As predicted, the finale of Weeds was excellent TV drama! Oh, wait — it’s a comedy? Well, ain’t that funny? Heck, I was too scared for Nancy to notice any humor.

The title, “If You Work For a Living, Why Do You Kill Yourself Working?” is the question of Nancy’s story arc. Remember those carefree days when Nancy was crossing the border, thinking she had drugs in her Prius, or crossing the border with an illegal immigrant and drugs in Guillermo’s truck, or waiting with Andy in the desert for a drug drop made by the Mexican police? She felt she owed her family for what she had put them through. She wanted to work to live and live well. When Guillermo asked her to be a retail store manager, she was disappointed. But it turns out by doing something less dangerous (retail) for even more money, she winds up doing something that’s equivalent to suicide because it was the right thing to do.

The day starts as Cesar tells Esteban that the agent gave Nancy’s name. Esteban knows it’s true, but declines to fully entertain the thought because he knows what it will mean. He tells Cesar that he can’t trust the word of a tortured man and tells him to keep looking for the real culprit. It’s not that love is blind; it’s more that love is hopeful.

Captain Till questions Nancy. Her legal counsel is Dean Hodes, a true indication that Nancy knew she had a solid deal with the DEA. The faux questioning session is interrupted when another agent summons Till. … continue reading

I’m sure I’m telling you nothing new by saying that powerful, strong female characters are a rarity on television these days. But (thankfully) we do have a few of them. They’re detectives, doctors, attorneys, and heck, they’re even pot-dealing soccer moms.

But regardless, they’re scarcer than they should be, and what’s worse — their characters are often overly flawed. (See the linster’s post about In Plain Sight for a ridiculously spot-on example.) Additionally, their characters are usually either sexless (see: Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU) or their storylines are based almost solely on their love-life (see: Meredith Grey on Grey’s Anatomy).

These issues, among others (see: far too few queer women on TV), are concerns that we’re all too familiar with at AfterEllen.com; the problem seems to lie in the fact that no one else recognizes it. Or, at the very least, no one with the power to do so does anything about it.

So, the other day, when I stumbled upon an article by Stuart Levine on MSNBC titled, “Powerful TV women must face backlash,” I smiled a little bit on the inside. I couldn’t help but think — for a fleeting moment — that things are turning around. After all, if you’ve glanced through Malinda Lo’s "TCA Diaries" lately, you’ve read all about some fantastic shows currently on TV that accurately and responsibly portray strong female leads. It was in this vein that I gleefully opened the article, ready for a poignant look at women in television. What I got, quite simply, was a big pile of nothingness. … continue reading

I dug this episode of Weeds but goodness it made me nervous! Nancy is breaking the law all over the North American continent, ya’ll. The girl has gone international. I’m watching the season cold with no knowledge of spoilers but I’m thinking this trafficking thing can’t end well.

This episode, “Lady’s a Charm,” highlights the charms of Nancy, who is now Guillermo’s drug smuggling ace-in-the-hole Blanca. Blanca, for the Spanish language challenged, means white en Espanol. Isn’t that clever? No, not really? Oh.

Guillermo breaks Nancy’s taillight and plans to send her to Tijuana to get it fixed. He also tells her to bring back prescription inhalers from a pharmacy while she’s down there. For her efforts she’ll get ten grand and oodles of trust from Guillermo. He gives her a bobble-head Jesus for her dashboard to keep her safe then sends her on her way.

Nancy finds the specific body shop and is told to come back in an hour. She knows that they’re sealing drugs somewhere into her car but as they say ignorance is bliss and apparently Nancy’s quite blissful to even be involved in all this mess. But she’s caliente so I’ll give her a pass.

To cross back into the States she has to sit in a two-hour line. Now that’s some awful drug traffic right there! She gets thirsty and buys an iced coffee from a roving vendor. Word of caution, avoid drinking fluids while waiting in a two-hour line at the border. There are no bathrooms. Oh well, when you have to go you have to go. Nancy wiggles into the backseat and goes in the same cup from which she just drank her iced coffee. Lovely. Not. Fine, I laughed.

Shane calls to tell Nancy that Isabelle told him Celia’s in jail and has named Nancy as the grow-house kingpin. Bet that’s not great news to hear while sitting in line at the border with drugs sealed in your car. … continue reading

The new season of Weeds brings a particular kind of challenge for a blogger: finding new wordplay in the cannabistic world of weed. (See what I did there? Cannabistic? OK, some work, some don’t.) I mean, how many times can I say that Mary Louise Parker is smokin’?

Actually, I probably can say it over and over, as long as I post a picture that proves it. In any case, Season 4 starts tonight on Showtime with Nancy and her high-flying crew in a brand new city on the coast. (Maybe I can work in “coral reefer” somehow. No?) The new, non-suburban setting means that one of my favorite parts of the show is no longer relevant: the theme song, “Little Boxes.”

As music supervisor Christopher Noxon explains to Wired, “With Nancy moving out of Agrestic and out of her ‘little box,’ it just didn’t make sense to stick with ‘Little Boxes.’” Personally, I love the song. I’m partial to the version by the Womenfolk, which (moment of trivia) was the shortest song ever to be on the Billboard Hot 100. Raise your hand if you had an outfit, hairstyle or guitar like this. I got two out of three. … continue reading