We're Out of Weeds

I'm not the first one to say that Weeds probably should have ended after Season 4.  Season 3 was a little uneven but I think the first two seasons earned itself enough credit to see if they could continue to carry a story with these characters once the Agrestic setting played itself out.  After Season 4 it became apparent that they couldn't.  If I felt that way after Season 4, why did I stick around to see it through Season 8?  Like every other sucker who did I'm assuming because after Season 4 each season I went in kind of expecting it to be the last so in a way I felt pot-committed (oh snap....PUN!!) and had a need to see how it ended.  As far as how the story ended, I'm mostly satisfied.  I'm less satisfied by the actual execution but the show has been a mess for so long that I can accept that and just take a step back and look at the resolution for each character:

-Nancy: Since she survived a gun shot wound to the head you knew that her story wasn't going to end with her dying.  But I'm actually happy with the way that her story ended.  Business wise she was successful but she ends up alone and no longer needed.  She's a multi-millionaire but she's not really happy.  And it's probably what that character deserves

-Andy and Silas: They end in pretty similar places.  They both carved out nice little lives for themselves clear across the country from Nancy or her influence.  Both have kids.  Silas is married, Andy has a restaurant and both seem genuinely happy.

-Shane: Shane was probably Nancy's biggest punishment.  As a result of her choices when he was a kid he ends up morally flawed.  He's killed as a teenager and now he's a corrupt alcoholic cop.  

-Doug: Where Jenji Kohan misjudged the audience is that she thought Doug Wilson needed a resolution to his story.  His only role on this show was to still try to make this a comedy.  And she failed miserably.  He kept trying to be squeezed into the show when they just should have cut him out and focused more on the drama.  How are we really supposed to feel about seeing Kevin Nealon as a cult leader dressed in purple robes trying to reconcile with his son who I don't think we've seen since Season 1?  It was ridiculous and a huge miss.

Another huge miss and distraction in the series finale was that they tried to get to cute with technology advances 5 years in the future.  I'm all for time jumps in series finales.  I'm a huge fan of epilogues but stuff like the cell phones and the projection keyboards...too much.  It was unnecessary and only took away from the episode.

As much as it was long overdue to end, there is a part of me that's a little sad it's over.  Despite it's shortcomings, Mary Louise Parker and Justin Kirk always acted the crap out of whatever they were given.

On a final note, it's weird to think that it may have been my longest tenured scripted television show.  Without thinking to hard about it, I'm not sure there are many shows left that began in 2005 that I'm still watching.  I think that honor is now held by How I Met Your Mother which started later in that year.

Alcatraz

I know this is a few days late but Monday night's are busy with The Bachelor and all....

When a new show premieres that looks interesting to me I tell myself it has three episodes to hook me. I'm going to give Alcatraz a little more than that. I'm a big Fringe fan. It's arguably my favorite drama on TV right now. In Fringe's first season they tried a similar formula to what Alcatraz looks like it's going to try. Fringe did a "monster of the week" with a little bit of mythology mixed in from time to time (remember The Pattern?"). Alcatraz looks like it's shaping up no different. It looks like "prisoner of the week" with a little bit of mythology mixed in. Both have sneaky attractive female leads who landed a case at their respective law enforcement agencies and stumbled across something bigger.

Alcatraz has a more accessible premise than Fringe does which will allow it to use it's more procedural aspects more often than Fringe does now. But what I anticipate happening is that once people officially invest in the show and it becomes a part of their Mondays (or season passed on DVR), it will be for the mythology and not the "prisoner of the week" stories. And that's when the show will change for the better for me. And because I trust the people behind Alcatraz I'm willing to wait it out for a little while til that happens.

One issue I have right now though since I always seem to need to have one is why was Alcatraz's story that they transferred to another prison? One place I think they made a mistake was mentioning and then showing a visiting day. That made me start thinking, how are they going to explain to the prisoner's families that they can no longer visit them anymore at their new prison? It would have been cleaner to say they all died via some believable way.

That's really it though. Other than that it's not a terrible way to spend an hour in front of the TV.