Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Weeds Is A Showtime TV Hit Series About Selling Pot

By Alexis Snow

If there's been a defining trend for the last ten years, it has been the tendency towards realism in fictional television. Blame it on reality television, which really changed the landscape for all of television. Weeds is one of the funniest in this trend and definitely deserves a spot on your list next time you're downloading from 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 and utilizes a great concept: Suburban single mom runs a massive marijuana selling empire. You get an equal mix of great stoner humor, crime storytelling and family drama, and it's always funny.

The show is both real and funny, and full of great characters like The Candyman, actually a woman, a fitness nut who runs a bakery and refuses to sell to anyone who won't promise to exercise regularly to burn off the fat they get from her delicious cupcakes and brownies.

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.

Be warned that the show is quite addictive. Each season is really designed as a self contained story, as opposed to each episode, so when you watch one, you'll want to watch the next one right away. Make sure to download a whole season at a time if you really want to enjoy the series. Just be ready to set a few hours aside whenever you want to sit down and watch. - 40726

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