s my take after watching the debut of Season 5, “Wonderful Wonderful.”

Read more of this entry »

So the Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations were released the other day, and the comedy match-ups are pretty familiar.

It’s not surprising the same names keep coming up in these contests, since there are so few comedies on TV these days.

As usual, Alec Baldwin and the cast of 30 Rock go up against Steve Carell and the cast of The Office in the Outstanding Actor and Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series categories, respectively.

There’s every possibility, however unfair, that Jeremy Piven and the cast of Entourage could send both home winless.My money’s on Baldwin and The Office. My heart is on Carell and 30 Rock.

Weeds is up in the comedy series category, too, as is star Mary Louise Parker for Outstanding Actress, though my heart and money are on Tina Fey, but only by a little.

The 15th Annual SAG Awards airs Jan. 25 on TNT and TBS.

Speaking of SAG, by the way, OfficeTally has sifted through and pulled out all the Office folks from the list of some 130 actors opposing a strike by the union. Really? After what a hoot last year’s WGA strike was?

One curious omission struck me: Jenna Fischer. Read more of this entry »

It all finally caught up with Nancy Botwin, and she was finally ready to put her head on the block to atone for her sins.

True to form, bad karma eludes our heroine. And we fans are left wondering what changes – of locale, criminal behavior and familial makeup – the next nine months will bring. All in all, though, last night’s season 4 finale of Weeds redeemed an uneven, unsettled summer of a show that risked everything by taking things in a new and not always accepted direction.

I think I can conclude now that the move to Ren Mar was understandable and possibly necessary from a creative perspective. That said, I never felt that the show recovered from abandoning its suburban home base, which was so integral to its identity.

But rather than the story about the banality of suburban drug dealing, we were treated to the story of the inevitable downward spiral that results from dabbling in the truly venal.

Selling pot was a way to get by, Nancy rationalized. And who would tell a recent widow facing the loss of her home and lifestyle for trying to sustain some semblence of normalcy for her children? But that rationale long ago gave way to a craving for danger the suburbanite mom might never otherwise taste.

And that was a fun ride for three escalating seasons. Read more of this entry »

If this was The Sopranos, Captain Till would have emptied a clip in Nancy’s face under that pretty trellis without saying a word.

But he’s not Silvio and she’s sure no Andrianna. In Ren Mar, unlike north Jersey, snitching apparently is not a capital offense.

I’ve said it before, and we’ve seen it again, there are few consequences in Nancy Botwin’s life. So she can turn to her old friend at the DEA to assuage the guilt she feels for running a front for a gun-smuggling and human trafficking operation. And you know what? It’ll probably work.

She’ll eliminate Guillermo as the ever-present threat he is to her and her family’s safety, and she’ll live to tell the tale just as surely as she survived U-Turn, her secret husband and every other pinch she’s gotten into. Esteban may know what she’s done—the previews hinted that Cesar is still lobbying Esteban against her—but I doubt she’ll put much of a crimp in his operation or earn herself a one-way trip to the Pine Barrens, as it were.

Things are winding down on this abbreviated season, and we know where things are headed. Read more of this entry »

Weeds is on the decline.

That’s my totally subjective assessment, based on little more than my vague impression after the last two episodes. I’m just not feeling it lately. Or anymore. I can’t tell which. All I know for sure is that when the credits roll, I’m not feeling this show.

Maybe the abandonment of Agrestic/Majestic finally caught up to Nancy Botwin, in my mind, anyway. Maybe it’s that I watched three seasons worth of episodes in four months and and all Weeds‘ed out.

Or maybe Weeds is just on the decline.

Read more of this entry »

Weeds kind of freaked me out last night.

Shane belongs in an insane asylum. There’s puberty and there’s lunacy. He crossed the line, hit the gas and kept going. Seriously, how’d that ever make it out of the writer’s room and onto the screen? I don’t care if your mom is Mary Louise Parker, that’s just not cool.

And no, I’m not going to spell out what that is.

Silas, on the other hand, gotta give props to the boy. He’s making the most of his connections in the retail cheese industry.

Honestly, though, has there been any more of a salacious storyline in this show’s four seasons in which Silas and Lisa, the neighbor cheese lady, become a hot and heavy item? Sure, they’re making it a business venture, and Silas does have a head for the business. But it still seems kind of gratuitous. Not that I’m complaining. It is fun to follow along. Read more of this entry »

It’s been an eventful two weeks on Weeds. I was on vacation and never got around to posting my reactions to last week’s episode. I’m back on the job, though, and this one was a doozie.

