Weeds: The Most Overrated Show on Television
The Showtime hit series Weeds has garnered lots of attention, including right here by our very own JessB, more so than other Showtime series like Huff and Brotherhood. Perhaps it is the central conceit of having a suburban white women sell marijuana, giving twenty-something white kids the pleasure of both the familiar (moms) and the unfamiliar (moms dealing weed). “Weeds Nights,” where, surprise, surprise, mostly white, twenty-somethings get together to watch a new episode when it airs are becoming increasingly common. I can understand if this is just an excuse to get together with friends to get high, but if that were the case, don’t be so literal. Either go with something classic like dropping LSD and renting El Topo or think obliquely and snort coke while watching The Wire. While Weeds is not atrociously bad, it does not deserve the level of praise it is getting from the general public (i.e. my friends). Here are three reasons why it is overrated:
1. Critiquing suburbia is boring and unoriginal. Weeds takes place in an idyllic development called Agrestic which, SPOLIER ALERT!, hides something sinister! What would really be radical is to create a show that does not expose the hideous underbelly of suburbian existence. At this point, film and television have squeezed every iota of interest out of the suburbs. We get it, suburban people are two-faced. The last time this overused trope was successfully implemented was in the opening shot of Blue Velvet by David Lynch and that was over 20 years ago (and, no, I did not forget the equally overrated American Beauty). A poststructuralist critique of the Peloponnesian War has more relevance than this show. Weeds is the television equivalent of the phenomenon where someone yawns because they see someone else yawn. And just in case you are very, very slow, Weeds helpfully clues you in to its abundantly obvious premise in the opening credits, where it shows carbon copies of suburbanites doing typically surburban things, like shopping and running. Get it? Do you get it? In fact, Weeds assumes the viewer is a cretin who cannot figure out the underlying context without being pummeled over the head with a schtick. Get it? Do you get my little joke? It is a play on words. Homophones? Get it? Let me know if you don’t.
2. Weeds trafficks in cliched stereotypes. The creator of Weeds, Jenji Kohan (disgression: the creator’s name, whether given at birth or invented later, evokes a level of loathing unseen since BoingBoing egoist and man-woman, Xeni Jardin nee Jenny Gardener, hit the scene), is convinced she is exploring new territory with her show. While she may be delusional on that front, she sure has a knack for reproducing racial stereotypes. The black mother is a large, domineering woman who rules the roost with pithy snark, the black daughter is a young, unwed mother with a surly attitude, the black son is a drugdealer, the Hispanic woman is a maid, the Hispanic man is a drugdealer, the young Indian guy is a neutered, clueless naif, the young white son is a smart but awkward loser, the Jewish uncle is a conniving parasite, and the Jewish uncle’s love interest is a pretty, but masculine, militaristic Israeli. I am looking forward to next season where they will introduce a mincing gay hairdresser and a studious Chinese student. I can’t tell if this is a groundbreaking new comedy or a KKK pamphlet. Regardless of intent, this is at the very least lazy and offensive hack writing. The only character who can’t be summed up in three words is the middle class, white woman protagonist. Hmmm, I wonder how Jenji grew up?
3. The opening theme music and the various songs that close each show are annoying and obvious. This is really two complaints and I’ll address the second one first. Each episode “dramatically” closes with a song. There is nothing necessarily bad about that, Deadwood does the same thing to great effect, even when they employ tunes that are jarringly contemporary. But Weeds, in keeping with its holistically terrible approach to scripting, tends to choose the most obvious possible song to close out each episode. Are we supposed to feel bad for a meanspirited character? I know, let’s use “Sympathy for the Devil” by The Rolling Stones. Get it? Seriously, do you get it? If you corraled ten people with a modicum of music knowledge and showed them the final scene in a Weeds episode, 8 out of 10 could guess what song will be played over the closing credits.
My problem with the opening theme music has more to do with its repetitive use over time. The “Ticky Tacky” song is, when encountered for the first time, fairly amusing. It is quirky, catchy, and original, everything that Weeds wishes it was, but is not. But upon hearing it for the 1000th time, its idiosyncracies become grating and cloying. The second season attempts to mitigate this by using different covers of the song each episode. While a valiant effort, this ploy backfires because it highlights the many ways in which the theme song is obnoxious and obvious. Please play this GooTube clip loudly twenty times in a row to get a taste of what I mean:
While there are far worse television shows, Weeds seems to have a lot of cultural capital at the moment. In reality, its coffers are empty and it stays solvent only by employing an array of deceitful accounting tricks. And just like Enron, this piece of shit show will implode, leaving a lot of very unhappy viewers in its wake. When that day comes, the epitaph will read: “Here Lies Weeds, a Show that Always Asked the Question: ‘Get It???’”
Last 3 posts by Todd
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Now I have a dilemma, on the one hand JJ says that the show is great and on the other Todd says it is pure drivel. Who should I believe?
October 12th, 2006 at 9:37 am
Maybe you should let the government of India tell you what to believe!
October 12th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
Well Todd seems to look at things in a scholarly way which leads him to discover the true shitty nature of the world in a roundabout way. Me, I already realize that the world is shit and use television as an escape to numb my brain for 30 to 60 minutes at a time. Neither of us is right or wrong - you just need to come to your own conclusion.
