GoldChico
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What is love? asks Showtime's new "Weeds" repeatedly and with a caustic sense of humor that won't appeal to everyone.
Is it the mom who, after the sudden death of her husband, becomes a drug dealer to keep her family in the middle-class lifestyle it's accustomed to?
Or is it the mom who constantly nags her preteen daughter to lose weight because the world doesn't like chubby women?
"Weeds," which previews at 11 p.m. tomorrow before moving to 10 Mondays ( with several weekly repeats ), is also quizzing viewers about their expectations of humor.
Like an increasing number of half-hour shows -- more on cable, but Fox's "Arrested Development" is also an example "Weeds" isn't asking its audiences to laugh, but to wince. You have to work really hard to find anyone to like, at least among the adults, and even if you can, you might be wondering, what's the point?
Although "Weeds" isn't a "Desperate Housewives" rip-off -- it was in the works before ABC's hit was on the air -- it has a similar secrets-of-the-suburbs theme.
Everyone in the well-manicured neighborhood of Agrestic, Calif., has something to hide, although they don't do a very good job of hiding it.
Nancy Botwin, for instance, is your friendly neighborhood drug dealer, including an accountant and a lawyer among her regulars. She won't sell to children, and she wouldn't miss her son's grief counseling. But past that, Nancy doesn't have too many rules in her life.
Nancy is played by Mary-Louise Parker, whose kitten-in-the-headlights stare works well for a woman who apparently has no skills to rely on other than her ability to move pot.
Nancy has two sons she's raising in between trips to her supplier and her clients. And by the way, her supplier and her family could be their own series.
Shane ( Alexander Gould ), a precious 8-year-old, watches home videos of his late father ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan, a ringer for Robert Downey Jr. if Downey could look utterly happy ) and pretends to be a super hero. Silas ( Hunter Parrish ) is a 15-year-old obsessed with the opposite sex.
Another secret that a lot of people know about in Agrestic, Calif., is the fact that Nancy's friend Celia has a husband who's cheating on her with a female tennis pro.
Celia is played by Elizabeth Perkins, who becomes less lovable with each subsequent role in her career.
Celia is the Medea of the middle class with two daughters to torment. She ships 15-year-old Quinn off to a boarding school in Mexico by the end of episode one. Not so lucky is Isabel ( Allie Grant ), the chubby one, at least in her mom's critical eye.
For all of her faults, Nancy is a devoted mother. Celia is also devoted -- to herself. You can tell she takes it as a personal affront that Isabel isn't rail thin. She mocks her daughter and worse.
Isabel will get her revenge several episodes in. So does her older sister Quinn, who makes sure her mother finds out about dad's affair.
Yeah, ABC's desperate housewives are starting to look a whole lot less desperate -- and a lot nicer.
"Desperate" creator Marc Cherry also has more affection for the suburbs than "Weeds" creator Jenji Kohan, obvious from Kohan's choice of theme song, "Little Boxes," an anti-establishment folk song from the '60s. ( "Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky-tacky, Little boxes . . . all the same." )
Male characters include Andy Milder as Celia's nebbish husband, Kevin Nealon as Nancy's accountant ( and chief client ), and starting in episode four, Justin Kirk as Nancy's bad-boy brother-in-law, Andy. Andy counsels nephew Silas on sex ( just do it ) and buys Shane a set of nunchuks.
( Casting trivia note: Parker and Kirk both starred in HBO's "Angels in America." )
Teen hunk Justin Chatwin ( Tom Cruise's son in "War of the Worlds" ) shows up in episode one as Nancy's drug-dealing competition, who asks Nancy to help him restock.
Doing his best Pauly Shore impersonation, Chatwin's character explains that the midnight showing of "Winged Migration" ate up all his supplies -- but not as much as "The Passion of the Christ" did.
"People got stoned for 'The Passion of the Christ?'" asks Nancy, horrified. "That's disturbing."
"Not as disturbing as not getting stoned," Chatwin answers. "It's a straight-up snuff film."
Remember, nowhere did we imply this was a family comedy.
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
Copyright: 2005 Richmond Newspapers Inc.