And you’ll be happy to know I finally got caught up with all the past episodes I’d missed. Man, Majestic/Agrestic burned up fast.

Anyway, remember when Ren Mar was this new place where the Botwins didn’t quite seem to fit? I can barely remember what it was like when it wasn’t home.

What was Nancy thinking when she went behind Guillermo’s back last week? We knew the seeds were sewn for her boredom early on, and a return to the weed-dealing game was coming soon. And I don’t know (or at least I don’t recall) what Guillermo’s problem was when he said no to her request for product to start dealing again.

I guess he was still mad about her foray into the tunnel, which didn’t reflect well on him with Esteban.

But going over Guillermo’s head to Esteban was only going to ruffle his machismo, as evidenced by his threat to kill her in front of her kids. I liked how Esteban handled that bit of business. I can’t imagine Guillermo thinks everything is settled, though. Read more of this entry »

Last night’s episode of Weeds tried to teach me two things I’d never suspected. First, there is a huge market for nice coyotes, unabusive types to help carry would-be immigrants illegally to the U.S.

Second, the Reform Movement is where all the really cool Jewish people are.

I will not vouch for the veracity of either claim, but I really do like the writing on this show. It’s snarky and hip without being snotty and condescending (as long as Andy isn’t on a political jag beyond his level of education).

At any rate, it isn’t just the repartee that is getting interesting. Life in Ren Mar is starting to find its own rhythm beyond being the fancy new locale for a show once rooted elsewhere.

Nancy has got the spelunking bug and can’t resists a forbidden tunnel stroll. Turns out that hole in her stockroom leads to the men’s room of the garage where Guillermo sent her to have her “taillight repaired.” She spots a dapper gentleman in a suit and his thugs spot her.

Read more of this entry »

This is going to be a quickie because it’s three days overdue (hey, the day job calls!), but this week’s episode of Weeds was the best so far this season.

Not only did it contrast with last week’s sleeper, which was only exciting for about the last 30 seconds, but it stood on its own as an awesome half hour of television.

Nancy Botwin is going into retail. Who saw that coming? I mean besides anyone who saw the previews last week. There’s been a lot of discomfort about this season and the abandonment of Agrestic and the surburban dealer-mom premise the show was built around. Well Ren Mar is the new Agrestic, and the maternity store/drug money front is certainly a new take on a familiar theme. Read more of this entry »

Emmy nominations were announced this morning, and the good news: Comedies like “30 Rock” and “The Office” are in the mix for best series, as well they should.

The bad: I swear the only reason “The Wire” isn’t among the best drama nominees is because lazy Emmy voters—i.e. most of them—never saw the show. Despite a phenomenal fifth and final season, it’s only up for one writing award. Its only other nomination, also for writing, was back in 2005.

Geez. Where’s the acting love for Lance Riddick (Daniels), Clarke Johnson (Gus), Michael K. Williams (Omar) or Sonja Sohn (Kima)? The only rationale for no acting nominations I can think of is that so many talented “Wire” actors have split the vote over the last five seasons.

“John Adams” led the Emmy nomination pack with 23, and “Mad Men” (17) and “Damages” (16) were the first basic-cable series to be up for top drama.

I’m sure you’ll hear more Emmy commentary from many of us in the weeks to come before the Sept. 21 broadcast, but here’s the crucial info you need to know.

Drama: “Boston Legal,” “Damages,” “Dexter,” “House,” “Lost” and “Mad Men.”

Comedy: “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Entourage,” “The Office,” “30 Rock” and “Two and a Half Men.”

Best actor—drama: Gabriel Byrne (“In Treatment”), Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”), Michael C. Hall (“Dexter”), Jon Hamm (“Mad Men”), Hugh Laurie (“House”) and James Spader (“Boston Legal”).

Best actress—drama: Glenn Close (“Damages”), Sally Field (“Brothers and Sisters”), Mariska Hargitay (“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”), Holly Hunter (“Saving Grace”) and Kyra Sedgwick (“The Closer”).

Best actor—comedy: Alec Baldwin (“30 Rock”), Steve Carell (“The Office”), Lee Pace (“Pushing Daisies”), Tony Shalhoub (“Monk”) and Charlie Sheen (“Two and a Half Men”).

