cannabisnews.com: 'Weeds' Adds a Christian Doper 





'Weeds' Adds a Christian Doper 
Posted by CN Staff on August 13, 2007 at 06:02:24 PT
By Doug Elfman, Television Critic 
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
USA -- If you're wondering whether Mary-Kate Olsen can really act, you can check out her meaty role in "Weeds." It's her first part without her sister, and a break from her kids' roles. She plays a dope-smoking Christian who hooks up with the show's teen boy, Silas.I haven't seen her in the show yet -- she doesn't appear in the first four episodes Showtime gave me -- but the creator of "Weeds," Jenji Kohan, says Olsen gave the best audition.
"If anything, we might have been nervous about her reputation," he says, so he auditioned her twice. "And her performance was wonderful and natural."She wants to teach Silas (Hunter Parrish) "all about the Bible," Olsen says of her character. "Maybe she's stoned while doing so, but she wants to tell them about it."Another, sketchier Christian joins Olsen later this season, a housing developer played by Matthew Modine."He's a religious pretender, like so many people in our government, who is profiting from the ideals that were written so many thousands of years ago," Modine says.Kohan says "Weeds" is not attacking spirituality."I don't think Christianity and pot-smoking are necessarily mutually [exclusive]," he says. (This comment reminds me of dope-smoking, self-described "Jesus freaks" my sister knew when I was a kid.)"We are not necessarily poking fun at religion. We are poking fun at the commerce of religion," Kohan says.The third season of "Weeds" begins tonight with Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) standing in a kitchen where she grows pot. A handful of scary, angry drug dealers point guns at her pretty little face. They want her dope. But her kid already stole it. Her ass is grass, and they are the lawn mowers.Nancy will get out of this jam, but with consequences. The new episodes find the upper-middle-class mother of two evolving into a gangster. This is a good move for the show. In the first season, Nancy's husband died and she turned lightheartedly to dope to pay the bills. The second season, she upped her game and got involved with shady enemies. Now, she chooses to dig deeper into the dangerous lifestyle.It's interesting how everyone seems to sell pot in "Weeds," but few people smoke it. Nancy doesn't like it ("control issues"). Marijuana is a commodity that drives her financials and her mommy motivations.In the first new half-hour, the only ingested items are booze, prescription pills and Tylenol with codeine. In an upcoming episode, Nancy's frien-emy Celia (Elizabeth Perkins) goes on her politician's rant -- "Drugs are wrong! ... I'm a crusader!" -- while stumbling drunk in the streets.You could say the writers are making a statement about how illegal pot is no worse than the legal self-medication regular Americans engage in. But "Weeds" isn't an issues show that pounds you with ideas. It's better than that. It's a character study wrapped in fast-moving plots. Politics and religion are subtextual.In a few weeks, an anti-war character gets sent into National Guard training against his will, and he sees another soldier die accidentally. This scene could seem out of context, like a political declaration. But it's played as comedy, mainly to show soldiers lighting farts.That's why "Weeds" is good. It sticks to the rhythm of its very dissimilar people: the self-destructive Nancy, the raging-id hedonist of her brother-in-law Andy (Justin Kirk, the most fun thing about "Weeds") and Nancy's smart horticulturalist Conrad (the subtly smoldering Romany Malco).Where are the pushers of "Weeds" heading, ultimately? Not to a happy place, Kohan says."I don't think there will ever be the happy ending or the tragic ending with 'Weeds,' " he says. "There's always something in the middle."Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL) Author: Doug Elfman, Television Critic Published: August 13, 2007Copyright: 2007 The Sun-Times Co. Contact: letters suntimes.com Website: http://www.suntimes.com/ Related Articles & Web Site:Showtime's Weeds http://www.sho.com/site/weeds/home.doLife in The Suburbs, Where The Grass Is Greenerhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22127.shtml'Weeds' Grows an Alluring Plothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22067.shtml
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Comment #31 posted by Hope on August 14, 2007 at 22:36:59 PT
JustGetnBy
It's probably you guys... the retired officers, musicians, lawyers, truck drivers, contractors, technicians, the average working man, and just guys, that can get that inequity across to that kind of guy you're speaking of. I think they'll listen to you all a whole lot better than women. I'm sure of it.Sadly, the millions of Joe six-packs our there, a huge group of men, I'm sure, probably don't care about any inequities beyond their six packs and their TV sets. It would help so much, if they did.I'm sure it's happening though. We all are changing the world...one living room, one kitchen, one office, one church, one person at a time.
