WEEDS HAS GROWN ON OUR TV CRITIC

Season 4 finale airs Sunday on Showtime

It's funny to recall how controversial Weeds was when it debuted in
2005.

Times can change right before our eyes and we don't even
notice.

The thought of a marijuana-dealing suburban widow with two kids,
played by Mary-Louise Parker, outraged certain moral-watchdog groups.
At the very least, even if you weren't among the appalled, most people
considered the subject matter to be cutting-edge, so to speak.

Could a highly stylized story-line like this sustain itself for very
long?

Well, the fourth-season finale of Weeds will air across Canada Sunday
on Showcase. Obviously, to have stuck around this long, and to
continue to be so critically acclaimed, Weeds is doing a lot of things
right.

"I'm always surprised, truthfully," said Parker, referring to her
personal string of award nominations for her portrayal of Nancy
Botwin. "I don't take it for granted. Maybe it's just lack of
self-esteem or something."

Parker, of course, has no reason to be lacking in confidence.

Personally speaking, it took us a little while to get into Weeds. We
always were intrigued by it, but early on some of the characters were
too extreme to be likeable in an enduring way.

But especially over the past two seasons, Weeds has become one of our
favourite shows. It has found the right tone and the right balance
between life-threateningly serious and side-splittingly funny.

The main characters - Parker, Elizabeth Perkins as Celia, Justin Kirk
as Andy and Kevin Nealon as Doug - drive the narrative with flair.

And in a grand stroke of luck for creator Jenji Kohan, the kids in the
cast - Hunter Parrish and Alexander Gould as Nancy's sons Silas and
Shane, as well as Allie Grant as Celia's daughter Isabelle - have
blossomed into great actors, too. That rarely happens when you're
hiring children who subsequently have to grow up in front of the camera.

"I don't get to work with Elizabeth that much, but pretty much
everything she does I'm kind of enthralled by," Parker said.
"Especially in terms of comedy, she's extraordinary.

"Justin, the same thing. And Hunter, too. He's a lot younger than some
of the rest of us, but he's just getting better every day.

"We've got an amazing cast."

The fourth season of Weeds has seen Nancy and her family flee from
their fire-ravaged California suburb to the coastal town of Ren Mar,
perched beside the Mexican border. Nancy winds up fronting a retail
clothing store for her old drug associate Guillermo, played by
Guillermo Diaz, and in the back of the store there just happens to be
a tunnel from Mexico.

As long as it's just drugs being smuggled, Nancy's cool. But when the
covert exchanges start to include guns and young girls, Nancy's
ability to look the other way evaporates.

"Whenever I get the scripts or whenever (Kohan) comes to me and says,
'This is where it's going,' I'm consistently surprised," Parker said.

"I think this was the best season, actually."

Agreed. And that's not just the weed talking.