Weeds (TV series)

Weeds
Created by	Jenji Kohan
Starring	Mary-Louise Parker Elizabeth Perkins (2005-2010) Hunter Parrish Alexander Gould Allie Grant with Justin Kirk and Kevin Nealon
Opening theme	"Little Boxes" (episodes 1-38 and 57)
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	76 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	26 minutes
Original release
Network	Showtime
Release	August 8, 2005 (2005-08-08) – present

Weeds is an American television series created by Jenji Kohan, produced by Lionsgate Television for the Showtime cable television network.

The show centers on Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), a newly widowed suburbanite mother of two who turns to selling marijuana to support her family after the unexpected death of her husband. Over the course of the show she finds herself involved in illegal activities on a larger scale; the first three seasons deal mainly with local "street level" drug dealing and growing, while later seasons revolve around the smuggling of more general contraband from Mexico to the U.S. and the electoral machinations of Baja's gubernatorial politics.

The title is a play on words - weed is a slang term for marijuana and weeds is an antiquated name for the black dress widows in mourning wear. There is a reference as well to the manner in which American suburbs, like weeds, quickly and invasively grow - criticism of the suburban mindset is a running theme throughout the series. This is emphasized in the opening credits to the first three seasons, which feature the satirical song "Little Boxes" playing over shots of identical people dressed in identical clothing driving their identical "SUV"s to their identical houses.

Weeds first aired in August 2005 and has run five seasons to date, with a sixth season currently in production and set to premiere August 16, 2010. In its first year it became the highest rated series for Showtime, and the fourth-season premiere had Showtime's highest viewership for a show with 1.3 million watching.

Mary-Louise Parker won a Golden Globe for her performance on the show, and Jenji Kohan won a WGA award for her screenplay for the pilot episode. The show was nominated for 19 Emmy Awards and 10 Golden Globes.

Production

Stevenson Ranch, California a filming location for Weeds.

The exteriors for the show were shot almost exclusively in Stevenson Ranch, a suburban area of Santa Clarita Valley, California. The shot of the large fountain and Agrestic sign seen in the introduction of Seasons 1-3 was shot at the corner of Stevenson Ranch Parkway and Holmes Place. The name 'Stevenson Ranch' was digitally replaced with 'Agrestic' and with 'Majestic' in later episodes.

The overhead, satellite picture displayed at the beginning of the show's introduction (Seasons 1-3) is of "Calabasas Hills", a gated community in Calabasas, California.

A version of this Wikipedia page served as the opening for episode 57 (Season 5, episode 7) "Where the Sidewalk Ends".

Episodes

Main article: List of Weeds episodes

As of September 2009, 63 original episodes of Weeds have been produced and broadcast. The first season began August 8, 2005 and consisted of 10 episodes. The 12 episodes of the second season began on August 14, 2006. The third season began on August 13, 2007 and at 15 episodes, was the longest. The fourth season began June 16, 2008, and the fifth season on June 8, 2009, both with 13 episodes. The sixth season, with 13 more episodes, is slated to air in 2010. Creator Jenji Kohan has written 15 of the episodes, including each season's premiere and finale.

Episode leaks

Weeds episodes appeared on the Internet prior to their showing. Creator Jenji Kohan has stated that she does not mind episodes being distributed on the internet in this way, saying, "Revenue aside, I don't expect to get rich on Weeds. I'm excited it's out there. Showtime is great, but it does have a limited audience."

In 2006, before Season 2 started airing on Showtime, the first few episodes were leaked online. Before the third season began the first two episodes appeared online on July 22, 2007 (nearly a month before the August 13 premier date). The third episode appeared online on July 24, with the fourth appearing just three days later. The fourth episode was, however, an incomplete version–among other things, some dubbed lines were not complete (notably part of a voice mail message by U-Turn is spoken by a distinctly different actor, and a card simply reading "End Credits" was inserted instead of the actual credits. Due to the high quality of the leaked episodes, downloaders of the torrents speculated that they were leaked intentionally to garner interest in the show and to create internet buzz. Episode leaks of other Showtime programs such as Californication and Dexter were seen as giving weight to this theory.

Season summaries

Season 1

The series's fictional Los Angeles, California suburb of Agrestic is home to Nancy Botwin, whose husband Judah died of a heart attack while jogging with their son Shane. Nancy's children, Silas and Shane, both attend Agrestic's public school system.

To support her upper middle class lifestyle, Nancy began dealing marijuana to her affluent neighbors and friends. Her supplier is Heylia James, a major distributor in Los Angeles' West Adams district whom she met through Heylia's nephew, Conrad. After losing customers to a medical marijuana store, Nancy begins baking and selling pot-laced brownies. Acting on the advice of her accountant, city councilman Doug Wilson, she opens a retail bakery, stocked with Costco baked goods, as a front for her drug sales. Silas begins dating Megan, an attractive deaf girl at his school. Shane, troubled by his father's death, acts out, such as biting the foot of another child in a martial-arts tournament, and earns the nickname "Strange Botwin" from classmates.

