Friday , March 29 2024
Season 4 starts strong as the family moves into a new town and a (mostly) new life.

Weeds Season 4 Preview

The third season of Weeds ended with a fiery conclusion that left us all guessing what the Botwins would be up to this year. With the family homeless and Celia (Elizabeth Perkins) in jail and pointing the finger at Nancy (Mary Louise-Parker), anything can happen. This Monday the fourth season of Weeds has everything turned upside down and the family changing in ways they could not predict.

Weeds started as a show about a woman starting to dabble in the drug trade as a way to get by after her husband passes away. Over the course of the last three (great) seasons Nancy shifted into a position where she wanted to be the best dealer and producer. During her voyage she noticeably shifted from doing all of this for her family and began doing more for herself and entered into a selfish stage. I will confess I actually was disliking Nancy quite a bit as I could see her losing touch with her kids and brother-in-law.

click to view larger imageA recent interview with Jenji Kohan and Roberto Benabib (series’ executive producers) revealed that this season will focus on change — of locale, of Nancy’s role in the drug trade, and in the families’ relationship. According to Jenji, Nancy will evolve; she will fall in love and she will try to bring her family back together. However, she will also accept her fate as a drug dealer and will put all she can into being the best at her profession as she can be.

Season 4 starts with the family homeless and traveling to and from Andy’s (Justin Kirk) grandmother’s home, which is in the border town of Ren Mar, California. Nancy tells everyone it is to start a new life away from the suburbs, but in reality she is beginning to work with gang drug runner Guillermo (Guillermo Diaz), who will get her to help with his cross-border drug business. When they arrive they discover not all is well with the grandmother and Andy’s father Lenny (Albert Brooks) is her caretaker. Lenny dislikes Nancy and wishes Judah had never married her, and wishes he could disown Andy for a number of reasons.

The first episode was a solid re-introduction to the series and a very interesting take on the premise. We are no longer looking at drugs in suburbia; we are now focusing on the life of this family as they settle into this new home and Nancy’s new direction. Of course the show has always been about complications and both Celia and Lenny dislike Nancy and will try to do what they can to put her in her place. Lenny will put her down and Celia will try to get her back for being arrested by telling everyone Nancy is the Kingpin.

My only complaint so far is that Doug (Kevin Nealon) is not with the family (yet I hope) and we have to content ourselves with little snippets of what he is doing in Majestic as the fires are spreading. Doug is truly the comedic highlight of the show and I hope they find a way to bring him into the fold in Ren Mar.

click to view larger imageThe second episode has Nancy doing her first work with Guillermo and it is not as easy as she thought. Lenny and Andy have a face-off and we see why Lenny dislikes his son so much. Suffice to say, Lenny fits right in with this dysfunctional family. Silas (Hunter Parrish) and Shane (Alexander Gould) are simply settling in and are not terribly active in the story arc. Celia is still in prison and is not doing well; she fingered Nancy for the grow house but so far no one quite believes her.

So far Weeds is starting its fourth season very strongly with an introduction of many changes and a strong new character in the form of Lenny. Considering how far the writers of the show have pushed the envelope while they were in suburbia I can only imagine the craziness that awaits the Botwin clan in a town nestling the Mexico border. Weeds has always been an extraordinary show with a great cast of characters and it’s promising to deliver more groundbreaking moments as we follow their antics this season. Do yourself a favor and tune in to Showtime on Monday June 16th for the premiere episode of the fourth season.

About Michael Prince

A longtime video game fan starting from simple games on the Atari 2600 to newer titles on a bleeding edge PC I play everything I can get my hands on.

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