Weeds on Showtime: Happily Ever After?

The show appears to be resolving the issues of the various characters and heading towards a happily-ever-after ending.  Or is it all just red herrings.

Nancy appears to be staying in the drug business, but now it’s the legal drug business.  She dumped a few bales of weed into the neighbor’s wood chipper—she felt like she needed to be free of the deadly-reefer drug. Her oldest son Silas, had all the plants in his grow house stolen.  So the family is fresh out of the “Mary-Jane.

Nancy meets a man while attending Stevie’s (her youngest son) soccer game. He helps her get a job at his drug firm. Wouldn’t you know it, they are developing synthetic marijuana, so Nancy is right in her element. She gets Silas a job there as a researcher  which is another perfect fit. The two of them appear to be going legit. It could mean a happily-ever-after future for them both.

Andy and Jill had a falling out.  Andy had sex with a babe at the skating rink, and so to get even, Jill had sex with Doug. (Ewww.) However, it appears that they have decided to let bygones be bygones, and they are back together. So Andy will possibly marry the sister of his dead brother’s wife. Jill is a handful and Andy is lust-addled—so will this be happily- ever-after for them? Maybe.

Shane, nancy’s middle son, seems set on a career as a policeman, and he is dating a little cutie that he met at the police academy. This could definitely be happily-ever-after.

We are left only with a finding a man for Nancy. I thought her second husband, the DEA agent ,might resurface. But lately she has been getting friendly with her next door neighbor.  Friendly, but not too friendly. He is a rabbi and does not engage in recreational sex. He appears to be a good, gentle, and understanding man. He may be just what Nancy needs.  But does he need her—she’s a wild and crazy gal. But, it would bring the story full circle. Nancy is a shiksa who married a Jewish man and now she might marry another Jewish man, a rabbi, no less.  This could be the happily-ever-after for Nancy.



http://mettelray.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/weeds_tv_series_wallpaper_3_1024.jpg

HBO The Newsroom Episode 7 "5/1"

Once again the best thing about The Newsroom is the behind the scenes look at news in the making. This time it’s about the Sunday night when PBO got OBL. (President Barack Obama got Osama Bin Laden.)
 

It just happened that the whole newsroom staff just happened to be at a party at Will’s apartment. It just happened that Will had unwittingly indulged in a bit too much medicinal marijuana.  He was “baked”.  That’s a nice word—“baked.”  In my day, we said “stoned “or “wasted.”. “Baked” makes me think of sugar and vanilla and cinnamon and fresh-baked cookies in a kitchen that is still warm from the oven. 

The president of the News Division, Charlie Skinner, gets a call alerting him to be ready for important news about national security. The president will speak live in about an hour and a half. Charlie orders everyone to form groups to take the elevator to the street and to share taxis.

Everyone gets back to the newsroom, except poor Will. Somehow he ends up sitting in a taxi stuck in traffic. He gets there eventually and insists, baked or not baked, he is going to anchor the news that night.

 
Everyone wants to get the jump on this news so they are calling sources fast and furious. They finally learn that there has been a mission to get Osama. They want to break the story ahead of the president’s address, but Will wants to hold off.  He fears that reporting the story early could jeopardize the mission.   

Finally, just minutes before the president is to speak, Will discovers a text from Joe Biden (they are old buddies from way back) saying that the news is “reportable.” The text was sent 20 minutes earlier!  Will evidently was too baked to check his messages.  Nonetheless, Will is able to go on the air and “set the stage’ for the president’s address. He handles his anchor duties like the pro he is—even when he is “high as a kite” he is still the best in the business.

 
For some it is a somber moment of remembrance of the event of 9/11 But for most,it is night for exuberant cheering and celebration.  They are cheering in the newsroom.  They are cheering in the streets. They are cheering throughout the country. The show captures the excitement of that moment perfectly. It brings the memories flooding back to me—how I felt when I heard that news on that Sunday night, May 1, 2011.  

The most emotional moment of the show:  As the credits for the show roll, we hear the president’s words as a voice over. His voice slowly trails away. It just about brought tears to my eyes.

Runner-up for the most emotional moment of the show is a scene between Jim and Lisa. The earth could be shifting  on its axis, and the newsroom would still have time for sudsy romance. Earlier that night Lisa broke it off with Jim because she realizes that Jim “just isn’t that into her” and only likes her as a f*** buddy. But at the end of the show, Jim tells her, “Let’s hit reset” or words to that effect. “I want to ask you out on a first date.”  Lisa agrees to starting over. All together now: “Awwww.”  But really, it was a nice moment.