Best actress—comedy: Christina Applegate (“Samantha Who?”), America Ferrera (“Ugly Betty”), Tina Fey (“30 Rock”), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (“The New Adventures of Old Christine”) and Mary-Louise Parker (“Weeds”).

And here’s the complete list of 2008 Emmy nominees.

UPDATE: More good news/bad news, this time in the category of best supporting actress in a comedy series. A long-overdue and well-deserved nod has been given to “Saturday Night Live’s” Amy Poehler, but how in the world is Jenna Fischer snubbed for her work on “The Office”? Instead, the category includes Jean Smart for “Samantha Who?” and Holland Taylor on “Two and a Half Men.” As Poehler herself on Weekend Update would say, “Really?!”

(Photo courtesy of Fox.)

I came across this brief but interesting interview with Jenna Fischer over at a blog called Shared Darkness in which she talks about her disdain for writing and directing.

If you’ve ever seen the film Lollilove – and I recommend it to Office diehards, at least – that was her one and only foray into those specialties. It’s a funny and weird little movie with her now estranged husband James Gunn. And apparently it jumpstarted her creatively but cured her of all but the acting bug.

Here’s what she had to say this week…

“I just learned from doing that film that I’m an actor,” she says. “I approach work very emotionally — like, what’s the emotion, what’s the relationship here? And that’s a part of being a director, but the director is also supposed to think about how things look, how to place things and visually paint a picture. And my brain just did not want to do it, it couldn’t paint the picture. Also, I didn’t want to think about it, because then when I had to go in and act, it made me very self-conscious. So I like having the tunnel-vision of just focusing on character and relationship and emotion. Directing hurt my brain; it’s just not big enough for it.”

“I’ll never do that again as well,” she said of writing. “It was horribly painful as well, I didn’t like it. What was great about doing the movie was how much I appreciate anybody who can conjure up something from nothing, anybody who can write or direct and tell a story visually, and any crew member, too. Directing a movie, you gain such an appreciation for what every person on the set is doing, and how things don’t happen in a vacuum, and that the actor isn’t the most important thing to the movie. They just aren’t. Sometimes you get treated like you are, but that’s just a way to baby you so that you stay calm and sedate. But you aren’t actually very important. And that’s a really good thing to know in Hollywood, to keep some perspective.”

Emmys look to be Office, Rock heavy

It’s a safe bet The Office and 30 Rock are going to do well at the 2008 Emmy Awards on Sept. 21. The nominations will be announced July 17, and the two shows are well represented among the semi-finalists.

Read more of this entry »

If there’s anything duller than watching a family and their competing real estate agents sit shiva for a week for the granny they just snuffed, it’s watching a pair of bumbling drug runners wait around in the desert for they don’t have clue what.

And that about sums up last night’s Weeds, which was only exciting for about the last 14 seconds when Nancy and Celia were reunited. Well, technically, Celia’s face was united with the garage floor of Guillermo’s hideout while Nancy stood jaw-dropped nearby.

But that’s when things got good. And then the credits rolled.

“The Three Coolers,” followed the Kevorkianization of Bubbie with the Jewish mourning ritual. I never knew it could last that long and, without having consulted a friend or Wikipedia, I suspect it was drawn out for dramatic effect.

Lenny cynically presided over the brood. Albert Brooks is playing the grumpy gramps so well, maybe too well because I’m really getting sick of the cranky codger.

Nancy is playing hooky from her new employment for the time-being. Guillermo’s reminder, a three-foot rose cross was a nice touch: insensitive yet gauche.

Read more of this entry »

So my co-worker tells me yesterday that his brother-in-law’s mother-in-law is the actress who plays Bubbie  on Weeds.

I guess I should say she’s the actress who played Bubbie, because after last night I’m guessing she’s looking for acting work. Still, a pretty neat little connection to what is becoming an ever more darkly humorous take on the issues of our day.

Last night’s episode, “The Whole Blah Damn Thing,”  took on euthanasia. I’m conflicted. I’m having a problem swallowing the moral lessons of a show that I’m not convinced is really trying to take a stand one way or another.

I mean, sure, there’s the overarching “pot isn’t so bad” theme, but when a soccer mom is having bricks of it crammed into her door panels — and a criminally unwelcome foreign national crammed under her back seat — I have to think a lot of the moralizing is tongue in cheek.

