TV: Weeds Series Finale Thoughts

***SPOILERS FOR WEEDS SERIES FINALE***

Smells a little stale, doesn’t it Nancy?

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead.

And so it was that after eight seasons and 15 in-story-years later that the saga of the Botwin family came to a much needed end.  Television finales get a lot of grief from viewers because their favorite show didn’t end the way that they, as a person who sits on a couch and watches, would have liked.  People want closure with their make-believe people and the make-believe problems they have, it’s a principle that this country was built on.  So does Weeds bring the closure?  Ummm…sure.  For the past two seasons the show has had almost no stakes whatsoever, and it became a bunch of ridiculous people doing ridiculous things.  The series finale is no different.  I found no reason to care about what happened to any of these characters except perhaps the zen-master/chef Andy.  The only true feeling that Weeds has managed to evoke from me recently is my utter dislike for Nancy Botwin as a protagonist, mother and human being.  So…good job Jenji Kohan?  It’s times like this that I wish jumptheshark.com was still around to catalog the many leaps Weeds has taken over the years.  (Aside: Did you know that if you type in “jumptheshark.com now it just leads you to TV Guide’s homepage?  How very depressing.  If I were to travel back in time and warn my 14-year old self, he would be crushed.  End of Aside.)

Remember these guys? He’s still fat and he’s still gay! HILARIOUS!

Weeds’ two-part finale picked up not where the previous episode left off, but seven years in the future (The third time jump in two seasons.)  It was full of a bunch of  “where are they now?” questions that you didn’t even know you cared nothing about.  On Team “Happy and Fulfilled” we have Silas and Andy.  On Team “Full of Moral & Personal Regret” we have Shane and Nancy (who is now thrice widowed.)  And then there is Doug, the token buffoon who season after season becomes even more of a token buffoon, as mandated by TV comedy rules and regulations.  Except now he decides to rekindle his relationship with his son that everyone totally remembered existed.  And in this curiously framed finale, the writers also saw it fit to reveal to Nancy’s son Stevie that his father was a drug lord (and Antonio Banderas impressionist.) This revelation added a whole extra layer of plot that could’ve been better served over the course of the season.

I don’t set out to tear a creator’s work apart, I tend to avoid that kind of criticism.  This was a show that I used to really like however, so I followed it to its end.  When it started out Weeds was funny, borderline absurd and mildly dangerous.  I remember a time when I did care about what happened to Nancy and the gang.  It was a time where a family lost their patriarch and a suburbanite widow entered a world that she knew nothing about to make sure that family stuck together.  Unfortunately that show is barely recognizable in this series finale.  Maybe series creator Jenji Kohan is satisfied with how Weeds ended.  Me? Not so much.  What do I know though, I’m just a person who sits on the couch and watches.

Weeds Series Finale Final Grade: ★½    1.5/5 Stars

In the future everyone’s hair is slightly different. Except Kevin Nealon’s, who is doomed to be permanently balding without actually going bald.

Graceful Exits on TV

Within the past two weeks, Showtime has announced that two of their long-running popular series are coming to a close.  Weeds returns next Sunday July 1st for its eighth and final season.  A few months back, their serial-killer drama Dexter was renewed for two more seasons.  Now it seems that those two would be the show’s last seasons, putting the show at eight seasons as well.

As much as I enjoy film, their stories are limited to under three hours.  On the other hand, there is something very rewarding and satisfying about watching a story unfold at a slower pace over the course of TV series’ episodes and seasons.  Getting to know the inner workings of Don Draper’s mind for five+ years makes watching Mad Men that much more enjoyable.  But, as we shall one day leave this mortal coil and pass through the glorious gates of Valhalla, so too must TV series come to an end.

Sometimes shows go too soon, others are the loveable brother that sleeps on your couch for way too long (I was that brother, by the way.)  TV shows usually end two ways: A) The show is not bringing in the ratings the network wants and they pull the plug (Arrested Development, Deadwood) or B) After a long and healthy run, the show ends and is put out to pasture.  And the thing about the latter option is that you can either make a graceful exit, by saying “we’ve told our story, it’s over,” (Lost, The Sopranos) or you can milk a franchise for all it’s worth and run it into the ground for an excessive amount of years (*cough cough* The Office.)

As much fun as Weeds once was, I had been praying to the TV gods that the drug-dealing mama would trade in the pot brownies for more traditional desserts for a while.  Dexter might still have a chance at a well-deserved retirement however.  Though many would argue that the show peaked two years ago with John Lithgow’s excellent performance as “The Trinity Killer,” the way season six wrapped up leaves potential for some interesting stories that could really give Dexter the shot in the arm it needs to be great again.

So here’s a question to my five readers out there: What show do you think has overstayed its welcome?  Do you really still care how that guy met your mother?  REALLY?