Nancy's friend is a manic, image-obsessed, and manipulative Celia Hodes, who is the president of the Agrestic PTA. Celia does not get along with her cheating husband Dean, nor does she get along with her sexually active 15-year-old daughter, Quinn (Silas' previous girlfriend), whom she sends off to boarding school in Mexico after the pilot. Her younger daughter, 11-year-old Isabelle, is overweight and constantly the target of her mother's passive aggressive comments. She reveals late in the season that she is a lesbian, much to her mother's chagrin. Toward the end of the season, Celia is diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer. The brush with her own mortality softens her abrasive personality and leads her to treat her own daughter with more courtesy and respect. She quickly returns to form after her recovery however. Before her surgery, she picks up Conrad and has sex with him. Conrad is long-time friends with Andy Botwin, the younger brother of Nancy's late husband and the black sheep of the family. Andy says he has moved into the Botwin household to help Nancy out, but actually seems to be there to free-load, and to disrupt Nancy's life. When he is notified to report immediately for his previously agreed-on military service (where he will be trained and then sent to Iraq) or be sentenced to a military prison, he announces that he is studying to become a rabbi as a dodge to avoid his military obligation.

Nancy expands her distribution to Valley Pingas College and is then harassed by a rival drug dealer, with whom she then has a brief sexual encounter. At Valley College, her entire stash of product is stolen by a campus security cop during a fake arrest, threatening the survival of her lifestyle and family. Unknown to her, Conrad and some of his friends go to Valley College, so they attack and severely beat the campus cop. Then to Nancy's surprise, he politely returns the marijuana to her, apologizes profusely, and offers to assist her and her business in any way he can. Nancy and Peter Scottson, the single father of the kid bitten by Shane in a karate tournament, develop a mutual attraction. The season closes with Conrad convincing Nancy to expand by becoming a grower as well as a dealer; however, implementing this plan hits complications in the last minutes of the season. Because of her mounting frustration and stress, Nancy gives in and sleeps with Peter. Immediately afterward, she walks into his bathroom and finds out that he's an agent with the DEA.

Season 2

The second season, while still comedic, has a much darker tone, as Nancy becomes increasingly involved in the more dangerous aspects of the drug "underground". Ignoring Heylia's advice, Nancy and Conrad start their own small-scale growing operation and eventually rent a suburban grow-house. She welcomes other people into her business, including her brother-in-law Andy and Doug. During this season, Peter Scottson tells Nancy he knows she is a drug dealer, but considers her too small time to be worth busting, and the two are married as part of a deal to legally protect Nancy from Peter testifying in a court of law. While Nancy's drug activities increase, Celia runs for, and wins, Doug's spot on the town council; mainly due to the incompetence of her estranged husband Dean, who forgets to file Doug's paperwork, leaving him off the ballot. She immediately launches a drug-free campaign across Agrestic complete with drug-free zone signs and surveillance cameras. Doug and Celia share a dislike for Dean which facilitates a brief sexual liaison.

Silas and Megan's relationship threatens to split apart once she leaves for college; he attempts to get her pregnant to circumvent this, but his success leads to an abortion and a violent confrontation with Megan's father, ending the relationship. Andy tries to develop a relationship with an attractive, sexually formidable instructor, Yael Hoffman, at his rabbinical school, which falls apart once he drops out due to an incident where a dog bites off two of his small toes, which he thinks will clear him from military duty.

As the season progresses, Nancy's children become more aware of her illegal activities, though the two sons deal with the issue in quite different ways. Shane continues to have problems fitting in at school, but ends up joining the debate team in order to get closer to Gretchen, who later ends up becoming Shane's girlfriend. Despite Shane's apparent interest in Gretchen, he breaks up with her because of his extreme interest in Andy's crazy ex-girlfriend, Kat. Silas, on the other hand, takes out his frustrations by committing acts of vandalism, most notably stealing Celia's drug-free zone signs and cameras.

Nancy and Conrad's drug business becomes a hit as Conrad's strain of plant (which Snoop Dogg dubs "MILFweed" during a happenstance meeting at a recording studio) pleases their customers; but their high profile causes trouble. Initially, Nancy's marriage to a DEA agent keeps her on top while her Armenian rivals are busted, but her marriage to Peter deteriorates as he pressures her to quit dealing. For Nancy, the final straw is when Peter comes over for dinner and manhandles Silas. Nancy calls Conrad and tells him that she doesn't love Peter but will string him along until the current harvest is done; Peter hears the conversation with wireless surveillance.