 

This photo is from www.acus.org

Showtime's Web Therapy: (#15, #16)

Woman to Woman

Have you noticed that Fiona Wallice is sparring with other women a lot lately. She’s had run-ins with her mother, her sister, her husband’s almost tryst partner, her husband’s therapist, her book editor, and in the last few episodes, Kiristen Nobel, a writer, Allegra Farreau, an actress, and Gina, a young, oversexed, somewhat addled woman who worked at the same firm as Fiona when she worked for a Wall Street company which was investigated by SEC.

One thing you need to know about Fiona. You don’t want to tangle with Fiona.  If you do, you will almost certainly lose. You will lose badly. You won’t see it coming until BAM, the knock-out punch. Fiona is the master at revenge.

Kirsten Noble (played by Molly Shannon) is a lot like Fiona, but with a lot less class. She lost her job, she is desperately scrambling to make some money, and she doesn’t care whom she hurts in the process. Fiona meets Kirsten (via webcam, of course) because she wants to promote her husband’s campaign for Congress (and herself, of course) and Kirsten pitches some subtle digs Fiona’s way. Kirsten Is supposed to do a feature story about Fiona for a national magazine. But it turns out that Kirsten is not a magazine writer, instead she has a successful blog called “Neurotic Cornucopia” that deals in scandalous fantasy.

Kirsten posts a story about Fiona being a lesbian. As you might imagine Fiona is none to happy about this. At their next meeting Fiona expresses her displeasure, but Kirsten is undaunted. She’s undaunted until she discovers that her blog is gone from the web.  Fiona’s has gotten her very rich lover, Austen, who just happens to own the company that publishes the blog to shut her out. Fiona gives a jaunty wave and signs off. Kirsten should never have acted derisively towards Fiona.

Allegra Favreau (played by Minnie Driver) happens to find a manuscript of Fiona’s autobiographical book that was left behind on a plane. The publication of Fiona’s book is being postponed until after the election, but Allegra is a famous actress owing to her days as a child star on a T.V. series, and she wants to turn the book into a Lifetime movie in which she would play Fiona. Fiona flies to L.A. to take a few meetings.  Fiona and Allegra attend a party; Fiona knowing that Allegra is an alcoholic, urges Allegra to have a drink. Allegra get totally wasted, behaves disgracefully, and her career is over.  Don’t worry about Fiona. Lifetime still wants to do the movie, but with a different actress.  Allegra never should never have mocked Fiona for being uptight.

Finally, Gina, a sweet girl, with no skills, except , as she freely admits, “bedroom skills.” Gina has been going on job interviews, and during those interviews she talks about Fiona.  Fiona is none to happy to have Gina blabbing about her all over town so she tells Gina to stop looking for a job; she Fiona will get her a job.  Once again she turns to Austen and he provides her with a list of about a dozen jobs at his companies for Gina.  Does Fiona tell Gina about these jobs?  She does not.  Instead she tells Gina that there are no job openings except for one in Nome Alaska.  Gina does not want to go to Nome Alaska.  Fiona tells her that she will be the only woman in the whole town.  Gina now very much wants this job and is ready to leave immediately. Problem solved. For Fiona.  Gina’s problems might just be beginning. Gina should never have been blabbing Fiona’s secrets.

If you’re a woman, you don’t want to get entangled with Fiona.  And you definitely don’t want to go woman to woman with Fiona.

 

[This review covers two episodes from Season 2, “National Exposure” and “Adaption.” I entitled this review "Woman to Woman" because Kirsten Noble says those words to Fiona and that suggested the theme of this review.]

Picture Credit:  http://i4.ytimg.com/sh/wEkAE_CA0f8/showposter.jpg?v=4fe9d1e7

"True Blood" HBO #57 "Rule the World"

Episode #57:  “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”

The vampires are causing major mayhem throughout the world as well as within their own ranks. The Sanguinistas, who believe their God, Lilith, has ordained vampires to rule the world and that humans exist just for food have taken control of the vampire empire. Bill, who used to be the “good vampire”, has turned bad, and Eric, who used to be the “bad vampire” is now the good guy. He is trying to escape from the vampire Chancellors. Bill betrays him, and his escape plan fails.

And the werewolves are fighting for domination of their pack.  B.D. has become the leader of the pack. Russell Edgington, the very bad vampire has been giving B.D. “V”.  (“V” is vampire blood that acts like a drug on humans.)  Now B.D. must pay the piper—Edgington will control the pack. He takes Luna’s child, who was in the care of her grandmother who is a member of the pack. The girl seems to be going through a wolf-pup stage and is seen in that form rather than in her human form. Edgington gives the pup to Steve (his protégé, and a former anti-vampire minister who is now, himself a vampire) as a pet.

