The Weeds Paradox

The TV show Weeds is a perfect of example of why you don't work children into the narrative elements of a long running series. Now in it's fourth season, the Botwin boys are unmistakably aging, and no good can come of it. Early on in the series, the characters acted as little more than emotional sounding lines for Nancy. They had their own minor plot lines, sure, but minor is all they really were. Occasionally the needs of the brothers would intrude upon the larger scope of the narrative (Silas steals a ton of weed, Shane goes crazy, etc.), but they just couldn't compete with the far more interesting stories of Doug, Andy, Conrad, and the rest of the lot. Oh yeah, and Silas was such a whiny bitch.

Interesting, considering it was a scene from this week's episode, "Lady's a Charm," centered around Silas that sparked the writing of this post. He had that stupid emo haircut, constantly disobeyed his mother, and complained nonstop about everything. Silas was a brat. What's my point

I guess the boys are on summer vacation, and they live in southern California, so the passage of time relative to school or the changing of seasons can be ignored. But the treatment of the characters with respect to the plot needs to be more consistent. I actually like the idea of treating the boys as if they were however old, and always have been, each new season. It's something I don't think has been tried before on television and leads to a bevy of story ideas the writers might not be able to fit into the show in one pass.

The timeline of the show moves at a glacial pace. I don't even think the last dozen or so episodes, which so far span all of season 4 and most of season 3, have covered more than a few months in Weeds-time.

they were lost amidst the much more interesting story arcs and stronger performances by the older and wonderfully played ensemble cast.

read: fourth year of watching Hunter Parish and Alexander Gould mature before the camera





Kevin Nealon and Justin Kirk, as Doug Wilson and Andy Botwin, respectively.