What I’m Watching: Weeds (Series Finale)

Weeds: Season 8, Episodes 12 and 13 “It’s Time”

I turned this one-hour episode on about sixty seconds too late and was entirely confused, though starting over at the beginning of the episode just revealed that this was an unexplained flash-forward, picking up right before Stevie’s Bar Mitzvah. There’s something very appropriate about ending a show with a life-cycle event because it’s a logical time to bring people from many parts of your past back together, allowing for people to have fallen out of touch or out of favor (Celia, the most notably absent one). The most intriguing and unexpected guest, who had previously appeared only on the pilot but was evidently on loan from another Showtime series, “Shameless,” was Justin Chatwin as Josh, Doug’s son, who got taken from his apartment twice so that Guru Doug could apologize to him (sort of) for being a bad father. I most enjoyed Guillermo sitting down to correct Stevie’s perception of his birth father, though it had interesting and uncomfortable results as played out during Stevie’s speech during his Bar Mitzvah. Four dead husbands is quite the legacy for Nancy, and owning an enormously successful chains of legal marijuana stores didn’t seem to be fulfilling for her or her relationship with either of her older children. Oddly enough, Silas turned out just fine, thanks in part to Megan, while Shane went down the deep end and grew the world’s worst mustache. Andy, on the other hand, was the picture of serenity, and it’s nice to see him end on such an inspiring serious note, even if we pretty much missed much of that development. The final scene out in the snow was a bit overlong but generally effectively nostalgic. Some of the futuristic innovations, namely the see-through phones, were a bit odd, but this is hardly supposed to be science fiction. It was nice to hear about Isabelle becoming Bruce, and seeing Conrad and Sanjay in relationships that worked for them. This show, perhaps more than any other, has been a wild rollercoaster ride since its second season introduced other players besides Nancy in the game, yet it’s managed to stay interesting and often quite good in the process. It’s most worthwhile for getting the opportunity to see those five core characters grow from their original young selves in the first season to these bona fide accomplished adults now.

Series finale: B+
Season grade: B+
Season MVP: Justin Kirk as Andy
Series grade: B+
Series MVP: Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy
Best Season: Season 1 and Season 4
Best Episode: “You Can’t Miss the Bear” / “Go”