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Comment #30 posted by FoM on August 14, 2007 at 20:51:41 PT
JustGetnBy 
Thank you. I don't know how to show Joe Sixpack much of anything since I don't have any Joe Sixpack friends. I'm not sure I understand your question though. It's good to see you.
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Comment #29 posted by JustGetnBy on August 14, 2007 at 17:58:17 PT
Hope, FOM ,#22
Hope, FOM, I know that both of your hearts are so big that you both know that there is no balance between Drug Law enforcement and the reality of the Drug War Today.   That inequality is what we need to show "Joe SixPack".
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Comment #28 posted by museman on August 14, 2007 at 10:39:33 PT
rev
Don't forget "hippy". You know like some of the so-called anti-prohibitionists like to use to prove that 'pot is ok because people other than hippies smoke it' thing.Never could wrap my mouth around that word "dope" except when I built model airplanes.
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Comment #27 posted by BGreen on August 14, 2007 at 06:52:09 PT
"Doper" is to me what the "C" word 
"Doper" is to me what the "C" word is to my wifeWords don't usually bother me or my wife, but the meaning behind the words and the intentions of those people choosing those descriptive words does bother me.My wife despises the "C" word (rhymes with what you do in football on 4th down.) The hatred is so obvious whenever that word is used to describe any woman.I don't mind even being called a "pothead" because it's really meaningless and harmless. Mrs. Green even calls me her "Hairy Pothead," in reference to the popular book and movie series, and it's just an innocent term of endearment.The term "doper" is only used by those who want to dehumanize the partakers of cannabis. Their message is that WE'RE dopes, "stupid, dolts" as the definition reads.Calling us "dopers" is exactly the same as calling a mentally challenged person a "retard," a black person a "nigger" or a gay person a "faggot." The intention is exactly the same. The underlying hatred is exactly the same.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #26 posted by Toker00 on August 14, 2007 at 03:08:41 PT
Hope
I think what you felt was psychological shock and awe. Weeds is very blunt at times with exposing what MSM won't. The most astonishing Truth is that people who smoke and sell weed do it responsibly. The fact that a single white female can rail against the local drug pusher and gain respect without suffering intimidation beyond penny slinging is a bit unbelievable, but her use of sex to tame the pusher man is very believable. lol. But you don't see that on a normal sitcom! :) It pushes social and legal bounds to get across the Joe sixpack what MSM won't. But that's just MHO.Toke. 
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Comment #25 posted by FoM on August 13, 2007 at 20:26:43 PT
Dankhank
I really did enjoy Weeds. 
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Comment #24 posted by FoM on August 13, 2007 at 20:24:22 PT
Hope
Thank you. Weeds was very good and funny and I did laugh.I believed when I was young that we could try hard and do the right thing or we could become a society on the brink of collapse. I still believe in people but I also realize that hate is a powerful emotion in today's world. Hate for anything that is outside a person's own personal safety zone is a very sad thing and it can destroy us if we don't get our values in order.
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Comment #23 posted by Dankhank on August 13, 2007 at 20:24:10 PT
weeds
still funny afta all dem years ...watching Bill Kristoll on Daily Show ...he's tap dancing to the max ...
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Comment #22 posted by Hope on August 13, 2007 at 19:54:08 PT
Great, FoM.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.It's always seemed to me that probably that scene that made me so nervous was the idea in this day and age to see someone take such a risk. Armed and vicious thugs supported by oppressive government, busting down doors and terrorizing people just makes me nervous. Especially when the people, by any stretch of the sane imagination, don't deserve such treatment at all.The thing that bothers me so much...is that I was so confident when I was younger that modern Americans would never do anything that like that to their fellow citizens. I thought they'd just refuse to, to matter what authority would dare to order it. I didn't think the would follow such orders. I thought they were better people than that. Yet they do. They do. Like Nazis. Like monsters. I hoped and thought so much better of the people here. It's hard to imagine, now, after all I've seen, that I ever could have believed in them like that. That was hard and terrible to lose that particular "innocence". It was more than naivety. It was something about respect and trust. It's gone now. It was a terrible, terrible thing to lose.
