
Mary-Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins, Weeds
To celebrate the return of Weeds (Mondays at 10 pm/ET, Showtime), we sat down with Mary-Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins to discuss getting naked, kissing Albert Brooks and what to expect in the trippy new season.
TV Guide: What are Mary-Louise and Elizabeth like versus your ever-battling characters, pot-dealing Nancy and her frenemy, Celia?Mary-Louise Parker: Well, unlike our characters, I want time with Elizabeth. I don't know what the similarities between Celia and Nancy are, though — well, except they're both very particular about their footwear.Elizabeth Perkins: Yeah, I don't know how to be Celia without high heels on. So, yes, we both have shoes in common in our very in-depth approach to our characters. [Laughs
read more

Kevin Nealon
Another year, another celebrating of the small screen's most outrageous TV ads. Tonight at 9 pm/ET, TBS welcomes back Saturday Night Live alum turned Weeds star Kevin Nealon as host of the newest Funniest Commercials of the Year special. TVGuide.com spoke with Nealon about his annual "ad-ulation" gig, as well as his dream casting wish for Weeds. (Hint: She has 42-inch legs.)
TVGuide.com: If I recall, you appeared to be freezing your butt off taping your Funniest Commercials segment in Times Square last year.Kevin Nealon: Yeah, it's always freezing in New York City when we do this, and this year was no different. And this time, we wer
read more
They shoot pot dealers, don't they? That question lingers as Season 2 of Showtime's Weeds drew to a close with a helpless, hempless Nancy staring down the barrels of not one or two but five serious pieces of firepower... never once setting down that prominently displayed can of Diet Coke. Her only possible salvation: Silas, now in possession of the final MILF weed harvest, but himself also in dire straits, with Celia and a policeman marching toward the 38-pound stash. And let's not forget poor Shane, who graduated from grade school straight into an impetuous, Cactus Cooler-fueled trip to Paraguay, with Kat (as in Krazy) behind the wheel, and Uncle Andy and Abumchuck in heated pursuit.And to think that the Weeds writers almost tied everything up in a neat bundle instead! So glad they opted otherwise, (as explained in my fresh Features Q&A with series creator Jenji Kohan).Was I entirely satisfied with the season-ending cliff-hanger? No, not entirely. I think it was a cheat to kill...
read more

Alexander Gould and Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds
For the occasion of Weeds' season finale, which aired last night on Showtime, TVGuide.com sat down with series creator Jenji Kohan to discuss the season gone by, ask about some of the juiciest twists, and try to get a glimpse into the future. After teasing you with a craftily edited Part 1, here is the entire, unexpurgated interview, including additional questions about exactly what transpired in the shocking season-ender. (As a courtesy, I have denoted new or revised exchanges with an asterisk [*].)
TVGuide.com: You started this season with some of the characters and their stories somewhat segregated, but, ultimately, they dovetailed together. Did you ever feel that was a risky approach?Jenji Kohan: You know, we love to build an arc. When we sit down, we plan the full season out completely befor
read more

Alexander Gould and Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds
For the occasion of Weeds' season finale, premiering tonight at 10 pm/ET on Showtime, TVGuide.com sat down with series creator Jenji Kohan to discuss the season gone by, ask about some of the juiciest twists, and try to get a glimpse into the future. Here is Part 1 of the Q&A — rendered spoiler-free through some crafty editing. The unexpurgated interview, including additional questions about exactly what transpires in tonight's season-ender, will be posted Tuesday morning.
TVGuide.com: You started this season with some of the characters and their stories somewhat segregated, but, ultimately, they dovetailed together. Did you ever feel that was a risky approach?Jenji Kohan: You know, we love to build an arc. When we sit down, we plan the full season out completely before we start to write. We f
read more

Weeds
Damn, Celia is such a fabulous bitch. I'm no expert, but I'd imagine that it takes years to develop such detachment, such unhappiness and such a sharp, abrasive, embittered persona. That kind of hardness doesn't happen overnight. But the result makes me laugh! The adversarial dynamic between Mary-Louise Parker's Nancy and Elizabeth Perkins' Celia is smoothly developed in this episode. When Nancy catches Celia spying on her cheating husband's card game with binoculars, she is trying to conceal that she was there to sell drugs. Oh, and Nancy's hiding the fact that she gave up her wheels as collateral for more product and is now driving a Hoop D instead. Their secrets are stark naked to anyone who cares to look, but Celia pretends not to see, so it's all good.
The best scene by far was Celia and her hubby's cold, mechanical oral-hygiene ritual, which involved silent but aggressive brushing in their best j
read more
From the moment the theme song (the nonconformist "Little Boxes") begins, Weeds establishes the cattiness and boredom of the suburbs with sharp wit. Widowed Nancy (Mary-Louise Parker) is a pot-dealing mom who stops by her supplier's to re-up before driving her 10-year-old son to grief counseling. Rather than judge, you empathize with her plight — and, like Tony Soprano or Vic Mackey, her character embodies a moral gray area that is all too human. I initially rolled my eyes in irritation when her suppliers turned out to be an African-American family. But Weeds took slick potshots at stereotypes, and even threw some current-events savvy into the mix as World.com found its way into the conversation at the weed-covered table. The pilot is packed with irony — a teenage client/dealer warns Nancy in a mocking tone that "caffeine is a serious drug." Plus we get wonderfully frank discussion about sex, including the use of tennis balls in Bangkok's Red Light district! T
read more
Nancy Botwin is a soul sister to those desperate housewives of Wisteria Lane. Suddenly widowed, Nancy is strapped for cash as she raises two sons — a horny teen and a moody 8-year-old — amid the gossipy hypocrisies of a sunny California cul-de-sac.
Her solution: peddle marijuana, first in Baggies and later in baked goods, to the community's soccer moms and dads. In the town of Agrestic, PTA might very well stand for Pot Tokers of America.
As a satire of a not-so-secretly debauched culture of porn, pot and pubescence, Weeds (premiering Sunday, Aug. 7 at 11 pm/ET) is both coy and obvious, deriving a bit too much self-pleasure in its supposedly shocking subversiveness. It's not truly funny or outrageous enough to qualify as comedy, and the doses of drama (including a major character's revelation of cancer) are often heavy-handed.
Thankfully, Mary-Louise Parker is a near-perfect Nancy, alternately amused and horrified by her predicam
read more