While Desperate Housewives yearned to be a suburban satire with bite, Weeds was the real deal, skewering upper-middle class mores with a sharp eye, a keen wit, and a mostly forgiving heart. In episode after episode, the show's creative team (led by creator Jenji Kohan) pulled back the layers of Agrestic's superficiality to show what lies beneath the squeaky-clean exteriors and smiling faces; it turns out that hunger, fear, desire, and, yes, desperation aren't that far down. However, Weeds forsakes pulpiness and florid drama for biting yet affectionate humor--its heroine is a woman with sliding morals, but one you'll root for to the very end. The effervescent Parker, the only actress who can mix perkiness with morbidity in just the right amounts, anchored the show with her amazing turn as Nancy, who by the end of the first season had become a kind of soccer-mom version of Michael Corleone, entering a corrupt world with both trepidation and fascination--and totally enamored of the power it brought her. Also perfectly cast, Perkins found the role of a lifetime as the bitterly hilarious Celia, and entering the show in its fourth episode, Justin Kirk (Parker's co-star in Angels in America) proved to be a potent secret weapon as Nancy's brother-in-law Andy, a slacker who wasn't above peddling t-shirts to elementary school kids. As icky as these characters might appear on the surface, Weeds made them all immensely appealing and great company to be around. Don't say we didn't warn you: one hit and you'll be hooked on this show. The DVDs feature six episode commentaries with cast and crew, outtakes, original featurettes, a music video, and most enjoyably, Agrestic Herbal Recipes (for entertainment value only, we assume) and the "Smoke and Mirrors" marijuana mockumentary. --Mark Englehart

Weeds - Season One

• Weeds - Season Two
• Weeds - Season Three
• Dexter - The First Season
• Dexter - The Complete Second Season
• Californication - Season One
• Entourage - The Complete First Season
• Entourage - Season 3, Part 2
• Entourage-The Complete Second season
• 30 Rock - Season 1
• Nip/Tuck - The Complete Fourth Season

Nancy's drug dealing is balanced nicely with plots involving Shane's school problems, Celia's family and their issues, and so forth. The show relies on this clever conceit of the drug-dealing mom for much of its humor, but at its heart "Weeds" is a devious satire of suburbia.

Finally, Kevin Nealon plays Doug, the marijuana-crazy CPA who helps Nancy run her business and also serves on the Agrestic City Council. However, the reviews for the show have been consistently very good, so I decided to finally watch a few episodes. I'm not usually a fan of Mary-Louise Parker, as she too often seems depressed and mopey in most roles. Many of the biggest laughs are supplied by Heylia, although people who appreciate pot humor will probably also like Doug. However, she's very good in this career-defining role - even sexy at times. The first few episodes show her adjusting to the absurdity or her new career and balancing her drug dealing with raising her two sons, teenaged Silas and the pre-pubescent Shane, who are adjusting to their father's death.

Nancy may seem immoral selling drugs in order to make her Range Rover payments and to buy the steady stream of iced coffees she totes everywhere; however, she is far from being the most deviant character. In particular, as he and Doug become friends, the plots too often involve them being stoned and irresponsible - the very reasons I avoided "Weeds" initially. Unfortunately, mid-way through the season, Nancy's brother-in-law, Andy (Justin Kirk) arrives. "Weeds" is about Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), a mother who lives in an expensive planned community (fictional Agrestic, California) and was left penniless when her husband unexpectedly dropped dead jogging.

The crowded supporting cast is joined by Heylia (Tonye Patano), Nancy's sassy supplier, along with her family members, Vaneeta and Conrad. The show is well-written and offers plenty of laughs, and the acting is terrific.

PTA uber-mom Celia (Elizabeth Perkins), for example, has a cheating husband, an overweight daughter whom she tries to browbeat daily to watch her calories, and a teenaged daughter whom she sends to boarding school after she sleeps with Silas. However, overall, the show still remains strong despite these unlikeable characters. She turns to dealing pot to keep up her tony life-style, and it turns out that she's pretty good at it.

During the first season, "Weeds" does a great job of examining the hypocrisy of suburbia. Andy is a juvenile, pot-smoking, responsibility-shirking idiot, and he is on-screen far too often in the second half of the season (and beyond). I liked them.