The season concludes with a complex series of betrayals, as Peter demands of Nancy and Conrad all of the cash from a quick sale of their crop. Secretly, Heylia hires Armenian mobsters to kill Peter as she believes Peter is planning to kill Conrad after the deal. Nancy's buyer, U-Turn (Page Kennedy), demands the entire crop of weed at gunpoint. Having just killed Peter, the Armenian mobsters arrive at the same time and expect the proceeds from the big sale to pay for their hit, but finding that U-Turn plans on stealing the weed and that there is no money, decide they will take the weed instead. Only then does Nancy discover that Silas has decided to force his way into the business by stealing the entire batch of weed and demanding to be part of the business. After hiding the batch in his car trunk, he is approached by Celia and a police officer for the theft of the drug-free zone signs and surveillance cameras, as Celia has footage of Silas stealing the last camera. This leaves Nancy at the grow house, in a Mexican standoff with both the gangsters and the mobsters pointing guns at her in a season-ending cliffhanger.

Season 3

The third season of Weeds begins with several subplots involving the fallout from the botched drug deal of the Season 2 finale: Celia finds and destroys the entire harvest; U-Turn pays the mobsters to leave Nancy to him alone; Silas is arrested and sentenced to community service; Sanjay (Maulik Pancholy), realizes he is gay but U-Turn forces him to have sex with a woman whom he impregnates.

The season's first half has Nancy pressured to pay off her debt to U-Turn for Celia's destruction of an entire pot harvest. Towards that end, Nancy works for Sullivan Groff (Matthew Modine), a crooked developer of neighboring community Majestic, and she soon becomes his lover, causing the chagrin of Celia, who has also been intimate with him. Conrad and Heylia start a growing operation at U-Turn's behest.

Silas begins selling pot for his mother using the alias Judah and meets Tara (Mary-Kate Olsen), a born-again Christian who enjoys smoking pot and helps him sell; Shane and Isabelle become outcasts at the heavily religious Majestic summer school and form a friendship, and Shane begins talking to his dead father as the stress on the family becomes too great.

As U-Turn begins training Nancy to become his drug runner, while simultaneously starting a war with rival Mexican dealers, his partner Marvin becomes jealous. When U-Turn has a heart attack, Marvin capitalizes on the situation by secretly suffocating him to death and becoming boss of their crew, but after Marvin botches an attempt to call a truce with the Mexicans Nancy takes advantage of the situation to clear all debts for her and Conrad and end the gang war.

Debt-free, but feeling lonely, Nancy attempts to befriend Peter's ex-wife Valerie. The friendship turns sour when Valerie demands the money from Peter's life-insurance payout. Nancy promises to give it to her, but has to first use most of it to replace the money Doug "borrowed" from the Agrestic treasury to help Nancy get back in business. Despite giving her several smaller payments, Valerie believes that Nancy will never give her her full due and that Peter had an off-the-books stash of cash of which Nancy knows the location, so she hires a private investigator to trail Nancy. The investigator finds out Nancy is a drug dealer and blackmails her to not tell Valerie or the DEA for most of the remaining life-insurance money, which Nancy pays after ensuring the investigator won't come after her again by blackmailing him for blackmailing her. Nancy confronts Valerie by telling her that she would have gotten the money although Nancy has no obligation to give it to her, and that she no longer has it anyway thanks to Valerie's investigator.

Meanwhile, the outlying Christian community of Majestic has been attempting a hostile takeover of Agrestic, with Doug leading the charge due to the large amount of money it will bring in. But Groff's gift to Celia leads to jealousy, and Doug begins sabotaging the Majestic city infrastructure, although it is already too late, as Celia brings it to a public referendum. Dean has a motorcycle accident, which forces Celia to take care of him against her will.

Heylia and Conrad are forced to move the growing operation and Nancy negotiates the use of Celia's off-the-books house in Majestic.

Andy has a brief excursion into the pornographic film industry, and later befriends a group of bikers while trying to score with one of its female members, who want him to start selling their weed.

Nancy turns to Guillermo (leader of the Mexican dealers) to get protection when the bikers threaten her family after she refuses to sell their low-quality ditch weed. Guillermo decides to burn down the biker's cannabis field, causing a huge fire which spreads to the Agrestic area. At the time, thermal cameras spot the grow house and the DEA moves in. Nancy, meanwhile, takes advantage of the fire and pours gasoline throughout her house and lights it with a match, ensuring that she and her family will be leaving and moving on.

Season 4

On November 5, 2007, Showtime ordered 13 new episodes for a fourth season of Weeds. The fourth season started on Monday, June 16, 2008 and concluded on Monday, September 15, 2008. The season opener "Mother Thinks the Birds are After Her" was the last episode with "Little Boxes" as the theme song. The opening credits of subsequent episodes, after a recap of previous episodes, begin with a video title card unique to each episode. For the second episode of the season, for example, a highway sign reads "Weeds", "Created By", and "Jenji Kohan" - the embedded text used for all title cards since the show's inception. Each title card also has a prop or part of the setting morphing into a cannabis leaf. In the highway sign example, a downward arrow designating a lane becomes a slightly larger pot leaf.

