Weeds: It's all been done

Season six of Showtime's hit show Weeds premiered last night, and while it wasn't a poor episode, I couldn't help but feel like the writers just played a game of "search and replace" with the scripts of past seasons.

For those who have yet to catch up with season five, here's a bit of a recap: Nancy is pregnant with Esteban's child. A woman from Esteban's past, Pilar, comes into his life and attempts to run his political campaign as a Mexican governor. Seeing Nancy, Silas and Shane as toxic assets to Esteban's career, she attempts to have Nancy killed. Esteban attempts to have Nancy quietly deliver the baby at home (so that Nancy can be killed with no record of the birth), but Nancy and Andy go to Dr. Audra Kitson (Alanis Morissette) and deliver the baby with Andy's name on the birth certificate. Andy and Audra begin dating, and he proposes to her. However, he bails on Audra when her stalker breaks into her home and kidnaps her.

Esteban and Nancy make up and marry, but Pilar is still out for blood. At a campaign party for Esteban, she tells Nancy that Silas and Shane are unnecessary and detrimental towards Esteban's political career, and threatens to have them killed. Shortly after, Shane attacks Pilar with a croquet mallet and she falls into the nearby pool and bleeds to death.

And that's not even describing the plots of the secondary characters such as Doug and Celia (although, with Elizabeth Perkins gone, who knows if that will happen). So, there's a lot going on when "Thwack" opens.

The problem I had with the episode is that I felt as though I saw everything before. Back at the end of season two, Celia attempted to have Silas arrested for dealing pot. While there wasn't a threat on Silas' life in that case, it was the first thing that popped in my mind when Pilar threatened them. Nancy's lifestyle, both her family dynamic and business model, were being threatened. The same thing happened again; the boys were used as collateral in Nancy's life.

After Pilar is murdered, Nancy rushes home and packs up the bare essentials and abandons the house, much like the season three finale, where Nancy burns the Agrestic house down. Shane tells Silas about how he killed Pilar, and says he feels no differently about himself. She realizes she needs Andy's van to flee, and heads to his home, where Audra is tied up by her pro-life, evangelical, crossbow-yielding stalker. Gee, Andy's girlfriend is in harm's way thanks to a violent man chasing after her ... this sounds an awful lot like Zooey Deschanel's Kat being chased by Abumchuck the bounty hunter in season two/three. I just wish the plot line with Audra was as funny as Kat and Abumchuck's was.

Eventually, thanks to Nancy, the stalker is subdued, and Audra is furious with Andy. She breaks up with him and tells him that he should just leave with Nancy, which he does somewhat begrudgingly. Andy finds out about Shane, and doesn't express much shock. The episode ends with the gang leaving town, and a cliched "serial killer rear view mirror" moment with Nancy seeing Shane in the mirror.

Weeds has been one of those where it seems as though nothing and everything happen all at once, and this episode was a perfect example. It seemed slow (maybe due to the deja vu), yet it's obviously acting as the catalyst for everything that's going to happen this season. However, instead of fleeing to Mexico like in the lackluster season four, it seems as though the Botwins will not stay in more than one place for long. Hopefully that will help the show stay fresh. I just hope we still hear from everyone holding down the fort at home, too. It's a shame that Elizabeth Perkins left the show, because I will miss Celia. However, I hope the show finds a way to keep her family in the show. Because as Nancy continues to put herself and her family in danger, I'm finding it more difficult to sympathize with her.

Yet, I'm fascinated by Shane. Considering all of the things that have gone wrong in his life, I'm surprised he isn't more violent or troubled. Plus, one could argue that his killing of Pilar was in self-defense. Then again, maybe said cliche rear view image is a sign of things to come. All of this traveling could allow him to further act out, and that could be both fascinating and horrifying to see.

Did anyone else watch "Thwack?" What are your thoughts? Do you have any hopes for this season?

Dead in the water: shows that jumped the shark

It’s a common crisis for all writers: the creative slump. It’s the moment in which you have to reach for the extreme in order to fulfill your writing obligations, and the results are often unbearable. In television, this creative failure is known as “Jumping the Shark” (originating from the “Happy Days” episode in which Fonzie, literally, jumps over a shark, thus beginning the show’s demise). It’s happened to many shows in the past, and it will surely happen to many in the future. These are some of the shows that suffered some of the biggest creative slumps in recent years.

“Big Love:” This was a unique look at a polygamist family living in secrecy, trying to balance public life and complicated family lives (Bill Paxton and Chloe Sevigny’s characters lived on a polygamist compound for some time, and that compound is a major plot point). Now it’s a show that crams too many pointless and unnecessary plotlines into short seasons. The relationship between sister wives Sevigny, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin are is only remaining strength of the show.