And a whole bunch of other stuff goes down, but I wanted to focus on “Gran” today.  Adele Stackhouse was the widowed grandmother of Sookie and Jason. She was a generous and sweet soul who was murdered in the first season. A vampire hater named Drew Marshall came to Bon Temps under the alias of Rene Lenier. He hated vampires, but he especially hated “fangbangers”, people who have sex with vampires. He killed a number of young women who were banging vamps and he was after Sookie because of her relationship with Bill. Sookie was living with Gran, so when Drew/Renee came to their house to kill Sookie, he ended up killing Gran instead. (Sookie was not home.)

Now Gran is back, sort of.  Lafayette, who is now a medium, speaks with her spirit and asks for clues to help them solve the mystery of who killed Sookie’s parents. I’m glad Gran is back, if even in this very limited way.

Here’s the coolest line of the week.  When Lafayette is attempting to reach Gran, all the other spirits are clamoring for him to hear their messages. He tells them, “I ain’t Gmail for dead bitches.  Send your own g**d*** messages.”

 

But most touching moment of the week isn’t even in the episode. Having Gran back sparked a memory from Season 1. After Gran’s funeral, Sookie goes home, sits alone in the kitchen, and slowly, methodically, eats a whole cherry pie—the last pie Gran made before she died. The last pie made by her Gran that Sookie would ever have. 

This picture comes from www.wikia.com

Episodes 206 I Can't Do This Anymore

Since "Episodes" does not use titles, I will make up my own title for episode 206 (season 2, episode 6):  “I Can’t Keep Doing This.”  
 
We get to see more of Labia, Matt’s stalker, in this episode. A whole lot more. And there is a whole lot to see. 

Matt arrives home to find Labia in his kitchen. She got into the house through an open laundry room window. Knowing Matt’s history, you would expect sex to ensue. But, Matt doesn’t want to do this anymore. He demands that the naked Labia put her clothes on and leave.

Trying the sympathy ploy, Labia says, “I have cancer.”  Matt says, “You had cancer.”  I think we are going to learn that Labia is no longer in remission before the season is out.

Matt tries to recruit his “friends” from “Friends” to appear on “Pucks.”  He calls all five of her former co-stars. We only hear Matt’s end of the conversation, but apparently he has been quite obnoxious with each of them.  And apparently, appearing on a TV show with Matt is something the friends won’t do any more. 

In the finally scene, Sean and Beverly are working late. They are trying to write a speech for Matt to give at an award ceremony for Merc. They are having a really hard time coming up with something nice to say. They find a bottle of liquor in someone’s office and appropriate it, hoping they will find inspiration in the bottle. Instead they get tipsy.

One thing leads to another and they end up having sex on a desk. They are going at it hot and heavy, while murmuring how much they have missed being together.  (Well, they work together every day, but they have not been together in this one special way since they split.up.)  Suddenly Sean stops.  He says “I can’t stop seeing you with him.”  And then as he walks out he says, “I can’t do this anymore.”

I’m sure they will get back together eventually. For one thing, this is TV. For another, they are so good together. They fit together like two matched pieces of a jig saw puzzle.    They genuinely like each other. They make each other laugh. They react to the world in the same way. 

Beverly turned down an opportunity to take up with Morning’s very hot brother who was who she met on the set. She tells Carol that she is saving herself for Sean. She even tells Sean that there has been no one else because she is saving herself for him. It may turn out that she can’t do this anymore. The “this” being hoping and waiting for Sean to forgive her.

I found this picture at www.tvequals.com

The Newsroom Episode 6 "Bullies"

The episode is named “Bullies.”  It is about bullying. It is also about lying. The two often go hand in hand.

Will McAvoy is interviewing a guest on his primetime news show. The man is a former chief of staff for Rick Santorum. He is also black and gay. He is there to support Santorum’s candidacy. McAvoy presses him hard, asking how he can support a man who is vehemently anti-gay and not so much a friend to the blacks either. The man insists that Santorum is worthy of his support because they both have the same paramount issue—they are both anti-abortion, or as the anti-abortion fanatics like to say, pro-life.

I know a good reporter asks tough follow-up questions, but Will goes way over the line. He is no longer an interviewer, he is a bully. 

Finally, the guest has had enough and he explodes. It is now Will’s turn to be cowed as the guest strikes back scoring quite a few good points off Will. The guest says that Will has no right to define him as simply black and gay; he is a full person with many qualities and attributes. Will never admits his wrongdoing, but he does back off, but because he has control over the microphones, he gets the last word.

