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Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Weeds Season 3 Finale: The Fire and the Clean Slate

A very satisfying, contemplative, slap-in-your face finale of Season 3 of Weeds on Showtime tonight.

The pivotal moment came when Nancy decided to help the fire along, and make sure her house and with it her life from Judah's death till now succumbed to the flames.

This proved to be a good move, to say the least, insofar as Celia gave up Nancy's name about two seconds after she was called in for questioning, when police discovered her house full of weed. Another casualty of the fire - you can't keep secrets when the world around you is going up in flames and police and firefighters are everywhere - and Celia's behavior was 100% predictable.

But that's not all Nancy lost tonight. She and Conrad realize what they don't have in common - he doesn't recognize Nancy's Grateful Dead reference, and she has no interest in cooking him a turkey - and that looks like it may be it for them.

Though maybe not. As everything around Nancy is turning to ash, and she gets ready with brother and kids to leave - there remains the question of what will she do next season, or whenever she gets to where she is going, and the fire in Lower Majestic is over.

What has she learned from these last two years? What new skills - or, what better in terms of earning money than growing and selling weed?

And though she and Conrad have lots not in common, there is still a powerful emotional connection between them.

Quite the opposite of a cliff-hanger - blowing the mountain away, instead, and leaving us wondering what Nancy will find in the valley.

Showtime has left all options open for Season 4.

As long as Congress and the FCC don't get their way and extend their unconstitutional control of broadcasting to cable, we should be in for a great story next year.

Listen to the end of the following podcast for WINNERS to Weeds poster contest - and the correct answer!







5-minute podcast of this Weeds review


and reviews of other Season 3 episodes ... 1. Weeds is Back! ... 2 ... 3: Appealing, Important Questions ... 4-5: Prius and Gluteus ... 6. Ray of Hope ... 7. Conrad Rules! ... 12. Nancy and Conrad! ... 13. Shane Pays the Price ... 14. Just When Nancy Thought It Couldn't Get Any Worse






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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you get the sense this was too much of a convenient deus ex machina? The show has been writing itself into knots all season; usually they come up with a decently clever solution to whatever mess nancy finds herself in, but this time they just decided to burn the whole place to the floor. Well that sure takes care of things!

Still, I liked the episode. The moment with Conrad was a bit hackneyed, especially since knowing a Grateful Dead song is kind of a lame signifier for "whiteness," but... it's not like their relationship was particularly well-fleshed out to begin with.

I did think the Nancy-Guillermo dialogue was great. That's probably the most erotically charged relationship on the show; the kiss a few episodes a back was a stunner, but they never returned to it!

It was also the only scene that seemed to strive for larger thematic significance. I realize most of this comment is about the show's character dynamics -- fascinating, for sure, but is weeds a great soap opera tinged with social satire? or was it ever something more?

Paul Levinson said...

Hey, Mike - I think Weeds is definitely something more. And pulling in the fire to solve of all Nancy's problems is part of what that something more is, I think - breaking through traditional narrative expectations.

Starting with a burnt clean slate next year is a daring move.

You're right about that kiss - it was powerful.

And you're also right about the Grateful Dead being a little trite - but it was needed, so that we understood a little on the visceral (acoustic) level what was missing between them.

I wonder if Conrad will even be on the show next year .... I hope he is ... but if Nancy moves away, everyone is up for deletion, except her kids and brother...

Anonymous said...

Just because the house burnt down doesnt mean nancy in the clear. she doesnt exactly start with a clean slate, she thinks she does but the police are still going to be looking for her and they have every reason to be suspiciuos considering they knew she was married to peter, secretley no less.

As for the possibility of the charectar deletion, there cant be too many missing. theres no way shes moving away without taking everyone with her. Getting rid of Doug, Celia, Conrad or Isabelle would lose a lot of fan base and i dont think the writers are wiling to take that chance.

It got to the point where it was inevitable that nanc y would give up. How much longer would she put her children in danger before she realized it wasn;t going to stop

I think the Final scene was amazing, the direction from the moment she walked in the door to house to the final picture at the empty playgroud was flawless. It left me with a strange uneasy, yet satisfied feeling.

Parnassian Strip Mine said...

Agrestic is based upon the suburb where Magic Mountain is in California. That suburb was burning when the last episode was shot, so it would make sense to put that place behind her and I'm sure she'll never be completely off the hook; however, I don't think Celia necessarily sold Nancy out. The only shot was of her saying Nancy's name. Several scenarios could have taken place. Celia could have named Nancy as one of what's his name's lovers while she was disclaiming ownership of the house that had no paper trail, or she could have said that she was staying with Nancy during the period when she was separated from her husband, again, because there is no paper trail to the house. There could have been any number of reasons that Celia decided to give up Nancy's name, but they do not necesarily have to be that she sold Nancy out. I think that might be too obvious for the writers of this show and Celia has proved that she can be devious when necessary.

I can think of a thousand things to keep the tension going, but have no idea where the writers will go. This is why I love this show.

Anonymous said...

As much as I like this show, I really think it'd be great if it just ended here. I thought it was bordering on turning a corner for the worse several times this season, and I think dragging it out another season w/an entirely new setting etc could push it over the edge into full out mediocrity.

Anonymous said...

Did anyone else catch Guillermo possibly referring to Nancy getting started trafficking for him, like, around the country? He said like, what you've been doing is child's play, you could be my driver...I get stuck in traffic a lot. And she said, traffic, huh...

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