WEEDS “Vehement v Vigorous” Review

WEEDS “Vehement v Vigorous” Season 7 Episode 7 – Just over the halfway point of the season we’re finally on the road towards the finale. It’s a straight road, with possibly a few unexpected junctures and detours, but you can get a bit of a gist about where the show is heading after watching this episode. For what has hitherto been a seemingly aimless season, this should have been a game changing episode. So why was it so boring?

That answer can probably be found at third base of the corporate softball game the company pitched, which Nancy attended to start selling weed to corporate hotshots, as well as to get out of the sight of her pernickety halfway house parole officer, who nonetheless followed her to the game, feeling resentful towards her about the fact that she cost him his job. This entire plot elicited a big shrug of “whatever” out of me, and out of the writers too. Andy’s distinction between Nancy’s “circular, oh, no wait, spiral” journey was a pretty interesting concept, except it should have been inverted as in, “spiral, oh no wait, circular.” Because Nancy hasn’t changed-she’s grown in confidence, maybe, but she hasn’t evolved in the way that Walter White or Tara Gregson evolved. She’s back to first base, necking with corporate elite who want to get high.

When the show started back in 2007, it was a revolutionary, daring triumph, on the fast track to become a “Great Show.” It veered off that track pretty sharply once people realized that there were no stakes involved-there really isn’t much you can do about the moral quagmire of selling dope, because dope doesn’t provide much of a moral quagmire. There aren’t the “marijuana capitals” of tent cities dotted around the USA, in the same way that there are “meth capitals”. She might as well be selling bootleg alcohol. And when the Mexican cartels and the DEA got involved, they rarely seemed like much of a threat. The show sometimes managed to break out of its safe cocoon and provide a flash of danger, but that was usually always smoothed over very quickly.

So here you have Nancy outright revealing her drug dealing business to Aiden Quinn’s CEO, confronting two officers who she thinks are following her but who are actually interested in this CEO (oh golly gosh, and Nancy could have been so helpful in getting you all the dirt on him, except not five minutes ago she let slip that she was a drug dealer. Now that puts her in quite the contrived fix, doesn’t it?) I guess Nancy will head over to Pablo Schreiber (RIP Lights Out) and have a quick romp, but the writers couldn’t resist bringing her prison fuckbuddy back into the picture, despite dousing her boyfriend in gasoline and setting him on fire, for one last stamp of contrivance.

Do we need to go over whatever the hell Shane was doing in the car park with the police detective and his two undercover escorts?

At least Silas has an inane boxing match to busy himself for the five minutes he was on screen. Busy establishing his own business, and in control of the flow of weed, Silas is distancing himself from Nancy, and he needs male models to do it. This story might have been pretty stupid, but who am I to complain about guys with ripped abs getting into a ring and pummelling each other?

Random Thoughts:

Loved the comic book/boxing hybrid of a cold open.

Also loved the apocalyptic-esque campaign stickers for “Palin and Bachmann 2012″. Quick, hide the gays!

Silas’ Red Bull was actual Red Bull, instead of some fake product placement fearing energy drink.

I don’t spend much (any) time with hotshots on Wall Street, but aren’t they more interested in powdery substances, not herbal ones?

What did you think of this episode? Sound off in the comments below.

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