Later, Sloan learns that she has to sit in as anchor for the show that follows Will’s show.  She is very nervous about doing this and she goes to Will for advice. He tells her to be a tough interviewer. And so she goes after her guest with both guns blazing. Her guest is a Japanese man, discussing the failure of the Japanese nuclear plants after the tsunami struck Japan. He says the danger is a “level 5”. Sloan insists on-air that he told her earlier, off the record, that it is a “level seven,”  the highest level.

Now I’ve never worked on a news show, but I’m pretty sure revealing something that you were told “off-the-record” is a major no-no. Sloan goes even further. She is so worked up over this is that she starts screaming at her guest in Japanese.  (Sloan speaks Japanese among her many talents.)  She’s out of control and just about to cause a major international incident. I'm pretty sure that having a meltdown on live TV is also a no-no.

Of course, Sloan is right—the danger is Level Seven, but still, she is way over the line. She followed her mentor’s example and became a bully.  However, Sloan does not have Will’s experience and prestige, and she gets suspended for her on-air freak-out. 

Now on to the lying. Will and McKenzie are once again confronting each other over Mackenzie’s long ago infidelity. Mckenzie tells Will he was never really serious about her anyway, so what difference does it make, really, that she slipped from the straight and narrow with an old boyfriend. Will unlocks his desk draw, and shows McKenzie an engagement ring. The implication is that he has saved the ring all these years. This shuts Mckenzie down because he is claiming that he was about to ask her to marry him when she cheated on him.

But Will is lying. He bought the ring very recently, keeping it on hand waiting for the right moment to show it to Mckenzie so he could punish her. The ring is a lie. Will is a bully.

Of course, Will and McKenzie could never get married. If they did, she’d be McKenzie McAvoy. A “Mac” in your fist name and your last name—that would never work. Yes, I know, as an independent successful woman, she would never take her husband’s name, but I’m just saying, if she did.

This picture is from www.chevronone.com

Episodes #206

"Episodes" doesn’t give titles to their episodes so I am entitling it myself: “Affairs of the Heart and Other Bodily Organs.”

Two pairs of star crossed lovers get their signals crossed which makes them very cross indeed.

Carol demands that Merc recognize the fifth anniversary of their first hook-up. He agrees and suggests a weekend in Cabo. Merc calls his travel agent to arrange the trip. Merc then calls his wife, Jamie, with an excuse about having to go to New York for business over the weekend.

Jaime immediately calls Matt saying that she will be free for the weekend, and how about they go away together. Matt agrees to go to Napa with her. Jaime calls her travel agent to arrange the trip.

Here is where the stars and signals get crossed. Jaime and Merc use the same travel agent. The travel agent does not realize Merc and Jaime are going on different trips.  The travel agent thinks that the trip to Cabo is being cancelled and replaced with a trip to Napa.

Merc must now cover-up and pretend that he had been planning to surprise his wife with a trip to Napa. The result: Merc and Jamie are going to Napa—by the way, Merc hates Napa and Jaime hates Merc— but they each keep up the pretense of a happy marriage. 

Matt tells Sean his history with his stalker, Labia. It began innocently when Labia was a child with cancer and the Make-A-Wish foundation granted her a wish. The young Labia was a big fan of “Friends” and wanted “Joey” to take her t Disneyland. After that trip, the two stay in touch and Labia is cured. After she turns 18, Matt has sex with her, just the once. She has been stalking him every since. Sean is disapproving of all the casual sex in Matt’s life and the complications that ensue from his thoughtless encounters.

But Sean is on his way to his own thoughtless encounter. It is with Morning again.  Morning has had some cosmetic surgery on her cheek that has gone wrong. She refuses to leave her house. Sean goes to her house to try to persuade her to go to the studio for the shooting of the show. He’s shocked by her appearance, but he assures her that they can work around it. 

Morning, maybe because she is so relieved by this news or maybe because she is so depressed by her condition, gets a bit “cheeky,” and initiates a little “afternoon delight” with Sean. Sean is reluctant and tries to back away so Morning has him pinned against a wall. The camera stays on Sean’s face as Mourning’s face slides down Sean’s body until it is out of view. Sean’s face is marvelous to watch—he moves through a series of expressions first showing resistance, then arousal, and finally release. 

The love story this week is Carol and Merc. Carol is feeling newly empowered by the knowledge that she can stand up to Merc and ask for what she wants … and get it. But her disappointment when Merc tells her they can’t go away for the weekend is the last straw for Carol. She breaks it off with Merc.

Hooray for Carol for ending her dead-end affair. But, at the end of the episode, we see that her resolve is already wavering. She loves Merc. If only there had been more love in this episode, I could have entitled this review “What I Did for Love.”