The absence of a new Prison Break on Monday (Oct. 15) provides me with the perfect opportunity to check in with fans of Showtime's Weeds.

[Spoilers coming...]

First off, can we agree to the following things:

1)That the episode two weeks ago, "He Taught Me To Drive By," was the season's funniest episode, by far.

2)That the following week's episode, "The Two Mrs. Scottsons," will be Elizabeth Perkins' Emmy submission episode and ought to make her a sure thing come award season.

3)That Eric Gagne should never again be allowed in a post-season baseball game until his team is either winning or losing by no fewer than six runs. Maybe not even then.

4)That Brooke Smith, Peter's ex-wife Valerie, is one of TV's most valuable guest stars and rather desperately deserves a show all her own. It's here that I'm contractually obligated to remind everybody how far Smith has come since Buffalo Bill was instructing her on the necessity of putting the lotion in the basket in Silence of the Lambs.

5)That last week's climactic eruption of poo wasn't funny enough to excuse it for being just plain gross.

With those five things out of the way, let's think about Monday's episode, "Roy Till Called."

To be honest, it wasn't among my favorite episodes. Too much time was dedicated to plotlines where I wasn't feeling the requisite sympathy for the people involved.

Yes, as I said above, I think Brooke Smith is excellent and in the two episodes previous, I've been interested by the relationship between Nancy and her dead husband's ex-wife, but was her anger on the life insurance settlement justifiable? Nancy, as Peter's wife, was in line for the $119,000 check. I get that Valerie was annoyed by the surprise of having been usurped for the settlement and that she's living beyond her means with a son, but so far as Valerie knows, Nancy's living beyond her means with a pair of sons and no visible means of support. Also, surely Valerie has to know about Peter's pension and she didn't mention that. The outrage just seems contrived.

I also don't understand why Celia's been stuck caring for Dean. Had divorce proceedings not already begun? Were they not legally separated? Had Dean and Isabelle not made it repeatedly clear that they wanted nothing more than to torment and torture Celia with only periodic breaks? Why doesn't Dean just use some money somewhere to hire a nurse? And is Celia such a softie at heart that she could just be cajoled into cleaning up the man she hates' poo? And when, exactly, did Weeds become so obsessed with feces anyway?

The week's underlying theme, in fact, was people taking responsibility for people to whom they owe nothing (I guess that's where Conrad teaching Silas about pot-growing fits as well).

But finally, what was up with that last scene? I totally got why Nancy, in the aftermath of her husband's funeral and a variety of other personal tensions, would have slept with Sullivan in the first place, but why was she feeling so randy or emotionally tormented that she had to get kinky with him this week? And given that the previous scene had featured Celia doubled over at her dinner table bawling, what was up with her appearing at Sullivan's office at exactly the wrong moment carrying cupcakes?

The teasers for next week's episode suggests that somebody will turn on Nancy. Was this week all about setting up the usual suspects?

Other thoughts on this week's episode:

For the first half, I thought The Decemberists had turned in a generic version of "Little Boxes," but it became interestingly discordant by the end.

Line of the episode: No question this prize goes to Andy trying to convince Nancy that just because Peter wouldn't be dead if he hadn't met her doesn't mean she killed him with this story, "Listen. I taught Stephanie Cooper how to give head. She died when a guy she was blowing drove into a swamp. Doesn't mean I killed her. Means I was a great teacher... and he was a bad driver... and the alligators were hungry."

Best sight gag: Doug showing up at the Majestic town council meeting with an unlikely bribe -- t-shirts from the 2001 Agrestic 5K Thanksgiving Fun Run.

Dunno... What'd other people think of this week's episode? How are we feeling about the season so far?

Comments

I would not give that chick the money, F that. I'd rather have the money and lose a friend, plus she should not be hanging with that woman anyway.

Grimm | Oct 16, 2007 8:48:22 AM | #

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