On Monday I saw the premiere episode of Weeds on Showtime. This brand-new series has an interesting premise: an upper middle class white woman housewife is thrown into a financial crisis after her husband dies suddenly while jogging with their son. So she turns to selling pot to the well-heeled residents of her planned community. Her "wholesalers", from whom she gets the marijuana, are a black family living in what looks like the black areas of Los Angeles. A lot of the humor in the show lies in the contrast between how she interacts with her white neighbors and her black "business partners".
It's a funny show, in an understated, wry sort of way. The setting, the fictional luxury community of Agrestic, is exactly the kind of antiseptic, soul-less, McMansion community that I would not want to live in. Big houses on not-big-enough lots, all with ersatz Mediterranean or Renaissance Italian looks (such schlock doesn't deserve to be called "architecture") and with fabulous eat-in kitchens. Housewives all look alike, driving their engineered little kids in large American SUVs or Volvos or BMWs. Husbands going to work everyday and hanging out at kids' games or around their backyard barbecues every weekend. The whole shebang one boring, manufactured, homogeneous bedroom community that's totally devoid of character or charm. And they all probably vote Republican, too.
Which is exactly like San Ramon, where my aunt lives, and where she kept trying to get me to move after I started working for SBC. I was at her place once, and we went to the local Starbucks for some latte. Inside the coffee shop were half a dozen women, all white, all skinny, all wearing athletic clothes, all pushing expensive-looking baby strollers. And they each left in their immaculately clean Audi and Mercedes-Benz station wagons. Uhm... auntie? No f-ing way!
Anyway, back to the show Weeds. There is another established pot dealer in Agrestic. He's young (in high school), witty, the son of a member of the city council, gay (masculine and closeted) and HOT! There was a scene where he was kissing another guy in a jacuzzi and another scene where he was jumping up and down on a bed wearing nothing but tighty whities. Fun! LOL
The boy's hotness notwithstanding, the best character on the show is actually the one played to perfection by Elizabeth Perkins. The character is deliciously bitchy. The kind that will stab you in the back with a smile. She rags on her chubby daughter like there's no tomorrow, is a snob and a gossip, and is a control freak. In other words, a trainwreck that you just have to keep looking at.
If you have Showtime, check it out. It's very promising.