I don't particularly like "drug humor," so I passed on "Weeds" when it first went on the air. She's received two Emmy nominations for Best Actress in a Comedy and a win in that category at the Golden Globes.

This writing is not from a person or people who have been out in life. Why did I watch it. Something people are smoking. I'd say that three out of five people would feel about this show as I do. The younger son is great and has a future. The stereotype black family with the drive-by shooting, these people crazy-glued to that kitchen table.

And what about the sex on the hood of the other dealer's car. Search me. When you measure up the harm alcohol does to our society, murder, domestic violence, car crashes.I thought: SHOWTIME good for you. But this show.I found the lead actress SO unlikable. A friend suggested The Sopranos which I could watch on DVD. This series is about as shallow as they come. I'm serious, it has qualities of being the Shakespeare of our time.

So improbable. Maybe I read too much and books have ruined it for me. Bare with me, I'm just trying to understand how a show that is so bad could have so many good reviews and sucker people like me into buying it. In fact haven't had any TV reception where I live for the last 15 years. Those ugly stares and for some reason they decided they needed to move her from one crisis to another.

These are from people that have spent 200,000 cooking their brains with other TV shows and trying to build concepts on balloney. Well, I tapped a few buttons and ordered it. She reminded me of my worst girlfriends. All cast members required to log-on and sing praises. Sure, it's TV, I understand.

But PLEASE, so many of the problems are so stupid. And please, let's not lump all the drugs together, grass is fine and probably helps lots of people in our pressure cooker age. So negative. Maybe it is just me. It didn't. A single mother surviving off of selling grass.

And nine out of ten of those like me that bought and watched and hated it would never go to the trouble to write a review. After reading several reviews I ran right out to buy Season One. So shallow. I think if you want something with depth, with intelligence, with some vision as in Fellini films (the early ones) and great stories of the human condition with humor mixed with angst, and tragedy blended with lust.forget it.

Maybe my loathing for cheap TV sit-coms is too great.

Sopranos moved fast and had its share.

What a great experience that was.

What a fine concept.

I paid for it and I just kept hoping it would get better.

Two out of those five would never buy it.

So I came across WEEDS in hopes of more great, daring programing.

I generally hate television.

I thought the writing was plain awful.

I love that this isn't a show you have to be high for, but it's also so intelligently and thoughtfully written that it appeals to people who just may be high when watching. It's a tightly written series with a great cast that all comes together in one of the most utterly addictive television shows that is currently on air. I love that the show doesn't condone or condemn marijuana. 8/10

It's easily one of the finest shows on the air right now, and I can't wait to see what directions this series takes. The first season of "Weeds" is an air-tight, well done show that will appeal to the stoner crowd, the Desperate Housewives crowd, and virtually anyone in between. I love that it isn't afraid to show the petty and ugly sides of the characters we're supposed to sympathize with. I love that you can pretty much sit down on a lazy afternoon and watch the entire season and still have the night to yourself.

It juggles comedy, satire, and drama so successfully that you can never really predict which scene will bring what. "Weeds" is a pretty seamless show. And while I usually love long, twenty-five episode seasons, I love that this season is made up of ten half-hour episodes that are more like slices-of-life than any noticeable story arc or anthology.

This is a good show, it packs a lot of stuff into each 25 minute episode. Four stars and not five because I think we're all growing a bit weary of these "look how cool and irreverent we are living our crazy lives in LA" shows that HBO and Showtime keep churning out whether we want them or not.

What you get is a mix of both and much more. Comedy. I was expecting drama. Way to go Showtime.

It will have you running to the store to see what is going to happen in season 2, and let me say, it only gets better. Happily, the pace picks up through out the season, as does the drama & the laughs. The CAST is what really makes this show work. What's more, is that even the cast that has a slightly more supporting role, is truly talented and gives the show it's life.

Dubiously I began watching, not sure what I was getting into. Weeds was another show recommended to me by friends. While at times, at least in season 1, the writing/story may be lacking, you can't help but laugh at Doug (Kevin Nealon), scoff at Andy and shake your head at Nancy and Celia.