Media Maven Musings

It feels so great to be free of that damned U-Turn!  See how good this show is when Nancy isn’t someone else’s slave?  I thought this week’s episode was very good, though as usual, there were some parts that ticked me off.  We’re still not back to the level of the season 1 glory days, but I certainly was not disappointed.  Let’s do a good/bad analysis:

The Good:

1. Mary Kate had 1 line.  Nice.  The less words that come out of her mouth, the better the show is automatically.  It’s a one to one ratio.  Less MK = Better Episode.

2. Doug and Dean!  We haven’t seen these two in action together since the season premiere, and while they didn’t do much, they brought their much needed buffoonery back to the show.  As with that Olsen girl, it’s a one to one deal.  More Doug/Dean = Better Episode.

3. Shane stickin it to The Man.  Ever since he sold those misprinted “Jesus Loves Us” shirts back in season one, Shane has been a stalwart rebel against  the establishment and the ridiculous indoctrination that comes with living in a Christian, upper-class California suburb.  Keep up the good work, little buddy.

4. Could Nancy have looked any hotter in the final scene?  Her sexiest moment since she screwed that drug dealer on top of her car in season 1.  Though I wonder, what if she hadn’t worn that ridiculously sexy, lingerie-esque outfit?  Can you imagine that scene if she was wearing, say, normal clothes that didn’t peel off like a dress from a burlesque hoochie-coochie show?

5. Conrad and Nancy make contact!  Could this be the restart to their friendship/romance?  I sure as hell hope so.  As much as I hate to say, I’ve missed Conrad and Helia, and could use some of that attitude to freshen things up a bit.  I’m fairly confident we’ll be seeing a lot more of these two as the season moves forward.

And now, The Bad:

1. Silas had 1 line.  Come on.  He can be a whiny, angsty bitch sometimes, but it’s his relationship with Nancy that provides the genuine emotional core of the show.  Remember in season 1, how despite the drug dealing antics, the soul of every episode was Nancy trying to deal with being a terrible mother and a widow?  What happened to that?  Where is that genuine, honest emotion that we at home can relate to?  Though I love the recent trend Weeds has shown towards over-the-top scenarios, beginning with last season’s ridiculous finale, (the drive-by, the porn star with the runs, Andy’s buddy being shot by a military drone, etc.), there needs to be more balance.  If everything is overboard crazy, the show will lose it’s humanity, and let’s be honest, the humor on this show isn’t enough to carry it as a comedy alone.  It needs that recipe of equal parts absurd humor and genuine emotional conflict, or the show will not survive.  You can quote me on that one.

2. Doug and Dean!  They’re in 1 scene for 30 seconds??  Come on!  Throw me a bone here!  No more Marvin, no more Mexicans, no more U-Turn.  Just give me my boys back!

3. Where the hell is Andy???  The show’s funniest character by far, he needs more than 1 scene an episode to strut his stuff.  We don’t need the early season 1 days where he was in 18 of the shows 22 minutes, but he certainly deserves more than 5.  Fix it, Jenji!

4. I understand the show likes to be over-the-top at times, but the vocabulary and maturity level of Shane and Huskeroos girl is too ridiculous.  Even though U-Turn was completely unrealistic (a street thug with a graduate-level vocabulary), he was heightened in all aspects of his character.  Shane is sometimes just a normal kid.   He gets normal crushes, has normal kid dissapointments (remember how much he missed his Dad in season 1?), and normal kid aspirations.  But then he comes home ranting about the “pedagogue” in his summer school and I can’t help but roll my eyes.  There’s only so far he can take this precociousness before it’s just too ridiculous.   And the Huskeroos girl who is maybe 13 or 14, is such a rampant lesbian that she lies in order to get the Christian girl to spend time with her?  At 14?  Don’t think so.  These kids are too far-fetched, for me at least.  This isn’t Dawson’s Creek; I don’t need teenagers talking like they’re thirty.  All the adults are believable (for the most part), so why not the kids?

So glad we can move on to new things next week, like Peter’s dead body!  Don’t forget: Nancy and he are technically still married, so when Peter’s ex-wife pops up next episode, we should have some interesting interactions on our hands, to say the least.

R.I.P. U-Turn.  R.I.P.

Grade: high B+