Read more of this entry »

For the first time ever, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is announcing the 10 finalists for the Best Comedy and Best Drama categories.

My personal choices for the top 5 in each are in bold. The top 10s are:

Top 10 Comedy Series Finalists

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Entourage
Family Guy
Flight of the Conchords (I’d love to see this win)
The Office
Pushing Daisies
30 Rock (I expect to win, as it did last year)
Two and a Half Men
Ugly Betty
Weeds

Top 10 Drama Series Finalists

Boston Legal
Damages (Probably will win)
Dexter
Friday Night Lights
Grey’s Anatomy
House
Lost
Mad Men
The Tudors
The Wire (If this doesn’t win, there is no justice.)

Yeah, I’m late. I promised my Weeds recap would go up last night, but I was too zonked to think, let alone type, coherently by 10:30 p.m.

OK, so anyway, the gigantic gap in my Weeds viewing may be affecting my judgment. I’m catching up thanks to NetFlix, but so far I’ve only seen Season One and the first half of Season Two.

Maybe that explains why I’m finding this incredibly dark turn so far this season so jarring. I like it, don’t get me wrong. I could watch Mary Louise Parker act, by turns, shifty, motherly, cavalier, driven and panicked all day long.

But cross-border drug trafficking? That’s a far cry from a widow who turns to small-scale pot dealing. There could have been a block of heroin under her hybrid’s manifold for all she knew, yet her biggest concern seemed to be finding a baño at the checkpoint and keeping the creepy-funny kid in the next car from peeking.

And when Guillermo chides her for losing his inhalers and explains the importance of a dry run to Tijuana and back by pointing out those guys who flew those planes into the towers practiced beforehand, it cemented the realization that this is a very different show than what it first set out to be. Read more of this entry »

That Kristin, she rocks with the TV scoop sometimes. Or even if she’s scoopless, it’s not for lack of access, as the video below reveals.

I know what you’re thinking, Kristin did all the work and all I did was embed the video here? Well, that’s not entirely true. I also prescreened it and can tell you with confidence that there is Tina Fey cuteness, a rare appearance by Katrina Bowden who plays Cerie on 30 Rock and some screen time for Weeds’s Justin Kirk, who plays Andy.

What’s more, I can tell you that if you skip to the 1:58 mark and stop watching at the 4:18 mark, you won’t have to sit through any boring Life or Brothers and Sisters stuff. (OK, now that I’ve alienated fans of those two perfectly fine shows, I should clarify that I’ve never even given either a try.)

Here’s what’s I glean from that… Read more of this entry »

How starved are we for quality scripted TV?  Let’s just say we’re like addicts in need of a fix.

Turns out Weeds is addictive after all. How else to explain the Showtime record-breaking 1.3 million viewers Monday’s premier drew, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Even new new series “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” got a bump coming out of its Weeds lead-in, pulling in 949,000 viewers. The Reporter reports…

“Weeds” averaged 1.3 million total viewers at 10 p.m. Monday, which broke the record held by a Season 2 episode of “Dexter” (1.2 million) that aired last year. An 11 p.m. repeat of “Weeds” averaged 406,000 viewers, according to Nielsen.

Each successive season premiere has bested the one before.

“Our ratings were va-va-va-voom!” Showtime president of entertainment Robert Greenblatt said. “Who said hedonism is passe?”

OoooooK.

How do you feel about marijuana? The answer that question—and a score of related ones about regulation, legalization, medical use, etc.—may well inform your feelings about Weeds, Showtime’s dark comedy about the stuff.

Depending on what your feelings are, it might be a lot to put them aside and just enjoy the brilliant performances by series star Mary Louise Parker and her host of suburban partners in drug crime. It’s worth a shot, though.

Parker returned in tonight’s “Mother Thinks the Birds Are After Her” as Nancy Botwin, drug dealer to the upper middle class. Or is it lower upper class? Doesn’t much matter now, though, since exec producers Jenji Kohan and Roberto Benabib let the show’s very setting go up in flames last season.

Agrestic is no longer majestic. Instead its tract houses lie on the ash heap of history, thanks to wildfires at least in part aided by the fuel Nancy added to the fire at her own home. And she just can’t shake the smell.

Read more of this entry »

Back for week 3? We’ve already looked at the new shows in the first and second weeks of the summer season.

