Pop-Ed: Mary-Louise Parker's Horrible Mom Protagonist Is Ruining 'Weeds'
Pop-Ed: When 'Weeds' premiered way back in 2005, it was the perfect satire of suburbia. It had an original concept, solid writing, interesting characters and was poised to become one of Showtime's smartest programs.
But by the time season three rolled around, creator Jenji Kohan failed to realize you can't do suburban satire when you take everyone out of the suburbs, and you can't have original characters when you refuse to develop them. Once Agrestic, California, got left in the dust, the show began a downward spiral of go-nowhere storylines with Nancy Botwin as the ridiculous ringleader.
Mary Louise-Parker's Nancy is now the show's worst offense. She started off selling drugs to support her family, then continued just for the, well, high she got from being in dangerous situations. In the past two seasons, Nancy fell into a drug ring underneath a maternity store, had a child with the crime boss mayor of Tijuana, dodged assassins and put a hit out on a woman later murdered by Nancy's 15-year-old son -- you know, typical family stuff. Nancy has consistently proven she's only good at two things: drinking iced coffee and endangering her children.
Listen, everyone parents their kids differently, but it's universally understood that if your teenage son murders someone, the punishment should be harsher than smacking him in the head and taking away his candy. Nancy Botwin has always been morally shaky, but, similar to
Don Draper's current descent into depravity on 'Mad Men,' most of the fun came from rooting for a deeply-flawed main character. In recent seasons, Nancy is just someone who had a wild tequila night where she drunkenly stole the Worst Mother Award away from Betty Draper, turned it into a bong and beat her sons half to death with it.
'Weeds' has become an embarrassing parody of its once-smart self, but it's taking small steps to improve. Silas is becoming three-dimensional, hilarious-but-useless Celia is finally out of the picture and sociopathic Shane is definitely heading for an intense breakdown. The problem is that Nancy will always be Nancy. She's been dealt a couple verbal blows this season -- Silas called her out on her selfishness, Andy's been uncharacteristically passive-aggressive towards her and Audra, an odd voice of reason, finally asked, "You're married, you have children -- why couldn't you just stay away?"
Of course, none of this actually meant anything to Nancy. To her credit, she did make it almost three whole episodes before she went back to dealing -- when her family hoped she was going to hash out her problems, they probably didn't mean with actual hash. It's an interesting way to operate, but at the end of the day it's going to end up the same: Nancy will sell drugs, have sex with a guest star, be a terrible mother, apologize to her children and do it all again the next season. Sure, 'Weeds' revolves around her as a dealer and theoretically couldn't exist if she stopped dealing for five minutes, but at this point, it wouldn't be a bad idea to just end the show.
Follow Pilot on Twitter.
http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,entry&id=691977&pid=691976&uts=1273167996
http://www.popeater.com/mm_track/popeater/music/?s_channel=us.musicpop&s_account=aolpopeater,aolsvc&omni=1&ke=1
http://cdn.channel.aol.com/cs_feed_v1_6/csfeedwrapper.swf
PopScene: Week's Hottest Pics
Gabourey Sidibe attends The American Cancer Society's Choose You luncheon on May 5th in New York City.
Amy Sussman, Getty Images
Amy Sussman, Getty Images
PopScene: Weeks Hottest Pics
Add a comment
I think the show is great it made me start to watch TV again. Most shows on TV are horrible this one is not the best but it makes me laugh
Reply
I so love weeds, but the writer is right; we have seen her do the same things over and over again. It is full of witty dialogue. I do love the guest stars, but the repeat process of her being a bad mother is very grating....I understand it is part of her character, but seeing her always make this selfish decisions that poorly effect the family makes you lose faith in her. Murder is a little too much to handle too, even for the Botwins!!! I wish they would show her a changed person and just let Silas or Andy do the selling.
Reply
While it's true that the show isn't as good as the first few seasons, it's still one of the best shows on t.v.! As a "suburbanite,"I live vicariously through "Nancy and friends." She's my hero!
Reply
Just a thought- Why not watch the show for what it is? If you are relying on Showtime to provide role models for childrearing, then perhaps you should look elsewhere for the problem to begin with.
Reply
Weeds jump the shark when they burnt down Agrestic. It's know a whole different show and it's boring.
Reply
I really miss Celia.
Reply
I just started watching Weeds a month ago. I also started watching The Big C from the pilot episode. Weeds is great. The best thing about it is the satire. If people think the show sets a bad example for parents, then watch family oriented programming. The show is rated TV-MA, show it is not intended for kids to watch.
I can't wait to see what happens now that the Botwin Family has moved to Seattle under changed identities.
And Mary-Louise Parker is a honey!
Reply
I stopped watching Weeds a lot time ago because I can not stand the Character Nancy.
Reply
This used to be a GREAT show, but it has steadily declined. This season so far has made me cringe! Just awful!!
Reply
Pilot Viruet is a moron. The show is great!
Reply
^_^****'newhotbag'***High quality tton replica 'handbags' and other brands designer handbags are all here!^_^
Reply
Mary Louise Parker ! I'd bone her. Over and over again!
Reply
i love weed i mean weeds andy is my favorite :)
What a silly review. Be a self-conscious prude all you want, but don't visit your puritanical standards on the rest of us. Weeds is one of the most original shows ever, and the acting is superb.
Reply
@ Dunlop Law Firm
...You're missing a few vital tenets that help an on-going dramedy -continue- to be an on-going dramedy.
One of the most vital being writing familiar characters (note: "character" the word, indication) with depth that still evolve over time.
Or, we could just say screw it and watch honeymooners. Yeah, an overweight, fed-up, greyed, blue collar guy making euphemisms about beating his paltry wife every episode...mhmmmmm
Nancy Botwin is one of the most disturbing characters in popular culture I can think of next to Tony Soprano. She is a borderline personality on steroids. She makes my skin crawl. The recent scenes with Shane caring for his baby brother make it impossible for me to continue to watch. Sorry--Weeds without the suburban satire has no caloric value.
Reply
IT'S JUST A SHOW. If you don't like it, don't watch it. Everybody needs to stop relying on TV to set an example for the rest of the world. Grow up and get a sense of humor!! Obviously, somebody is doing something right considering it's the sixth season.
okay, I'll just say it; the only reason I have continued to watch this show at all is the same reason it's so hard not to watch a car wreck. I absolutely despise the character Nancy, with her annoying iced coffee slurping and her doe eyed looks at anyone whom spreading her legs for will prevent attaining an actual job. she continually sells everyone else out to keep herself afloat and the worst part is just how exceedingly un-smart she really is. I agree; once the family left the burbs the show lost something but it's the car crash factor that keeps me watching. and the hope that TV land justice will be served and Nancy Botwin will finally get the smackdown she deserves.
Oh, and to the mom below claiming Nancy as her "hero"; that is really quite sad.
Reply