Pop Vultures

When Weeds first aired in 2005, I had absolutely no interest in watching the show. After all, it was on Showtime, and three years ago everyone knew HBO was the cable channel with all the good shows (my, how times have changed — take heart, little CW!). Plus, it was about a pot-dealing mom in suburbia. Having a) grown up in suburbia and b) spent many years in college being bored to death by wannabe philosophers stoned out of their gourds, it didn’t exactly trigger any excitement in me.

Then someone loaned me the first season DVDs, and I was hooked. Instantly. Each show is only a half hour, so it was remarkably easy to sit through an entire season in one long, sofa-tastic binge. Seasons 2 and 3 quickly followed. Somehow, I’d come to care about these wacky stoners and the loving mom that fueled their habits.

In case you also failed to get on the Weeds train early, here are a few reasons you should start watching now:

1. Each episode is just a great half hour of television. They accomplish more in 30 minutes than most shows do in an hour. Humor, sex, danger, fights, naked old men on Segways — they’ve got it all. Plus, every episode manages to end on a cliff-hanger that forces you to keep tuning in (or, in my case, to run through DVDs at a terrifying speed).

2. Every single character is flawed in some way, rather like real people are. The characters are interesting and recognizable, even if you’ve never smoked pot in your life. We’ve all got the crazy uncle or the obnoxious neighbor or the stroppy teenager. Actually, when I put it like that, I suddenly see why the characters smoke so much weed.

3. The show walks a very thin line between honest family drama and kooky stoner hijinks without losing its footing, and it succeeds at both.

4. Mary-Louise Parker and Romany Malco are very easy on the eyes.

5. The show employs some surprising guest stars (Zooey Deschanel, Matthew Modine, Mary-Kate Olson) without ever stunt-casting. In fact, Mary-Kate Olson was entirely believable as a pot-smoking Jesus freak. Who knew?

Perhaps the best reason to watch the show this season is that the producers clearly aren’t afraid of change. (Stop reading now if you don’t want some mild spoilers for season 4.) When we last saw Nancy Botwin, she was rolling away from her burning McMansion, her grow house destroyed and her gang split up. Season 4 picks up soon after, with the family on the run and looking to set up house on the beach, far from the cookie-cutter suburbs of the first three seasons. This is not simply a one-episode plot device, either; the suburbs are gone. A bit of arson and the Santa Ana winds made sure of that.

Most shows can’t handle such a major change, but I’m happy to report that, in the first two episodes of the new season, Weeds doesn’t miss a beat. The producers have said that the overarching theme for this season is “change,” but it could just as easily be “choices.” Nancy has finally committed to being a drug dealer, rather than looking at it as a career she fell into out of necessity. And, if she’s going to be a dealer, she’s going to be the best damn drug dealer she can be. Silas is choosing his own path and perhaps even becoming a man — and not a moment too soon. He even got the short haircut to prove it, so you know he’s serious. Andy is…well, he’s still Andy, but who else would you want him to be? Despite all these changes, the show feels like the same show I’ve loved since the first episode — further proof that the suburbs are an altogether unnecessary invention. And, once again, as soon as I finished watching the first two episodes, I wanted more.

So, yes, I’m gonna say it: I’m hooked on Weeds. I just hope it’s not a gateway program. If I start listening to Snoop Dog albums, will someone please intervene?

Remember, if you also want to get hooked on Weeds, we’ll still giving away a copy of the 3rd season DVDs.

Weeds airs at 10:00 Mondays on Showtime