Contact: letters@timesdispatch.com
Website: richmond.com | Richmond, Virginia news, business, sports, entertainment, events, arts
Is it the mom who, after the sudden death of her husband, becomes a drug dealer to keep her family in the middle-class lifestyle it's accustomed to?
Or is it the mom who constantly nags her preteen daughter to lose weight because the world doesn't like chubby women?
"Weeds," which previews at 11 p.m. tomorrow before moving to 10 Mondays ( with several weekly repeats ), is also quizzing viewers about their expectations of humor.
Like an increasing number of half-hour shows -- more on cable, but Fox's "Arrested Development" is also an example "Weeds" isn't asking its audiences to laugh, but to wince. You have to work really hard to find anyone to like, at least among the adults, and even if you can, you might be wondering, what's the point?
Although "Weeds" isn't a "Desperate Housewives" rip-off -- it was in the works before ABC's hit was on the air -- it has a similar secrets-of-the-suburbs theme.
Everyone in the well-manicured neighborhood of Agrestic, Calif., has something to hide, although they don't do a very good job of hiding it.
Nancy Botwin, for instance, is your friendly neighborhood drug dealer, including an accountant and a lawyer among her regulars. She won't sell to children, and she wouldn't miss her son's grief counseling. But past that, Nancy doesn't have too many rules in her life.
Nancy is played by Mary-Louise Parker, whose kitten-in-the-headlights stare works well for a woman who apparently has no skills to rely on other than her ability to move pot.
Nancy has two sons she's raising in between trips to her supplier and her clients. And by the way, her supplier and her family could be their own series.
Shane ( Alexander Gould ), a precious 8-year-old, watches home videos of his late father ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan, a ringer for Robert Downey Jr. if Downey could look utterly happy ) and pretends to be a super hero. Silas ( Hunter Parrish ) is a 15-year-old obsessed with the opposite sex.
Another secret that a lot of people know about in Agrestic, Calif., is the fact that Nancy's friend Celia has a husband who's cheating on her with a female tennis pro.
Celia is played by Elizabeth Perkins, who becomes less lovable with each subsequent role in her career.
Celia is the Medea of the middle class with two daughters to torment. She ships 15-year-old Quinn off to a boarding school in Mexico by the end of episode one. Not so lucky is Isabel ( Allie Grant ), the chubby one, at least in her mom's critical eye.
For all of her faults, Nancy is a devoted mother. Celia is also devoted -- to herself. You can tell she takes it as a personal affront that Isabel isn't rail thin. She mocks her daughter and worse.
Isabel will get her revenge several episodes in. So does her older sister Quinn, who makes sure her mother finds out about dad's affair.
Yeah, ABC's desperate housewives are starting to look a whole lot less desperate -- and a lot nicer.
"Desperate" creator Marc Cherry also has more affection for the suburbs than "Weeds" creator Jenji Kohan, obvious from Kohan's choice of theme song, "Little Boxes," an anti-establishment folk song from the '60s. ( "Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky-tacky, Little boxes . . . all the same." )
Male characters include Andy Milder as Celia's nebbish husband, Kevin Nealon as Nancy's accountant ( and chief client ), and starting in episode four, Justin Kirk as Nancy's bad-boy brother-in-law, Andy. Andy counsels nephew Silas on sex ( just do it ) and buys Shane a set of nunchuks.
( Casting trivia note: Parker and Kirk both starred in HBO's "Angels in America." )
Teen hunk Justin Chatwin ( Tom Cruise's son in "War of the Worlds" ) shows up in episode one as Nancy's drug-dealing competition, who asks Nancy to help him restock.
Doing his best Pauly Shore impersonation, Chatwin's character explains that the midnight showing of "Winged Migration" ate up all his supplies -- but not as much as "The Passion of the Christ" did.
"People got stoned for 'The Passion of the Christ?'" asks Nancy, horrified. "That's disturbing."
"Not as disturbing as not getting stoned," Chatwin answers. "It's a straight-up snuff film."
Remember, nowhere did we imply this was a family comedy.
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
Copyright: 2005 Richmond Newspapers Inc.
Contact: letters@timesdispatch.com
Website: richmond.com | Richmond, Virginia news, business, sports, entertainment, events, arts