“Glee:” I was attracted to “Glee” because I used to be a big fan of creator Ryan Murphy’s other show, “Nip/Tuck” (we’ll get to them in a moment) and it was set in nearby Lima, Ohio (I expected more Ohio-related jokes than the show has delivered). I’m not a musical fan, but I watched the pilot that aired in May, and loved it. I was eagerly anticipating the show’s fall 2009 premiere, but it did not live up to its hype. Jane Lynch is fantastic, but for me, even her character isn’t enough to keep me sitting through ridiculous plot lines that often go nowhere. I know it’s supposed to be a cheesy, fun show, but some of the musical numbers (“Gold Digger,” mainly) are just cringe-worthy.

“Weeds:” The show started off quite well, with hilarious characters and engrossing plot lines. You rooted for Mary-Louise Parker’s pot-dealing widow to succeed, and her relationships with her suppliers and fellow suburbanites were fun to watch. After a while, the shtick got old, characters came and went, and it became difficult to root for Parker’s character after a while, since she always manages to get away from danger every single time (usually by using sex to get herself out of these situations), and acts completely selfishly.

“Two and a Half Men:” It is the epitome of everything that is wrong with television today (bland, repetitive humor that uses an excessive amount of crudeness and insults the intelligence of the viewer. I’m not a prude, but if you’re going to be “raunchy,” be funny as well.), and it angers me to see that it is the number one comedy on television. Plus, it stars Charlie Sheen, whom I despise, and Jon Cryer stole Jack McBrayer’s Emmy last year. I’ve hated it since the beginning of its run, but I think I have a reason to say that it “became” stupid. The other day, I was having a conversation with my grandmother, who is in the prime audience demographic for this show, and she said she could no longer stomach the show’s repetitive and crude humor. She made a wise decision and quit watching, and I hope more people emulate her.

“Entourage:” Like “Weeds,” this show’s plots are incredibly repetitive, and go nowhere. Vince is in a new movie. This means his clingy friends will score with women way out of their league for the umpteenth time this season, fantastic. Wow, there’s another party at a rich guest star’s mansion, I haven’t seen that yet, at least I haven’t seen it in this episode! All of the show’s seasons began to run together in my mind, and while Jeremy Piven’s Ari Gold is an amusing character, there can be too much of a good thing, and even he became unbearable.

“Nip/Tuck:” Like the month we are in, this show came in like a lion, and out like a lamb. Controversial, ridiculous and sexually graphic, “Nip/Tuck” managed to turn the unrealistic trials and tribulations of two Miami (later Los Angeles-based) plastic surgeons in the bedroom and operating room into addictive television. Once the show introduced the ridiculous “Carver” arc of season three, this show crossed the line from being enjoyably trashy and campy into an eye-roll inducing wreck. The show just ended Wednesday night, and I have no desire to see how it ended. For my money, I’ll stick with Ryan Murphy’s “Popular” instead of this or “Glee.”

“Veronica Mars:” This is one of my favorite shows. The first season of the show, which focuses on Kristen Bell’s titular heroine looking to solve the murder of her best friend, was one of the best televisions seasons of the last decade. Season two wasn’t as strong as season one, but it’s the show’s final season that lost me. “Dawson’s Creek” lost a lot of creative gusto when it moved the characters to college, and “Veronica Mars” made the same mistake in season three. The “mysteries of the week” Veronica solved weren’t as captivating, and the half-season long arcs weren’t compelling either. Granted, I will place blame on the CW network, which clearly made creator Rob Thomas change the show to fit a broader, newer audience when the CW formed (it aired on UPN until the UPN-WB merger). However, it’s still a creative mess, no matter who gets the blame.

“South Park:” I miss episodes like the one I am currently watching, “the Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka.” Referencing Mark Twain, having Jesus Christ battle redneck hunters in the quest for television show ratings? That’s the randomness of the show that I love. I feel the show has become nearly unbearable with the incessant need to be completely topical. The earlier seasons, with the cruder humor, are much more enjoyable and effectively balance silliness and satire.

“The Osbournes:” I’m not a big reality television fan, but the first season of this show yielded some fantastically hilarious moments. Who can forget Ozzy Osbourne throwing the ham into their loud neighbors’ yard? It was outrageous, yet it felt absolutely real. However, once the show became a hit and returned for subsequent seasons, the bar had t be raised. In later seasons, the family was clearly acted in staged or scripted situations, and minus Jack Osbourne’s ecstatic “Ooh, McRib is back!” proclamation, anything past season one is terrible.

“The Office:” It breaks my heart to say this. One of my favorite television shows of all time, I have been obsessed with the show for years. It managed to carve out an identity separate from its British predecessor, and seasons two and three were brilliant. However, in subsequent seasons, it became clear that both the writers were trying to dumb down the show to appeal to a broader audience, and they were hitting creative slumps. These days, Dwight Schrute has gone from ridiculous but realistic to just being ridiculous, unrealistic and just outright annoying. Good for Pam for finding love and gaining confidence, but did she have to become so self-righteous in the process? I see why Ricky Gervais ended the British version so early, it’s better to go out on top than to break the hearts of fans week after week.

Do you agree with my choices, or do you want to defend the show’s I’ve mentioned? Have any other shows that I omitted (I watch a lot of television, but I don’t watch every show, so I may have missed some shows.) that you wish to vent about? Leave a comment!