The summer season continues rolling out new shows this week, starting tomorrow, and we bring you a look at what’s new and when it’s on, for the week of June 15, again, thanks to USAToday.com, though any comments not in quotes are mine:

Monday

The Middleman, 8 p.m., ABC Family. This has some promise, I believe. In part because it’s on ABC Family, home of Kyle XY, in part because it’s based on a series of comic books and this is the official show description:

Wendy Watson (Natalie Morales) thought mindless temp jobs were tough. Then she bravely faced a creature way beyond the bounds of her reality, and in so doing, impressed the straight-laced hero known as the Middleman (Matt Keeslar). Hello, new career! Now she’s balancing her art, her friends, and saving the planet while battling alien evils for the world’s most ludicrously secret organization. “The Middleman”—fighting evil so you don’t have to.

Intervention, 9 p.m., A&E. In its fifth season, this is a documentary series, not a “reality” series, though it’s far more “real” than anything else I’ve ever seen. I had no desire to see it, by my husband was (pardon the pun) completely addicted and I got sucked into watching it with him once. Incredibly compelling. And my husband says he loves it because it makes him realize, on those rough days, how bad life can actually be.

What’s it about? Addicts are finally called on the carpet by their loved ones. Think of that scene in The Sopranos when they have an intervention for Chris-ta-fuh. Except the people aren’t as attractive, funny or menacing. Just real. And sad. And totally effed up.

Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal, 10 p.m., A&E. I’ve seen some commercials for this; why do I feel as if a bunch of children are being horribly taken advantage of and their parents are gonna make money out of it? Not that I’m cynical or anything.

Weeds, 10 p.m., Showtime. Don’t have Showtime, but I’ve really heard good things about this. One day I’ll rent the DVDs. Mary-Louise Parker stars as a pot dealer/suburban mom.

Secret Diary of a Call Girl, 10:30 p.m., Showtime. If this were on a broadcast network, I’d say y’all should head for the hills. But it’s not, and it’s based on a British comedy and stars Billie Piper, late of Doctor Who. Oh, and it’s based on a real call girl’s real diary.

Tuesday

America’s Got Talent, 9 p.m. NBC. Really? This is still on? And Jerry Springer’s still host? And Piers Morgan, Sharon Osbourne and David Hasselhoff are the judges? Who’s watching this?

Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, 10 p.m., Oxygen. So now that they’ve had a rugrat, they leave the countryside and come back to … Los Angeles? Oh, that’s good parenting. And this is season 3!

Wednesday

Black Gold, 10 p.m., truTV. From the people who brought you Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers, it’s West Texas oil drillers. And Matthew McConaughey’s brother, Rooster.

Thursday

Newlywed, Nearly Dead?, 9 p.m., Fine Living. First off, have you ever heard of this network? Second, this sounds like a supremely bad idea: “Couples who drive each other crazy videotape each other’s annoying habits, then head to Canadian marriage expert Gary Direnfeld.”

Penn & Teller: Bulls—-, 10 p.m., Showtime. This actually might not be crap. Our favorite comedian magicians debunk “common misconceptions on hot-button topics.”

No, it’s not Terms of Endearment: The College Years.

It’s actually kind of intriguing. Variety reported today that Crash, which won the best picture Oscar in 2005, is set to become a 13-episode TV series on Starz, the movie channel. This would be the premium cable channel’s first original drama in its history.

Lionsgate (which, incidentally, has cut a deal with the Writers Guild of America and can go ahead producing scripts no matter how long the strike continues) will co-produce the series with the channel. Don Cheadle, who was one of the film’s stars, will move behind the camera to work on the series, along with Paul Haggis, who directed, produced and co-wrote the movie, and four others, including Bobby Moresco, who co-wrote the movie.

The series would focus on characters not at the heart of the movie, and it’s not clear exactly how connected to the movie it would be, from various published reports.

What is clear is that the folks responsible for the film in the first place, along with a quality production company and a network eager to put its stamp on something of quality for its first foray into original drama, are all collaborating on something that could be top-notch.

Time will tell, of course, but it’s definitely a promising move.

And with Lionsgate moving ahead with yet another new television drama (joining Weeds on Showtime and Mad Men on AMC), the more traditional networks have got to be getting nervous. The longer their original scripted series are off the air, the harder it’s going to be to get them back when the strike is over.