Having lost both her Agrestic grow house and her residential house in fires, Nancy relocates her family to the fictional California town of Ren Mar immediately north of the San Diego/Tijuana border. Guillermo has Nancy smuggle marijuana over the border by car, but Nancy discovers that it was a dry run to test her abilities. Celia, in jail for being the official lessee of Nancy's burnt down grow house, and implicated by all involved, bargains for her release in exchange for spying on Nancy. After Guillermo's men catch Celia spying, Nancy convinces them to spare Celia's life. Andy enters a coyote partnership with Doug, who has recently moved to Ren-Mar to evade questions about Agrestic's finances. Isabelle, unenthusiastic about moving with her father to Detroit, pesters her mother Celia until she agrees to let her live with her in Ren Mar. Silas sets up a grow room in the rear of a gourmet cheese shop owned by an attractive 30ish mother. The store owner knows Silas is underage, but nonetheless further consummates their business relationship. After revealing that her interest in him is purely financial and physical, a heartbroken Silas spurns her advances and ends their business relationship. At his new school, 13 year-old Shane attacks without provocation the most popular boy at school and acquires a fearsome reputation, attracting the admiring attention of Simone and Harmony, two of the more "dangerous" girls at school, with whom Shane loses his virginity in a threesome.

Guillermo's as-yet-unidentified boss sets up Nancy in a maternity store to launder money. Nancy finds a tunnel entry in the backroom of the store, but is told it is exclusively an endpoint for transporting cannabis from Tijuana. Nancy later learns that it is also facilitates smuggling other controlled substances as well as guns and apparently underage prostitutes. Shocked and troubled, Nancy informs DEA Captain Roy Till of the tunnel despite an ongoing sexual relationship with Guillermo's crime boss Esteban Reyes, who is also Mayor of Tijuana. The resulting DEA raid of the maternity shop ends with most of the Mexican drug runners under arrest after a shootout.

While working at Nancy's store, Celia's polysubstance abuse disorder is worsened by the easy availability of drugs from the back of the store, causing Isabelle and Dean stage an intervention. Celia embraces rehab and attempts to make amends through apology. Dean rejects her apology and insists that she apologizes directly to her oldest daughter Quinn, whom Celia vanquished to Casa Reforma, a Mexican boarding school. Post graduation Quinn has been living with a Mexican revolutionary, Rudolfo. Celia agrees to travel south to make an amends, but upon her arrival, an unloving and unforgiving Quinn has her drugged and captured. Quinn plans to ransom her mother for $200,000, telling Rudolfo she would give none of the money to his "faggy revolution", but would instead move to Belize.

In the season finale, Esteban discovers that Nancy had alerted the DEA to his smuggling tunnel, and confronts Nancy, but he lets her live after she tells him that she is pregnant with his child, and that it's likely to be a boy. At home, Shane steals Silas' weed and, with Simone and Harmony, begins selling it to classmates at school. Doug had fallen for an illegal alien he names "Mermex" as she unsuccessfully tried to enter the US by beach. After much searching, Doug locates her and uses his coyote enterprise to get her into California. Instead of gratefully rewarding Doug's efforts, Mermex is repelled by his unapologetic nature and his genital warts. She instead falls in love and sleeps with his Coyote partner Andy, who has become a folk hero known as "El Andy". Spitefully a hurt Doug turns Mermex into immigration. Realizing that poverty denies those pursuing anything of any money, Doug writes his separated wife daring her to take him to court in a suicidal note, before preparing to hang himself. Andy wonders if he is in love with Nancy and questions why he has stayed with the family for so long.

Season 5

The Season 5 debut attracted 1.2 million viewers, with a rerun on the same night adding another 500,000 viewers for a cumulative 1.7 million.

After Nancy informs Esteban that she is pregnant, she is allowed to live. Nancy, panicking, sends Shane to live with her sister, Jill Price-Grey (Jennifer Jason Leigh), for his own safety. Esteban sends various bodyguards to follow Nancy. Silas draws up a new plan to start a legal medical marijuana business, which he then gets Nancy to fund. Celia is released from the hostage situation, and with nowhere to go, she ends up squatting in Nancy's garage. Andy suggests that they flee, as he has $180,000 from Judah's old bank accounts, and as the situation has become too dangerous, proposing Nancy to leave Esteban a note before leaving. Nancy instead leaves Andy a note informing him she has moved in with Esteban.

Six months later, Nancy is happily living with Esteban. Esteban proposes, and Nancy accepts. A woman named Pilar visits Esteban and they have a heated debate about his political career being affected by Nancy, after which Esteban calls off the engagement but promises it is only postponed. Nancy sees Cesar arranging a "birthing room" in Esteban's house, and realizes that Esteban plans for her to have the child without any official records or birth certificates. Shane reminds Nancy that this means he could take the baby to Mexico, and even have her killed, and no one would know the baby was hers, or that it even exists. Nancy recruits Andy to help her escape Esteban's house, and he takes Nancy to her obstetrician, Dr. Audra Kitson (Alanis Morissette), who takes her to the hospital and delivers the baby.

