Given the recent legalisation of marijuana in California, and the popularity of programmes such as Breaking Bad and Narcos, the premise of Weeds seems antiquated. But when it started in 2005, the satire about a suburban Los Angeles mother who risked jail by dealing the green stuff after her husband’s early death felt revolutionary. Central to the show’s success was lead actor Mary-Louise Parker, who infused the frustrating, often selfish character of Nancy Botwin with such warmth and intelligence that you couldn’t help rooting for her, even as her motivation flipped from trying not to disrupt her children’s lives to doing anything for an adrenaline rush.
Weeds was at its best in the first three seasons, which poked fun at the claustrophobia and hypocrisy of suburbia, with theme song Little Boxes emphasising the stifling conformity. At first, Nancy’s dilemmas were relatable: from wondering whether to let her 15-year-old son Silas sleep with his girlfriend under her roof to persuading brother-in-law Andy to get a job.
There were some ridiculous storylines early on, to be sure: a chance meeting with Snoop Dogg; an actual dog biting off two of Andy’s toes; not to mention Nancy dating and secretly marrying someone who worked for the DEA (a fatal move on his part). But there was at least an attempt at verisimilitude, plus comic relief in the form of nosy neighbour Celia Hodes (Elizabeth Perkins in a lifetime best performance).
Things went south at the end of season three, when Nancy locked horns with a new supplier and paid a local gang to protect her. They did: by setting a fire that burned down not only her nemesis’s crops but the entire neighbourhood. The storylines became increasingly dark and cartoonish in the five seasons that followed.
Firstly, the Botwins moved to the imaginary border town of Ren Mar, and Nancy had a baby with her new boss, a local drug kingpin who was also mayor of Tijuana. But after her youngest son Shane (Alexander Gould) killed a woman with a croquet mallet, the family went on the run, driving across the country making hash in the washing machine of their RV.
Eventually tracked down by the kingpin and his goons, Nancy turned both him and herself in to the FBI, confessing to Shane’s crime. It looked as if she might be willing to take responsibility for her mistakes at last. But when she was released after just three years, she immediately became financially and sexually involved with her cellmate’s drug-dealing brother and narrowly missed being slung back in the slammer.
There were some heart-racing moments in those latter seasons and you could never accuse Weeds of being boring – just incredible, bordering on nonsensical. By the finale in 2012, the show had been through so many time jumps and location changes, it was hard to know which state or decade we were supposed to be in, and even harder to care. It ended with Nancy owning a thriving chain of marijuana cafes, with a family who didn’t want to spend time with her any more, and an audience who felt much the same way.