tvdinner&amovie

I started watching Weeds a few months before the fifth season started, so I jammed four seasons into about two weeks. I wasn’t among the original fans that fell in love with the show when Nancy was just a suburban drug dealer trying to provide for her family, which meant that I also wasn’t among those that were “over” Weeds once the focus shifted away from actual weed. For me, the weed was secondary to Nancy Botwin and all of the insanity that came with her life.

In preparation for this season, I went back and watched the show, much slower this time, paying less attention to Nancy and focusing more on everyone else. For example, Shane’s transition from a weird little kid to a slightly less peculiar and more stable young adult was gradual, and something I didn’t really appreciate until putting him in contrast to how Silas was at the same age.

The seventh season finale airs tonight and it’s still up in the air if this finale will also close out the series. I don’t think they can wrap up seven years in a half-hour episode, so with no regard to the show’s ratings I’m going to blindly hope that they give them a proper season to wrap things up. Thinking about this made me try and figure out which season has been my favorite and taking into account all the seasons (not counting the seventh for obvious reasons), the second was definitely the best one….in my (humble?) opinion.

Six Reasons Why The Second Season of Weeds Was the Best

• Peter Scottson – Although the season itself was more dangerous than the first season, Nancy’s FBI hubby gave her a certain amount of safety, which led to bigger moves and more weed. Their relationship wasn’t particularly interesting, but I don’t think that was the point.
• Silas and Shane – Once they became jaded (circa seasons five and six), it was hard to take them seriously as Nancy’s kids. During this season they were more focused on “happy endings” and following girlfriends to Princeton. Typical kid stuff or at least more typical than growing a special strain of weed and turning a croquet mallet into a deadly weapon.
• Celia – This was when Nancy’s frenemy hit her peak and every season that followed she became increasingly unnecessary. The second season gave her personality outside of being a shitty mom (or it could have just been the affair) and provided Nancy with some estrogen in her generally male-infused lifestyle.
• The Weed Business – The grow house was up-and-running and Nancy had a solid team. For what probably was the last time, Nancy was running her own business and selling weed in her own way. After this season Nancy just seemed to do what she needed to do to escape from whatever situation she found herself in. Fun to watch, but not as much as watching the “Suburban Baroness of Bud” in action.
• Conrad and Nancy – Technically nothing happened between these two until the third season, but this was when the sexual tension truly developed. Although we’ve seen Nancy get physically intimate with a number of guys (Zach Morris included!), Conrad was arguably one of the few that mattered. Aside from the romantic aspect, Conrad was Nancy’s business soul mate, the likes of which we never saw again once Agrestic burned to the ground.
• The Season Finale Cliffhanger – Peter betrays Nancy. Silas betrays Nancy. U-Turn betrays Conrad. Celia betrays Silas. Heylia involves the Armenians. And all of this results in a wonderful clusterfuck and Mexican standoff. This was before it was confirmed that nothing sticks to Nancy, so we weren’t quite sure how she’d slide out of this situation and who would be by her side once she did.

Check out the preview for tonight’s season finale.