Will Weeds Go Up in Smoke?

On August 7, 2005 Showtime introduced a new t.v. series,a comedy/drama that seemed to raise a few eyebrows. Weeds is based on a single widowed mother of two boys that with no prior skills or schooling she has to find a way to make money to support her family.This suburban mom is introduced to the idea of selling pot and soon finds out not only is she pretty good at it but she makes a lot of money doing it.The neighborhood that they live in Agrestic,a gated community,is considered upper class,but behind their immaculate landscaped lawns and thousand dollar smiles are dirty little secrets.

Heading up this mostly veteran cast is Mary Louise Parker who plays mom Nancy Botwin. Mary Louise is known for her diverse acting skills. Born August 2,1964 in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, she started her acting career at a very young age.She attended North Carolina School of Arts majoring in Drama. Working hard in her career in theater, films and television series it has paid off she has won a Golden Globe award for her performance in "Angels in America" and a Tony award for a Broadway play called " Reckless". Her film credits are just as impressive they include,"Fried Green Tomatoes","Grand Canyon","Boys on the Side","The Client","Saved!" and "Bullets over Broadway" naming only a few. Although Mary Louise was not a household name in the 1990's the critics let her flourish in the spotlight by referring to her as "Darling".With 6 awards now in total and 8 nominations under her belt she is doing better than ever.

Playing Nancy's wayward aimless brother in law Andy Botwin is Justin Kirk. Born May 28,1969 in Salem,Oregon Justin grew up in Union, Washington where he attended school on a Indian Reservation. After graduating high school Justin moved to New York where he aspired to be a actor, after completing a 2 year acting program at Circle in the Square he landed his first Broadway role "Any Given Day". Justin made his first television premiere in Jack and Jill and currently stars in Weeds.

Portraying Nancy Botwins oldest son who is hitting his teenage years hard and bucking authority ,Silas Botwin, played by Hunter Parish, born May 13,1987 in Richmond, Virginia Hunter has already won a award for Best Actor in 2005 for a feature film called "Steal Me". He has been the following films as well,"Freedom Writers","Down in the Valley " and "Sleepover" as well as television series appearances in "CSI","Close to Home" and "Summerland".

Portraying Nancy Botwins youngest son,Shane Botwin he's the one that is having the hardest time dealing with the loss of his father.Played by Alexander Gould.Born May 4,1994 in Los Angeles,California, he began acting at a very young age of only 2 years. Alexander is best known for his vocal talents as Nemo in Pixars Finding Nemo. He has also made guest appearances on "Ally McBeal" and " Malcolm in the Middle".

Veteran actress Toney Patano plays Heylia a strong willed woman who takes care of her inner city family,she is Nancy's supplier for her thriving pot dealing business. Toney was part of the original cast for the Broadway play "45 Seconds from Broadway".She has appeared in "Law and Order","Sex and the City","Monk" and "Third Watch" ,as well as made for tv movies "The Jesse Owens Story" and "Highway Heartbreaker". Her feature films include "The Savages","Little Manhattan","The Great Wonderful" and "Messengers".

Portraying Heylias nephew, Conrad Sheppard who takes a high interest in Nancy both professionally and personally is Romany Malco.Born in Brooklyn, New York Romany started his career at age 7, but not in acting.Romany was known in the rapping world as Kid Nice and in his teens he formed a group called R.M.G. which later changed their name to College Boyz after moving to Los Angeles, California where they scored a record deal with Virgin Records. College Boyz single "Victim of the Ghetto" went #1 on the rap billboard charts.Later Romany produced albums for Paula Abdul and CeCe Peniston.Being encouraged by John Leguizamo, Romany stepped into acting career landing roles in "The 40 year old virgin" and "Blades of Glory."

Portraying Nancy's friend and nemesis Celia Hodes, a superficial P.T.A. president for her daughters school and supposed supermom is veteran actress Elizabeth Perkins. Born November 18,1960 in Queens, New York, after graduating high school Elizabeth studied at the famous Goodman School of Drama in Chicago, Illinois. In 1984 she made her first theater debut in Neil Simons "Brighton Beach Memoirs" on Broadway.In 1986 Elizabeth was listed as one of the 12 "Promising New Actors" and in 1986 made her first film debut in " About last night..." .Also, in 1986 she landed a role that boosted her career breakthrough starring opposite Tom Hanks in "Big".Elizabeth has also starred in "He said she said","The Flintstones Movie", "28 Days", "Must love dogs" and "The Ring two " as well as roles in made for t.v. movies "For their own good " and " If these walls could talk". She has received 2 Golden Globe awards for best supporting actress in a T.V series,miniseries or made for t.v. movie.

Nancy's accountant and business adviser also one of her best clients is Doug Wilson,good hearted he tries to offer help and advice which usually turns out not to be so good due to his not thinking to clearly,actor and stand up comedian Kevin Nealon.Born November 18,1953 in Bridgeport,Connecticut Kevin is best known for his array of characters from Saturday Night Live,which he was from 1986 to 1995.Kevin graduated from Sacred Heart University with a Bachelors degree and in the process worked part time doing stand up comedy.He has made appearances in movies such as ,"Happy Gilmore","Anger Management","Little Nicky","Daddy Daycare" and "Grandmas Boy".Kevin is also the host of the poker show " Poker Royale".

Episode recaps:

Episode: "Nancy's promise" Celia tries to get Nancy to put a camera concealed in teddy bear in her oldest sons room to spy on him.Nancy states " I trust my kids" and Celia " rebuttals " they are all liars".Since Nancy refuses to put a spy camera in Silas room Celia wants her to promise that her daughter and Nancy's son won't ever have sex in their house.

Episode:"Family Dinner" Nancy comes home with a chicken dinner and tells her boys "dinner in 10 minutes" everyone has an excuse,even her brother in law.Nancy gets angry and yells at them " So help me God,I've had we're going to be a family if I have to kill all of you!".

Episode:"Last tango in Agrestic" Nancy has to call out a plumber because her lines are backed up.The plumber tells her that someone has been flushing socks in the toilet,shocked by this she says " Socks?" the plumber replies " I assume that you have a young boy around 12,you and your husband should have a talk with him or I'll have to come back next week and snake your pipes all over again",almost dumbfounded she realizes what he is talking about.

Last season ended with many twists and turns like Silas getting his girlfriend pregnant,Nancy marrying a D.E.A. agent on the whim,Celias daughter becoming a plus size kid model,Andy losing a couple toes,Celia becoming City Council beating out Doug and Nancy creating her own pot business her first sell going to Snoop Dogg who doted Nancy's pot naming it " M.I.L.F. weed" .

The reviews on Weeds have been for the most part positive,it is a adult based show with a lot of strong language and sexual content.One anonymous review stated "The "dramedy" is about drug dealing in suburbs.It is really not intended for younger audiences because of the drug content,sexual and language content as well.The show tries to be a bit realistic in reflection." Reviewer Betsy Bozdech states "Weeds isn't the first t.v. show to expose the so called dark side of the suburbs.Of course all the characters have a bit of good and bad mixed in which makes this complex cast interesting.This show has moments of laugh out loud comedy and poignantly drama.Definitely geared towards adults because most of the cast swears like sailors and often use implications towards sexual content.Agrestic may be complicated,smoky and even sometimes shocking but never boring".Reviewer DFisher states "This show delivers just enough comedy and drama which I love.The cast is fantastic and I compare it to "Desperate Housewives" but a little more raunchy.I believe this show would not be complete without the foul language and sexual content.Showtime is definitely becoming a network to watch!".