You should come to that conclusion by pirating the shows rather than spending money to view them ergo satisfying your curiosity (and numbing your brain) while not giving money to the stereotypes perpetuated by the wretched money-grubbing monolith that is SHO.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:18 am
You make a good point Jess, except for the part that neither of us is right.
October 16th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
Why do you hate America?
October 17th, 2006 at 8:54 pm
I don’t hate America the Shining City on a Hill, I hate America the liberal cesspool of occultism.
October 17th, 2006 at 9:19 pm
Oooh, right. Rock on. I hadn’t realized there was a difference.
You must tell me more about this Shiny America sometime, as I like shiny things.
October 18th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
on the one hand i think you are an idiot, Weeds is a great program assessing (in subtle ways) how marijuana haS been demonized by the media and how thAt has affected its existence, on the other hand i Just think you are an idiot.
you just DONT ”get it”, as you say
-a stoner
November 13th, 2006 at 3:37 am
thank you. i myself think that weeds is overly stereotypical and boring. i cringe every time the hood-wise black mother profoundly bestows her ghetto knowledge upon nancy, who is new to the trade. sure, i ‘get it’ weed isnt so bad after all see even this suburban mother is the kingpin of the corporate market and CPA’s and lawyers all get high. are people just now realizing this? is this show really so groundbreaking in addressing this issue that has been hidden for decades? i think not. nancy even has a sales pitch which i find particularly amusing when she convinces the guys at kevin nealons poker game to buy her wares instead of going the the uber-stoner in the city. my friends think it is great, but the stereotypes are so overused it drives me crazy. talk about a politically correct society, what a joke, this entire show is based on consciously overcoming these stereotypes by immersing a white suburban mother in drug dealing…what? it actually does the exact opposite. anyone who has been around the drug-culture knows that no dealer acts like this godfatheresque wannabe that nancy becomes in the last episode of season one. please stop this show, its making my life miserable. the only hope for this series is if they downplay all this bullshit and make it into a comedy. jenji kohan you should have stuck to being a back up writer for fresh prince and sex and the city. although with your beginnings in fresh prince i can see where your groundbreaking new age style came from…who would have thought, a rich black family with a nerdy son and a kind hearted, ghetto cousin. well at least it was original back in 1990. -sf
December 26th, 2006 at 6:53 pm
The people who hate on this show are stupid and just don’t understand it. It is a good show and you need to respect that, get a life and stop talking shit on a TV Show. Im doing a College English report on this TV series because it does reflect somewhat the Californian suburban lifestyle. You may not understand it but this show has many true aspects that are used in ways to keep the show entertaining, and I dont see how you can say this is a bad show, stop watching it then, you dont need to create a website making negative statements about it.
Unless you have no life and probably live in your moms basement, maybe your the one who needs to light a bowl.
October 26th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
And yes it is a joke, a comedy series actually, so I dont see why you would be saying its a joke.. I also know one of the actors Kevin Nealon, who actually never smokes and has just become a father.
October 26th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
This show is terrible. I’m a college student and even I’m thinking about the effects this show could have on our young viewers.
January 31st, 2008 at 2:45 pm
This show is really good. Great plot going and everything. I’m also young and to say you can’t imagine what effects it will have on young people is just stupid. Loosen up some. smoke a joint. chill out! :)
February 18th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
gooood show!!!
February 18th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
I always love it when white people (probably some earnest white guy with horn-rimmed glasses) gets really offended at the portrayal of black women as smart mouthed bitches. Maybe some of us are smart-mouthed bitches. We don’t always have to be portrayed as some serious Oprah-like character or some tortured African dying for Western diamond or fossil fuel interests.
The show is not supposed to be “The Wire”. It is a silly 1/2 hour bit of fluff made to possibly make you laugh. And yeah the musical references are not really obscure like the film festivals with the obscure indie band soundtracks. Those are like really deep for like, deep thinking hipsters who are really deep and think about deep shit, man. You know?
You so need to get over yourself. I haven’t heard of a SINGLE African American, Asian, or Jew bitching about this show. Oh, wait, they don’t have to because the “White Critic Who Knows Better Than The Darkies” has done it for us.
Hey, thanks!! I feel so much better now.
July 6th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Out of curiosity, for hating the show so much, why do you watch it? Don’t tell me your friends make you watch it, because there’s no one forcing you to sit in front of that television or computer screen. It’s not like your friendship will be over.
I also have to note, for hating this show, you watch it a hell of a lot if the theme song gets boring after, and I quote, “hearing it for the 1000th time.” I realize this was an exaggeration, but still, I don’t know that I’ve heard the theme song to some of my favorite television shows that many times, much less shows that I despise and think are overrated.
Also, smoke pot some time and chill out, it’ll do you some good.
July 9th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
What’s wrong with stereotypes? I love that aspect of Weeds actually. It’s much worse when shows pretentiously attempt to break stereotypes, like Lisa pointed out. Weeds just portrays (and exaggerates) people as they are.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
The point of the show and the stereo types is to show how almost every aspect of life is so fake and predisposed. You say what you say you do what you do you dress the way you dress because of some certian criteria or group you have chosen to follow. You complain about how “abundantly obvious premise in the opening credits” is and other aspects of the show but yet show many peoples lives are exactly “all the same”
Question you should ask your self is, is that the way you want this world to be.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:32 pm