Esteban goes to Nancy's house to ask her to marry him again. A gangster walks up the path outside the Botwin house and attempts an assassination, but misses his target of Nancy and the bullet hits Shane. Nancy confronts Cesar, who admits he was involved in the assassination attempt at the house in Ren Mar, which was organized by Pilar. He confirms that she was the intended target. Esteban is replaced as candidate for governor, but on Nancy's encouragement he decides to run for election independently. Celia and Dean begin selling the marijuana recovered from the raid of Silas and Doug's shop in a money-making scheme to sell Celia's unwanted cosmetics. Celia freezes out Dean from her business venture. Meanwhile Andy begins a relationship with Audra, Silas moves in to Esteban's house, and Nancy and Esteban get married at home. Nancy visits Guillermo in prison, requesting that he organize an assassination of Pilar. Esteban is arrested in Mexico for suspicion of conspiracy, racketeering and tax evasion. Nancy and Cesar go to get Esteban from jail, but they learn Esteban was released. They later see Esteban on television alongside Pilar running for governor. Andy announces that he is going to propose to Audra, with his mother's ring, previously given to Nancy by Judah.

Doug and Celia work out an agreement to make a team similar to Nancy's in previous seasons. Andy proposes marriage to Audra, but flees when her stalker confronts her with a weapon. At a fundraiser, Pilar informs Nancy that she knows Nancy hired Guillermo to kill her and that Guillermo works for Pilar. Pilar threatens to kill Shane and Silas to enhance Esteban's campaign with a 'sympathy' vote. Shane then suddenly appears, hitting Pilar in the head with a croquet mallet. Pilar falls into the pool face-down, bleeding from the head, apparently dead.

The Weeds Season 5 finale on Monday, August 31, 2009, averaged 1.3 million viewers, up versus last year’s finale that averaged 1 million.

Season 6

The sixth season will premiere on August 16, 2010. In May 2010, Elizabeth Perkins (Celia Hodes) announced that the sixth season of Weeds would be her last.Linda Hamilton will be joining the cast as Linda, who, along with her partner Fiona, will help Nancy begin her dealings in Seattle. Its been confirmed that Mark-Paul Gosselaar has been cast in one episode in the upcoming season, according to E! Online. A teaser for the new season was released on 3 June, 2010, depicting Nancy disposing of the croquet mallet and evading the police.

Cast and characters

The cast of Weeds during Season 2, Left to Right: Romany Malco, Tonye Patano, Mary-Louise Parker, Kevin Nealon, Elizabeth Perkins, and Justin Kirk. This image was also used for the Season 2 DVD box set.

Main characters

Nancy Botwin

Main article: Nancy Botwin

Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) was a loving, all-American PTA soccer mom until her husband Judah suddenly died. To maintain the suburban lifestyle to which she was accustomed, Nancy enters the dangerous world of drug dealing. At the start, her regular clients include her accountant, her lawyer, and fellow suburban friends, but as she expands and fights for survival, she is confronted with the violent realities of her business as she jockeys against competitors, gangs, drug lords, and blackmail.

Celia Hodes

Main article: Celia Hodes

Celia Hodes (Elizabeth Perkins) is an alcoholic suburban mother and Nancy's best "frienemy". She criticized her daughter Isabelle for being overweight, nicknaming her "Isabelly", and is stuck in an unhappy marriage at the start of the series. Celia sent her other daughter Quinn to Casa Reforma, a Mexican boarding school after the pilot episode. Celia's primary outlets are alcoholism and random verbal abuse of others, and she undertakes disloyal, subversive actions against others, ostensibly to teach them lessons. Few remained attached to her and no one feels compelled to pay her ransom when informed that she has been kidnapped by Quinn.

Andy Botwin

Andy Botwin (Justin Kirk) is Judah's brother, a fun-loving, irresponsible drifter. After Judah's death, Nancy reluctantly allows Andy to live at the house, and soon realizes his presence is needed for her business and as a father figure for the kids. He is also an archetypal Shakespearian 'fool', behaving like a child but occasionally having moments of great insight. By the fifth season, Andy becomes more responsible in response to Nancy's absence as a mother to her children. He discovers that he is in love with Nancy, who cannot reciprocate the feelings.

Silas Botwin

Silas Botwin (Hunter Parrish), Nancy's oldest son, was traumatized by Judah's death, and takes it out on his mother and brother. Silas is impetuous and impulsive, and although he operates as though he knows everything, he is extremely naïve. Through numerous challenges with girlfriends, and dealing with the realities of the drug business, he decides that he wants in on the action. He pursues plant cultivation, and eventually goes into business with Doug, opening a medicinal marijuana dispensary.

Shane Botwin

Shane Botwin (Alexander Gould) is Nancy and Judah's younger son, and was with Judah at the time of his death. Intellectually-gifted and socially-stunted, Shane's grief manifests itself in bizarre ways, such as talking to his father like an imaginary friend. Called "Strange Botwin" by his fellow students, he is viewed as a freak at school, and is the frequent target of bullies. At home, he remains appropriately isolated and neglected by his family and their drug businesses. He turns toward sex, beer, wine, as well as increasing violence and disregard for rules, laws, and other social conventions. Shane's transformation reflects Nancy's absence as a proper mother to her children. It may also reflect his juxtaposing of grief for the loss of his father, and the less than normal lifestyle he found himself in.

