Wednesday, August 25, 2010

See Showtime's New TV Hit Series Weeds

By Alexis Snow

One of the best and funniest tv shows of the last ten years would have to be Weeds. The show is one of many in the trend that defined television for the last decade: Realism. Weeds definitely belongs on your queue the next time you log into your TV and movie download service.

The realism trend probably began with shows like Survivor. See, for a time, TV shows were becoming incredibly predictable. You always knew exactly what was gonna happen, you knew every punchline to every joke, it was just the same old stuff time and again, and people just didn't care anymore. It wasn't hard for shows like Survivor and Top Chef to steal viewers away by the thousands.

Along came reality television. Say what you will about it, but it did make some changes. TV producers found that viewers really responded better to more realistic scenarios, more real people. Even if reality shows are staged, even if they can be crass and artless, the fact remains that they use real human emotions and drama to build the whole package, even if that real drama is sometimes twisted around in editing to seem more extreme than it really is.

Anyways, after the revolution of reality TV, people like David Chase took the hint. Chase's Sopranos started a new wave in fictional television: Take the realism of reality TV and mix it with the strong storytelling of fictional television, and you have a show that is literally the best of both worlds. The Sopranos led to similar shows like LOST, House MD, and, of course, Weeds.

Weeds follows the same trend, with a really funny concept: A suburban single mother makes ends meet by selling weed. It's part stoner humor, part crime story and part family drama, and very funny.

The show is really defined by some great characters. The Candyman is one of the best. She's actually a female character, codenamed the Candyman. She runs a bakery that specializes in marijuana goodies. She's also a fitness nut, refusing to sell to anyone who doesn't promise to exercise and burn off the extra calories provided by her brownies and cupcakes.

When you watch the show, you have two big plot threads to root on: First of all, she has to keep her family in order and make sure her children are safe and happy, and secondly, she wants to keep building her weed empire to eventually become the primary provider of primo stuff in her sprawling suburban community.

The show is quite addictive, of course. It's structured as such that each episode is only a chapter and each season is really a self contained story, so download a full season at a time and be ready to spend several hours a night catching up on what happens next. Don't worry, it's an incredibly rewarding show and each season is well worth the time it takes to sit down and watch it all in one or two sittings, just be fore warned that you WILL be sitting there watching half a season or a full season every single time you want to watch a single episode. Think of it like Lays potato chips: Betcha can't have just one. - 40723

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