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Comment #21 posted by FoM on August 13, 2007 at 19:33:59 PT
Weeds
We just saw the first episode of season 3 and I know why I like this show so much. It's funny and the actors are really good and it makes me laugh. 
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Comment #20 posted by Hope on August 13, 2007 at 18:47:15 PT
Well....of course.
This is a prohibitionist piece of work....right in the title.Doper?I get so tired of it.They will likely be saying, on THAT day, "When, Lord, did I sneer at you and call you a "Doper"?"People! Prohibitionists! It's not what goes in your mouth, or lungs, or stomach, that makes you immoral or unclean....for the Lord's sake!....it's what comes out of you, out of your mouth, out of your heart...that makes you unclean or immoral.
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Comment #19 posted by FoM on August 13, 2007 at 15:07:13 PT
Hope
I can't place that but maybe someone else can.
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Comment #18 posted by FoM on August 13, 2007 at 15:04:58 PT
Hope
The problem with Weeds is I wanted to to be a reform tool. It normalizes the use of marijuana in suburbia. There is good and bad and some just funny. I gave up on it meaning anything but the cast is really good. Cop and robber type shows are popular and that is what they have in Weeds.
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Comment #17 posted by Hope on August 13, 2007 at 15:03:52 PT
There is one particular scene
in the program I saw, that I'd like to break down frame by frame and study everything that is in the scene.It was in someone's kitchen. Kevin Nealand was in the scene and there was a pot plant. It was just strange.Then again... I did smoke a joint once! "You say psycho like it's something bad!"
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Comment #16 posted by Hope on August 13, 2007 at 14:54:16 PT
Weeds
I saw it one time when it was shown free on one of the other stations, or whatever you call them now. Something about it gave me the creeps. I can't say what. It felt nerve wracking...for no real apparent reason. The war on pot is nerve wracking, of course. What really crazy people, under guise of authority and some sort of hideously misplaced moral standard, are doing to other people over their use of a plant is extraordinarily disturbing.My personal reaction to the one episode of Weeds I saw, made me wonder about the possibility that there might be negative subliminal messages embedded in it.Paranoia? Maybe. But I've studied subliminal messages some...and it's something I have to wonder about when I have a feeling like that for no obvious reason.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subliminal_messageBut of course, maybe not. Everything in the world, is of course, exactly as it appears to be.Yeah. Right.
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on August 13, 2007 at 13:42:56 PT
Dankhank
Have you seen some of the new episodes? I find spending the extra money now hard for one show but I will give it a couple of episodes. I find it hard to laugh about what might be putting many people behind bars for a long time since they are on a major crackdown on clubs in California. Laughing is something I love to do and I need to give the 3rd season a try at least.
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Comment #14 posted by Dankhank on August 13, 2007 at 13:32:20 PT
weeds ...
shows professionals getting high ...accountants, lawyers, baseball players, musicians, sick people, kids ... violence associated with Cannabis is certainly ID'd as related to the production and distribution of the herb ... due to it's lillegality.the corruption of the DEA is shown, not only from Peter, but his boss.all the coke/meth/smack in the area and Pot is pursued. Nancy is terrorized by Peter because she is weak. the Alcohol culture is slammed for what it produces ... violence and greed and hate.When Nancy met the "Gangsta" at the club the conversation was illuminating.The visit to the trade show was amazing ...The PTA persecution of the "gay" teacher was instructive.Hayla's comment that it may have been the cops that did a drive-by speaks volumes.we are a nation of choice ... don't matter to me if you like it or not, but I do ... for now.all shows devolve ...
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Comment #13 posted by FoM on August 13, 2007 at 12:45:31 PT
museman
I am paying for Showtime and I don't watch it except for Weeds and if it gets to bad I will cancel it because it's a lot of money for a one half hour show a week. Maybe I should just wait until the DVD comes out. I might. 
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Comment #12 posted by museman on August 13, 2007 at 12:39:45 PT
FoM
My wife stopped watching. Isn't there already enough violence that it has to be exemplified and identified with the herb?The message that is being sent is leaning very heavily towards supporting prohibition, and glorifies the moral low-ground of suburbia in America.I liked the characters too, except for Nancy, she's just an idiot who makes nothing but wrong choices.The thing is, that too many people who have little to no experience with the herb are being led to believe that this IS the AMERICAN CANNABIS LIFESTYLE, and that is just false.Too many false premises, exaggerations which err on the side of the status quo, and absolutely none of the finer aspects of growing, and experiencing the herb. NONE.Modern "Entertainment" is over-rated.