Doug Wilson

Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon) is the fun-loving accountant and friend of Nancy, As a habitual weed smoker, he is also a steady weed buyer. Doug was a city councilman for Agrestic, but treated his position like a hobby and took advantage of it for the perks. His own apathetic view of his stature leads to him losing his elected seat to Celia. When his many fraudulent accounting practices are finally noticed, he feels forced to flee Agrestic/Magestic and follow Nancy's tribe to Ren Mar. It is implied that he has had his CPA license revoked. Doug has an unseen wife Dana whom he loves very much but who won't have sex with him. Doug also has a gay son Josh (Justin Chatwin) who appeared only in the pilot episode, though he is referenced in the fourth season. Doug eventually opens a medical marijuana dispensary with Silas, but his atrocious manners and abusive bargaining tactics frustrate Silas and threaten their partnership.

Conrad Shepard

Conrad Shepard (Romany Malco (S1-3)) is Nancy's initial supplier, under supervision of his aunt. Nancy met him years earlier through Andy. Although Conrad is very knowledgeable about the intricacies of cannabis cultivation, his aunt never allowed him to grow plants, insisting that they keep their business small. Despite this, he had worked on developing his own signature genetic blend. He becomes Nancy's business associate using this strain, and it is revealed that he has apparently held very strong feelings for Nancy for a long time.

Heylia James

Heylia James (Tonye Patano (S1-3)) is Conrad's aunt and supplier for Nancy. When Conrad goes against Heylia's instructions and continues to see Nancy, and with Nancy's DEA "husband" constricting her business, she forms a grudge against her. Heylia and Nancy eventually become reluctant partners. She is not seen again after Nancy flees Agrestic at the end of the third season.

Isabelle Hodes

Isabelle Hodes (Allie Grant (Guest S1-2, Regular S3-5)) is Celia's younger daughter, who frustrates her mother with her proclaimed lesbianism and unwillingness to lose weight. She becomes close friends with Shane Botwin, who bond over their abnormal mothers. Isabelle resents her mother, but seems to enjoy her father's company. She is openly a lesbian and a model for Huskaroo's clothes for overweight children.

Dean Hodes

Dean Hodes (Andy Milder (Guest S1-2 and 4-5, Regular S3)) is Isabelle and Quinn's father and Celia's husband, as well as Nancy's lawyer and Doug's poker buddy. Dean loves Isabelle, but has a constantly antagonistic relationship with Celia, which eventually leads to a divorce. Dean had a friendship with Doug until Doug slept with Celia. Dean recently performed a legal service for Silas and Doug, but not before slamming Doug's penis in a desk drawer.

Recurring cast

Actor	Role	Season appearances
Indigo	Vaneeta	1 - 3
Haley Hudson	Quinn Hodes	1, 4 - 5
Maulik Pancholy	Sanjay Patel	1 - 5
Renée Victor	Lupita	1 - 5
Becky Thyre	Pam	1 - 4
Martin Donovan	Peter Scottson	1 - 2
Shoshannah Stern	Megan	1 - 2
Matthew Modine	Sullivan Groff	3 - 4
Page Kennedy	U-turn	2 - 3
Fatso-Fasano	Marvin	2 - 4
Eden Sher	Gretchen	2
Remy Auberjonois	Mr. Albin	1 - 2
Mary-Kate Olsen	Tara Lindman	3
Jack Stehlin	Captain Roy Till	2 - 5
Julanne Chidi Hill	Clinique	3 - 4
Guillermo Díaz	Guillermo García Gómez	3 - 5
Tracii Show	Jada Henderson	1
Tressa DiFiglia	Maggie	1
Justin Chatwin	Josh Wilson	1
Meital Dohan	Yael Hoffman	2
Ron Canada	Joseph	2
Zooey Deschanel	Kat Wheeler	2 - 3
Shawn Michael Patrick	Agent George "Fundis" Fundislavsky	2 - 3
Daryl Sabara	Tim Scottson	1 - 3
Brooke Smith	Valerie Scottson	3
Albert Brooks	Lenny Botwin	4
Vincent Laresca	Alejandro	1 - 2
Sprague Grayden	Denise	3
Jeffrey Dean Morgan	Judah Botwin	1
Lexington Steele	himself	3
Carrie Fisher	Arlene Cutter	3
Rod Rowland	Chess	3
Demián Bichir	Esteban Reyes	4 - 5
Julie Bowen	Lisa	4
Enrique Castillo	Cesar	4 - 5
Joey Luthman	Rad Ferris	4 - 5
Hemky Madera	Ignacio	4 - 5
Ramón Franco	Sucio	4 - 5
Kevin Alejandro	Rudolfo	4 - 5
Larry Joe Campbell	Deputy C.P Jones	5
Jennifer Jason Leigh	Jill Price-Grey	5
Alanis Morissette	Dr. Audra Kitson	5 - 6
Kate del Castillo	Pilar Zuazo	5
Seychelle Gabriel	Adelita Reyes	5
Jamie Denbo	Raylene	5
Erin Sanders	Danielle/Pinky	5

Opening music

"Little Boxes" is the opening song for the first three seasons of the show; the version recorded by Malvina Reynolds is used during the first season. In Seasons 2 and 3, the song is performed by various artists. In Seasons 4 and 5, the original titles and music are replaced by a short clip, different for each episode, which bears relevance to the plot or some scene later in the episode.

