TV-Reviewed

I had never watched an episode of Weeds until a few months ago when I got the first few seasons on Bluray, but I’m glad I did take the time to watch the first four seasons. They were all very good. The fifth season of the series is now here and the Botwins are trying to make their home along the Mexican border town of Ren Mar.

The fourth season ended with Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) saving her behind from the Mexican mafia by claiming she was pregnant. This was a bombshell at the time and with the fifth season premiere, everyone at home learned of the news. It was definitely a piece of unwelcome news.

Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin

Nancy’s pregnancy really did save her ass last year. If she weren’t pregnant by Esteban (Demián Bichir), I think it’s safe to say that she would be dead because of her ties with law enforcement. However, the news of her pregnancy hit everyone at home like a ton of bricks.

Andy (Justin Kirk) was really hit hard. He’s finally recognizing his feelings for his sister-in-law and those feelings were smashed by the news of Nancy’s pregnancy. I wasn’t as impressed by Justin’s acting as I usually am. His character pretty much shut it down after hearing the news and it was all very out of character.

Silas (Hunter Parrish) and Shane (Alexander Gould) didn’t take the news any easier. I suppose it would be hard to accept the idea of your mother getting pregnant after your father passed away. I’m not so sure how I would handle that sort of thing, but in the case of Nancy Botwin, well, I guess it isn’t so surprising. Nancy is frankly a bit of a floozy.

Celia’s (Elizabeth Perkins) story was a total waste of time. I honestly don’t know why they even tried to go that route with Celia’s previously unseen daughter. It was just brutal. It was terrible TV.

I was frankly disappointed by “Wonderful Wonderful.” There wasn’t much in the way of content here. Much of this episode is deleted scene-quality. I don’t know how Weeds creator Jenji Kohan could have been pleased with the way the season started. That fun little flash mob at the end was probably the most entertaining thing in the episode and that isn’t saying a whole lot.

Rating: 6.8