Weeds (TV series)

*Weeds*
Weeds
	The cast of Weeds circa Season 2, Left to Right: Romany Malco, Tonye Patano, Mary-Louise Parker, Kevin Nealon, Elizabeth Perkins, and Justin Kirk
Created by	Jenji Kohan
Starring	Mary-Louise Parker; Elizabeth Perkins; Tonye Patano; Romany Malco; Justin Kirk; Hunter Parrish; Alexander Gould; Kevin Nealon
Opening theme	Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds And others
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	22
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	Showtime
Release	August 8, 2005 –; present

Weeds is an American dark comedy television series about a fictional California suburb and its residents, a handful of whom are involved in the distribution and consumption of marijuana. It was the highest rated series for Showtime in 2005.^[1]The second season started broadcasting on August 14,2006.^[2] Following the second airing of the show's second season finale on 30 October, 2006, Showtime confirmed the show has been picked up for a third season.

Plot synopsis

Template:Spoiler

The fictional Los Angeles, California suburb of Agrestic (an English word meaning "characteristic of the fields or country") is home to Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), whose husband has recently died. Nancy begins dealing marijuana to locals of her suburb in order to support her household while maintaining an upper-middle-class lifestyle. As depicted in the series, Agrestic has a public school system where Nancy's children Silas (Hunter Parrish) and Shane (Alexander Gould) attend. Botwin befriends the manic, image-obsessed Celia Hodes (Elizabeth Perkins) president of the Agrestic PTA. Heylia James, assisted by her nephew Conrad, supplies Nancy with marijuana. Andy Botwin (Justin Kirk), brother of Nancy's late husband, and family's black sheep, moves into the Botwin household. During the second season, Nancy begins to grow her own marijuana with the assistance of Conrad and several other Agrestic residents. Meanwhile, she also has a dangerous relationship with a DEA agent named Peter.

Cast and crew

Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin
Elizabeth Perkins as Celia Hodes
Kevin Nealon as Doug Wilson
Justin Kirk as Andy Botwin
Tonye Patano as Heylia James
Shoshannah Stern as Megan (possibly taken out during second season)
Maulik Pancholy as Sanjay
Martin Donovan as Peter
Justin Chatwin as Josh Wilson (pilot episode only, then left the cast to film War of the Worlds^[3])
Romany Malco as Conrad Shepard
Hunter Parrish as Silas Botwin
Alexander Gould as Shane Botwin
Andy Milder as Dean Hodes
Renee Victor as Lupita
Allie Grant as Isabelle Hodes
Tyrone M. Mitchell as Keeyon
Eden Sher as Gretchen
Indigo as Vaneeta
Zooey Deschanel as Kat

Creator: Jenji Kohan

Producer/Director: Brian Dannelly

Awards & nominations

Awards won

Satellite Awards: Outstanding Actress in a Series-Comedy Mary-Louise Parker (2005)
Golden Globe Awards: Best Performance by a TV Actress in a Musical or Comedy Mary-Louise Parker (2006)

Awards nominated

Golden Globe Awards: Best TV Series-Comedy; Best Performance by a TV Supporting Actress Elizabeth Perkins (2006)
Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Mary-Louise Parker (2006)
Satellite Awards: Outstanding Actress in a Series-Comedy Elizabeth Perkins (2005)
Emmy Awards: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Elizabeth Perkins (2006); Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series Craig Zisk, Good Shit Lollipop (2006)

Episodes

Broadcasters

Australia: Nine Network
Brazil: GNT
Bulgaria: Nova TV (full translation)
Canada: Showcase Television
Finland: Nelonen premiere in October 2006
France: Canal+
Hungary: HBO premiere in June 2006
Iceland: Sirkus premiere in October 2006
Israel: yes+
Italy: Rai Due
New Zealand: Prime
Norway: TV3 (Viasat) aired season one during September-October 2006, undecided on airing season 2
Poland: HBO
Spain: Canal+ Spain premiere in September
Sweden: TV3 (Viasat) premiere in September
Turkey: Comedy Max (Subtitled) aired season one
United Kingdom: Sky One, Sky Three
Arab World: Showtime Arabia channels called Paramount Comedy Channel and Paramount Comedy Channel +2 (Subtitled)
United States: Showtime

Trivia

Many of the exterior shots of the show are filmed on location in and around the bedroom community of Stevenson Ranch, California and Santa Clarita, California.
As of season 2, the title song "Little Boxes" (performed in the first season by its writer Malvina Reynolds) is performed by different artists in each episode. Artists include Elvis Costello (episode 201), Death Cab for Cutie (episode 202), Engelbert Humperdinck (episode 203), Kate and Anna McGarrigle (episode 204, performed in French), a classical orchestra (episode 205), Aidan Hawken (episode 206), Ozomatli (episode 207), The Submarines (episode 208), Tim DeLaughter (episode 209), Regina Spektor (episode 210), and Jenny Lewis with Johnathan Rice (episode 211).
MPP and NORML logos can be seen throughout parts of the second episode of the second season.
Due to product placement deals, Nancy often carries a "It's a Grind Coffee House" beverage.
In season 2, Nancy uses fake identification documents to rent a house for a large-scale grow operation. She uses the name "Lacy Laplante" ("la plante" is french for "the plant") and a Quebec driver's license (Permis de conduire) with the address 13468 Drummond, Montreal, Quebec, H3G 114. Drummond is a real street in Montreal and does use the postal code prefix H3G, but the highest address is 3480. The postal code H3G 114 has an invalid format; the Canadian postal code standard suffix is number-letter-number. The various codes on "Lacy's" license show the standard passenger-vehicle and motorcycle permits, with the requirement she wear glasses or corrective lenses. In addition to the Quebec drivers license, Nancy uses a fake Canadian Social Insurance Number card with a first digit of 5, indicating that the card was issued in Ontario.
At the 2006 Golden Globes, Mary-Louise Parker was nominated for Best Actress in a Television Comedy or Musical, alongside the four lead actresses of the much more popular television show, Desperate Housewives. Desperate Housewives actress Teri Hatcher had won the award the year before, and even award presenter Chris Rock could only joke at this predicament, saying, "You gotta feel sorry for Mary-Louise Parker. Desperate Housewives is one of the biggest shows on the planet, and Weeds is only watched by Snoop Doggy Dogg."[1] Ironically, Parker beat all four ladies of Desperate Housewives to take home the award. Snoop Dogg has appeared on Weeds (episode 208), sampling and appreciating Parker's character's strain of marijuana, dubbing it "MILF weed".
The book Rejuvenile by author Christopher Noxon has appeared several times on the show. Christopher Noxon is married to series creator Jenji Kohan. Noxon was also the music supervisor for season one and appeared in the pilot episode as a bear hunter.[2]

References

[1] ttp://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/1101brotherhood1101.html

[2] ttp://www.tv.com/weeds/show/28829/episode_listings.html?season=2

[3] ttp://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271%7C96561%7C1%7C,00.html

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