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on August 13, 2007 at 12:15:09 PT
Hope
They said they were going to talk about it on the news but I haven't seen anything so far. If it is tested and works it will be good I think.
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on August 13, 2007 at 12:13:38 PT
museman
I don't know if I would watch it if I hadn't watched the first two seasons. I don't like the violence but I think the cast is really good and I do laugh a lot when watching it. I don't look at it as a reform type show just an interesting dark comedy.
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Comment #9 posted by museman on August 13, 2007 at 11:58:03 PT
weeds
I don't like the way the show is going. It seems more and more to be trying to say that the 'pot culture' is inexorably entangled with the street gangsta violence, and that -because no other is demonstrated- that is the whole of the scene. Gangsta's grow the pot, sell the pot, and kill each other over the pot. The general level of intellectual involvement is just above gutter level, and the few innovative moments of subject matter have been drowned in the 'drugworld spectacle.'It is becoming like 'desperate housewives' on the dark side. I think that the producers have exploited a great idea, gained an audience that initially relates, but now they are trending towards status quo political values by demonstrating in quite an exaggerated and extreme way that the 'pot life style' is bad.I've seen the first 4 shows, and it just gets thicker and worse. That little 'comedy scene' about 'soldiers farts' has a very sinister conclusion, and there is nothing 'funny' about it, or lets just say your laugh gets kinda stuck in your throat.The political statement made by that scene is probably the most significant scene in the whole entire first 4 episodes.
I have to watch just to see how that goes, but the rest of the characters, and the plot has lost plausibility in my estimation.
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on August 13, 2007 at 11:54:31 PT
If they work...
I don't know. It's still nicotine. I know I wouldn't dream of trying one of the ones from China. That's for sure.
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on August 13, 2007 at 11:53:19 PT
The other one...
that's made in the USA is about sixty dollars.
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on August 13, 2007 at 11:52:13 PT
Hope
I wonder if e-cigarettes really work. It seems expensive but if it really works it could be a good thing.
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on August 13, 2007 at 11:45:23 PT
e-cigs and cigars
I looked at one of those things. The kit to just get started is about one hundred dollars.
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on August 13, 2007 at 11:35:28 PT
Just a Comment
I wanted to mention why I don't comment on Craig X or Emery. I don't know what to say because it doesn't look good for either of them in my opinion. Maybe Craig X will get a reduced sentence but I don't know.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on August 13, 2007 at 11:31:27 PT
A Question
I saw a mention of the e-cigarette in my email and I wondered what anyone might think of this. Is it like vaporizing?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-cigarette
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on August 13, 2007 at 09:29:54 PT
Doug Elfman
He sounds like a prohibitionist just barely able to control his vitriol. Craig X Rubin. I feel very bad for him. He's not a dangerous person. It's obscene to destroy him, and his family, and put him in a cage. It's obscene.I'm so ready for the present day Inquisitors to go down. They need to crumble and disappear into the ashes of history, where they belong.When? So much sorrow, and grief, and even death, cries out for justice. When?
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Comment #1 posted by RevRayGreen on August 13, 2007 at 06:14:07 PT
Some of you may
be following the fate of Craig X,
who has appeared on the show and also a consultant.......craigxrubin hotmail.comsome of you may have seen this email........."I was precluded from telling much of anything....I had my life's savings 
seized prior to any conviction and we had two lawyer solicit us who both had 
connections to the prosecution...I don't believe justice was served, but I 
am not going to appeal...I am going to accept my decision of my peers.I am going to do my five years and probably leave the country....I love 
America, but I now feel like a stranger in a strange land....I am shocked 
that the God of the Bible is not enough in this country any more, but I am 
glad to show my seven children it is better to follow the Word of God, the 
truth, and go to jail rather than to capitulate and lie.I feel proud to be going to jail for my faith in God. I know for a fact 
cannabis is the Tree of Life in the Bible and just like Daniel who would not 
worship an idol, I am not going to go against the Word of God. I didn't 
stop worship freely when they arrested me and I am not going to stop now.CraigX "
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