Season 1

• Malvina Reynolds

Season 2

1. Elvis Costello
2. Death Cab for Cutie
3. Engelbert Humperdinck
4. Kate & Anna McGarrigle (in French)
5. Maestro Charles Barnett
6. Aidan Hawken
7. Ozomatli
8. The Submarines
9. Tim DeLaughter of Polyphonic Spree
10. Regina Spektor
11. Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice
12. Malvina Reynolds

Season 3

1. Randy Newman
2. Angelique Kidjo
3. Kinky (in Spanish)
4. Donovan
5. Billy Bob Thornton
6. The Shins
7. The Individuals
8. Man Man
9. Joan Baez
10. The Decemberists
11. Michael Franti
12. Persephone's Bees (partly in Russian)
13. Laurie Berkner
14. Linkin Park
15. Malvina Reynolds (opening)
    & Pete Seeger (closing)

Soundtracks

Music Supervisors for Weeds have included Gary Calamar (along with music coordinator Alyson Vidoli) (27 episodes), Amine Ramer (4 episodes), and Bruce Gilbert (3 episodes). Original score is provided by composers Brandon Jay and Gwendolyn Sanford.

Weeds: Music from the Original Series

• Released September 13, 2005

1. Malvina Reynolds - "Little Boxes"
2. Nellie McKay - "David"
3. Peggy Lee - "A Doodlin' Song"
4. Sufjan Stevens - "All The Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands"
5. Michael Franti & Spearhead - "Ganja Babe"
6. All Too Much - "More Than A Friend"
7. Sons & Daughters - "Blood"
8. The New Pornographers - "The Laws Have Changed"
9. Joey Santiago - "Fake Purse"
10. NRBQ - "Wacky Tobacky"
11. Marion Black - "Who Knows"
12. Martin Creed - "I Can't Move"
13. The Mountain Goats - "Cotton"
14. Joey Santiago - "Birthday Video"
15. Flogging Molly - "If I Ever Leave This World Alive"
16. The Be Good Tanyas - "The Littlest Birds"
17. Hill Of Beans - "Satan Lend Me a Dollar"

Weeds: Music from the Original Series, Volume 2

• Released October 17, 2006

1. Elvis Costello - "Little Boxes"
2. Zeroleen - "All Good"
3. of Montreal - "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games"
4. Jenny Owen Youngs - "Fuck Was I"
5. Fern Jones - "Strange Things Are Happening"
6. (The Real) Tuesday Weld - "Bathtime In Clerkenwell"
7. Gwendolyn Sanford & Brandon Jay - "Shane Digs Gretchen"
8. Rogue Wave - "Kicking The Heart Out"
9. Regina Spektor - "The Ghost of Corporate Future"
10. Dengue Fever - "One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula"
11. Aidan Hawken - "Neighborhood"
12. Squirrel Nut Zippers - "It Ain't You"
13. Gwendolyn Sanford & Brandon Jay - "From Agrestic to Las Vegas"
14. The 88 - "Not Enough"
15. Sufjan Stevens - "Holland"
16. Gwendolyn Sanford & Brandon Jay - "Huskaroo TV Spot"

Weeds: Music from the Original Series, Volume 3

• Released June 3, 2008 as digital-only release, retail release July 8.

1. Randy Newman - "Little Boxes"
2. Page France - "Chariot"
3. That 1 Guy - "Buttmachine"
4. Beirut - "Scenic World"
5. The Dresden Dolls - "Girl Anachronism"
6. Ween - "You Fucked Up"
7. Oh No! Oh My! - "Walk In The Park"
8. Illinois - "Nosebleed"
9. Great Lake Swimmers - "Your Rocky Spine"
10. Mr. Smolin - "The Earth Keeps Turning On"
11. Kevin Nealon - "Just Like The Superdome"
12. State Radio - "Keepsake"
13. Eleni Mandell - "Let's Drive Away"
14. The Shins - "Little Boxes" (iTunes Exclusive)

Weeds: Music from the Original Series, Volume 4

• Released June 9, 2009

1. DeVotchKa - "A New World"
2. Nortec Collective - "Tengo La Voz"
3. Greg Weeks - "Made"
4. The Free Design - "Love You"
5. That Handsome Devil - "Mexico"
6. Miss Li - "Don't Try To Fool Me"
7. Tunng - "Bullets"
8. Mucca Pazza - "Borino Oro"
9. Los Mono - "Se Puede"
10. Linus of Hollywood - "Thank You For Making Me Feel Better"
11. The Mountain Goats - "International Small Arms Traffic Blues"
12. Toots & The Maytals - "Celia"
13. Soul Swingers - "Brighter Tomorrow"

