Weeds: Season 1

By: Iggy Michniacki on 6.06.2009

The Movie Itself:
Showtime has been in HBO’s shadow for nearly everything, especially when it comes to original programming. But a few years back Showtime made an honest tug for the top spot and started releasing original programming such as more recent hits The Tudors, Dexter, and Californication. Amongst the first of this new wave of original programming was a little show called Weeds that started airing back in 2005.

Weeds takes place in Agrestic, California where suburban life reigns supreme. Nancy Botwin (Mary Louise Parker) has just lost her husband and the reality of bills, children, and life start to pile up rather quickly. Luckily, she quickly discovers the market for marijuana in her neighborhood, where stressed out parents and hard working ‘high-rollers’ need some sort of relaxation. As her business starts to grow, thanks to city councilman, Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon), and stressed out father, Dean Hodes (Andy Milder), Nancy must tackle new obstacles and learn a business she never thought she would come to know. While Nancy deals in Agrestic, her best friend, Celia (Elizabeth Perkins), is on a mission to stop drugs from corrupting their neighborhood not knowing that Nancy is the culprit bringing this neighborhood ‘down’. Along the path, Nancy comes to know Conrad (Romany Malco) and Heylia (Tonye Patano), who supply her with her weed as well as certain members of the law. All this time, Nancy must deal with the more important issues of two sons (Alexander Gould & Hunter Parrish) who are struggling through childhood without a father and her free-loading, somewhat crazy brother-in-law Andy (Justin Kirk) who is hiding it a bit more, but also has some issues of loss.

Drugs, affairs, corrupt cops, racial tension, middle-age men getting high, nosy suburban housewives, superficial suburbia, dealing with in-laws, and trying to climb out of debt does make for some entertainment television but the show digs a little bit deeper than just boundary pushing topics. Nancy really struggles throughout this season (and the future seasons) on taking care of her two teenage boys who are struggling with the loss of their father and their trials of fitting in somewhere. Basically, Weeds is more about life than drugs and has many funny moments (many of them), but also takes the matter of family and friends to heart.

Weeds: Season 1 works very well for a variety of reasons. The acting is strong from all characters across the board. The whole cast is great and fits their roles perfectly. Nealon is absolutely hilarious, probably the funniest one in the show, as a washed up councilman who’s looking for ‘tail’ anywhere he can find it (and he finds it). Romany Malco also is memorable in this show, taking what could have been a marginal role and turning his character into an important part of the series. Of course, Mary Louise Parker carries the load as the beautiful, smart and strong star of the show. The writing is great as well starting with a concept from Jenji Kohan and putting professional pens to paper making for some entertaining and original programming. Weeds: Season 1 is definitely a bit of fresh air from some average programming on television these days.
Rating: 9/10

The Presentation:
Weeds: Season 1 comes to Blu-ray with all ten episodes on one disc. Although this shows off Blu-rays capacity, at the same time it worried me on how compressed these shows might look. Although Season 1 is far from reference material, it looks and sounds rather good. With a Mpeg-2 1080p codec all ten episodes look great for the most part but also have their moments of inconsistency. All episodes are bright, vibrant and full of color. The detail on the disc is quite nice, showing off everything from background décor to detail in clothing. Although most of the show looks detailed with true and vibrant colors you do have the occasional scenes that are filled with noise and dirt. Interference of some kind seems to have a role in every episode and can be a bit distracting. These distractions aren’t consistent as they only last for scenes here and there but they do keep this from being a great video presentation.

The audio is on par with the video presentation. Featuring a Dolby Digital 5.1 track that contains more depth than the original cable broadcast but doesn’t live up to the audio Blu-ray can support. The audio is great when it comes to conversations, very crisp and clear. There isn’t really an issue with any kind of drowning out of conversations or dialogue in general. The surround sound does pretty good, giving a good representation of where noise should be coming from. The surround sound isn’t as active as I thought it could be, and at times the audio felt very front heavy. The subwoofer gets an occasional kick but is not utilized very much the whole season. Overall, the audio is pleasing but could have been better.
Rating: 7/10 (video 7/10, audio 7/10)

The Extras:
Weeds: Season 1 is accompanied with a variety of extras for everything being on one disc. There are quite a few commentaries and a few other cool features as well.

Commentaries: There are a few episodes with commentary on them, each seem to have a different commenter… Commentary by Creator Jenji Kohan on episodes "Pilot" and "The Godmother”, Commentary by Actor/Consultant Craig X on the epiode "The Good Shit Lollipop”, Commentary by Actress Tonya Patano on the episode "Lude Awakening”, Commentary by Actor Romany Malco on the episode "Dead In The Nethers”, and Commentary by Actor Kevin Nealon on the episode "The Punishment Light”.
Suburban Shakedown (SD): This feature contains about fifteen minutes of clips and interviews intertwined getting the audience more acquainted with Agrestic and the cast.
Smokey Snippets (SD): Bloopers and outtakes all put in one long clip to make it easier to sit through.
Music Videos (SD): A few music videos from the show.
Smoke & Mirrors (SD): Romany Malco hosts a documentary about marijuana.
Showtime Original Special (SD): This seems to be a trimmed version of another extra feature, ‘Suburban Shakedown’.
Showtime Original Series Shorts (SD): More interviews and clips from the first season.
Agrestic Herbal Recipes (SD): Containing a list of all recipes (that do not contain drugs) that were used throughout the season.
Trailers (SD): These trailers are for the other Showtime original series.
Rating: 5/10

Overall:
Weeds is definitely a show that will be on for a few seasons grabbing a strong cult following. With a great cast that acts well, a funny and original story this show should have no problem coming up with original ideas. Adding a solid video and audio presentation with a nice plate of extras the Blu-ray is a must own for fans of the show.
Rating: 7/10