No one asked for a Weeds sequel, but we’re getting it anyway
No one asked for a Weeds sequel, but we’re getting it anyway. Here’s everything you need to know about the new Starz show.
Weeds, the cutting-edge dramedy about a suburban pot-dealing mom, ended in 2012, but nothing ever really goes away anymore — at least not for long. While the original series aired on Showtime, its original production company Lionsgate is working with Starz to produce a sequel with star Mary Louise Parker attached to return.
According to Variety, the new show will take place 10 years after the original series finale and explore an era of legalization.
And this is where things get really muzzy. Weeds originally took place in present day, ending in 2012, aside from the roughly eight-year time jump that occurred in the finale, which left Nancy and company in 2020 when we last saw them.
With the news that the Weeds sequel, cutely termed Weeds 4.20 (which is barely even a weed joke), will take place 10 years after the original series, that places it firmly ten years in the future — in 2030. This is a very interesting way to take the plot, to say the very least.
Bringing Weeds back on the whole isn’t a terrible idea. A lot has happened in the public conversation with marijuana since the show first began in 2005. There are now more states with fully legalized marijuana than there are who still have no legal or decriminalized form of it on the books.
Exploring this turn in the political landscape, especially as it intersects with race, class, and the criminal justice system, would be a fitting way to bring this show back. But Weeds was never particularly sensitive to any of these issues.
It’s worth noting that Weeds creator Jenji Kohan, who went on to create Orange Is the New Black (a show that is also problematic, but still much more progressive), has not been attached to the project. Instead, former Weeds writer, Victoria Morrow will helm the project and serve as executive producer along with Parker.
Weeds was also the first of its kind in the era of anti-hero shows, particularly with an unsympathetic mother at the helm. The show premiered three years before Breaking Bad and four before Nurse Jackie.
Any fan of the show can agree that, whether you were rooting for or against Nancy, it was always fun to watch. But whether we’re ready to see her on our screens again is another question.
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