DVD and Blu-ray releases

DVD Name	# of Ep	Release dates
		Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
Season One	10	July 11, 2006	September 3, 2007	July 18, 2007
Season Two	12	July 24, 2007	January 7, 2008	May 28, 2008
Season Three	15	June 3, 2008	May 26, 2008	July 8, 2009
Season Four	13	June 2, 2009	November, 2009	March 17, 2010
Season Five	13	January 19, 2010	TBA	TBA

The Region 1 Season One DVD is only available in 4:3 pan and scan format. The Region 2 and 4 releases are all in anamorphic widescreen.

Season One was released on Blu-ray on May 29, 2007, and Season Two was released on July 24, 2007. Both seasons include all episodes in 1080p widescreen with Dolby Digital EX sound and either DTS-HD (Season One) or LPCM (Season Two), as well as extras exclusive to the Blu-ray release. Season Three was released on Blu-ray on June 3, 2008. Seasons One to Three on Blu-ray are multi-region discs, but Season Four has been region-locked to region A only. This is due to a lack of broad international pick-up by non-US broadcasters at the time of release, meaning Showtime do not wish to prejudice any future transmission rights negotiations by having the season available to own before it could be broadcast in the countries concerned. In late 2009 Weeds Season Four and Season Five have been aired in at least one region B country, namely The Netherlands . As a result of that, a region 2 DVD of Season 4 has indeed been released . However, this region 2 DVD release was not accompanied by a region B Blu-ray. Showtime have not commented on whether they ever anticipate releasing a region B Blu-ray version, whether or not any further non-US transmission rights are agreed. The same region locking has been applied to Blu-ray Season Five.

The Season Two DVD was rejected by the British Board of Film Classification for an extra feature which was regarded as "likely [...] to promote and encourage the use of illegal drugs."!.

Books

On August 7, 2007, Simon Spotlight, a division of Simon and Schuster, published In the Weeds: The Official Guide to the Showtime Series by Kera Bolonik, which features interviews with the show's creator, its writers and crew, and the entire cast. It also features detailed character and plot descriptions, recipes, and lots of trivia and behind-the-scenes information.

Viewership

In its first year, Weeds was the highest rated series for Showtime. Its fourth-season premiere attracted 1.3 million viewers to Showtime, the channel's highest-ever viewership; the season as a whole averaged 962,000 viewers. Season 5 premiered to 1.2 million viewers, with a rerun on the same night adding another 500,000 viewers for a cumulative 1.7 million. The final episode of the show's fifth season aired on August 31, 2009 and attracted 1.3 million viewers.

Critical response

Slate magazine named the character of Nancy Botwin as one of the best on television and one of the reasons they were looking forward to the return of the show in fall 2007.

Time magazine's James Poniewozik named it one of the Top 10 Returning Series of 2007, ranking it at #9.

The New York Times opined the show is "transforming for Showtime."

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of Weeds awards and nominations

Won

Award	Title	Credit	Year
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
Satellite Awards	Outstanding Actor in a Series- Comedy	Justin Kirk	2008

Nominated

Golden Globe Awards

Best TV Series-Comedy (2006, 2007, 2009)

Best Performance by a TV Supporting Actress Elizabeth Perkins (2006, 2007)

Best Performance by a TV Actress in a Musical or Comedy Mary-Louise Parker (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)

Best Performance by a TV Supporting Actor Justin Kirk (2007)

Screen Actors Guild

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Mary-Louise Parker (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)

Ensemble In A Comedy Series (2007, 2009)

Satellite Awards

Outstanding Actress in a Series-Comedy Elizabeth Perkins (2005)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-series, or TV Movie Elizabeth Perkins(2006)

Best Actress in a Series, Comedy or Musical Mary-Louise Parker (2006, 2008)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series, or TV Movie Justin Kirk (2007)

Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical (2007, 2008)

Emmy Awards

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Elizabeth Perkins (2006, 2007, 2009)

Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series Craig Zisk, for the episode Good Shit Lollipop (2006)

Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series (2006, 2007)

Outstanding Main Title Design (2006)

Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series, for the episode Good Shit Lollipop (2006)

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Mary-Louise Parker (2007, 2008, 2009)

Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series, for the episode Mrs. Botwin's Neighborhood (2007)

Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series, for the episode Crush Girl Love Panic (2007)

Outstanding Comedy Series (2009)

International distribution

• Germany — ZDFneo

• Serbia — TV Avala

• Slovenia — RTV Slovenia 1

• Israel - yes Stars Drama

• Portugal — RTP2

External links

• Official websites:
  • Official website on Showtime
  • Official website on Showcase
• Weeds at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com