History Series / Weeds

* RealSongThemeTune: Malvina Reynolds' "Little Boxes," in seasons 1-3 and 8.

* DisabledLoveInterest: Silas' girlfriend for the first season, Megan Graves, [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative hottest tsundere brainy deaf schoolgirl girlfriend since]] [[VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo Shizune Hakamichi]]. She's good enough a lip-reader and vocalizer that her disability doesn't prove to be much of an impairment even though Silas knows virtually no sign-language. Their relationship goes really well until he accidentally blurts out that he thinks she got accepted into a fancy college simply because she's deaf, rather than actually being intelligent and studious. [[spoiler:Silas learns sign language after marrying her in Season 8]].

The show came down with a bit of CerebusSyndrome during its run, transitioning from a farcical (if often incredibly [[BlackComedy dark]]) comedy to a straight dramedy with plenty of of subplots played for drama rather than laughs, starting around the time the setting changed to Ren Mar, California, another fictional town along the border to Mexico. The numerous characters were eventually pared down, and ultimately the show focused primarily on Nancy's family unit [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Doug]].

Nevertheless, the series garnered critical acclaim for much of its run and became an influential female-centered drama, leading Jenji Kohan to write ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack''. It has indirectly inspired shows like the British stoner-dramedy ''Series/{{Ideal}}'', and even ''Series/BreakingBad''[[note]]Creator/VinceGilligan wrote the series without knowing that a show about a drug-dealing anti-hero already existed; when he learned about it, he did everything he could to prevent his show from looking too similar to ''Weeds'', and he's admitted that had he known about ''Weeds'' in advance, he wouldn't have gone through with his show[[/note]], while the series itself is [[FollowTheLeader largely inspired]] from the 2000 British movie ''Film/SavingGrace''. ''Weeds'' even won an Emmy and a Golden Globe and remains one of Showtime's most popular shows.

** Celia's admiration of Shane [[ADateWithRosiePalms eating so many bananas]]...

* GuyOnGuyIsHot: Invoked when Nancy [[ADateWithRosiePalms relaxes herself]] with gay porn left in an RV.

Nevertheless, the series garnered critical acclaim for much of its run and became an influential female-centered drama, leading Jenji Kohan to write ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack''. It has indirectly inspired shows like the British stoner-dramedy ''Series/{{Ideal}}'', and even ''Series/BreakingBad''[[note]]Vince Gilligan wrote the series without knowing that a show about a drug-dealing anti-hero already existed; when he learned about it, he did everything he could to prevent his show from looking too similar to ''Weeds'', and he's admitted that had he known about ''Weeds'' in advance, he wouldn't have gone through with his show[[/note]], while the series itself is [[FollowTheLeader largely inspired]] from the 2000 British movie ''Film/SavingGrace''. ''Weeds'' even won an Emmy and a Golden Globe and remains one of Showtime's most popular shows.

Nevertheless, the series garnered critical acclaim for much of its run and became an influential female-centered drama, leading Jenji Kohan to write ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack''. It has indirectly inspired shows like the British stoner-dramedy ''Series/{{Ideal}}'', and even ''Series/BreakingBad''[[note]]Vince Gilligan wrote the series without knowing that a show about a drug-dealing anti-hero already existed; when he learned about it, he did everything he could to prevent his show from looking too similar to ''Weeds'', and he's admitted that had he known about ''Weeds'' in advance, he wouldn't have gone through with his show.[[/note]], while the series itself is [[FollowTheLeader largely inspired]] from the 2000 British movie ''Film/SavingGrace''. ''Weeds'' even won an Emmy and a Golden Globe and remains one of Showtime's most popular shows.

The show came down with a bit of CerebusSyndrome during its run, transitioning from a farcical (if often incredibly [[BlackComedy dark]]) comedy to a straight dramedy with plenty of of subplots played for drama rather than laughs, starting around the time the setting changed to Ren Mar, California, another fictional town along the border to Mexico. The LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters were eventually pared down, and ultimately the show focused primarily on Nancy's family unit [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Doug]].

* TurnCoat: Given that the show has LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, and everyone's pretty much in it for themselves, this shouldn't come as a surprise after a while.

** In addition there are aside comments from most of the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters who returned for the finale, mentioning what they're doing with their lives.

* IvyLeagueForEveryone
* IncestIsRelative: Shane masturbates to photos of his mother.
** Behind a door, Zoya's brother watches intently as she fondles Nancy.

* MagicalNegro: Averted with Heylia.
* MamaBear: Nancy in spades. Heylia to an extent.

* NaiveNewcomer

* YouHaveToHaveJews: The sheer number of protagonists who are openly Jewish and not-so-subtle about it is... interesting to say the least.

* [[SchoolgirlLesbians Schoolgirl Lesbian]]: Isabelle, although [[ItsAllAboutMe Celia is convinced she's just doing it to torment her]] and as an excuse for being fat.

[[caption-width-right:350:Give in to Hemptation]]

''Weeds'' was a half-hour dramedy created by Jenji Kohan that aired from 2005 to 2012 on Creator/{{Showtime}}.

The show initially centered on Nancy Botwin (played by Creator/MaryLouiseParker), a housewife in the fictional suburb of Agrestic, California, who, following the sudden death of her breadwinner husband, turns to dealing marijuana to provide for her sons Silas and Shane, respectively 15 and 10 when the show begins. The cast is rounded out by her mooching brother-in-law Andy, her RichBitch friend/nemesis Celia Hodes, Celia's long-suffering husband and daughter Dean and Isabelle, her supplier Heylia James and Heylia's grow expert nephew Conrad Shepard. And [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Doug]], the perennially drugged-out city councilman who assists Nancy with the monetary aspect of her "business".

The show came down with a bit of CerebusSyndrome during its run, transitioning from a farcical (if often incredibly dark) comedy to a straight dramedy with plenty of of subplots played for drama rather than laughs, starting around the time the setting changed to Ren Mar, California, another fictional town along the border to Mexico. The LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters were eventually pared down, and ultimately the show focused primarily on Nancy's family unit [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Doug]].

[[folder: Tropes A-B]]

*** Surprisingly this plot was picked up and brought to a conclusion [[spoiler: 7 years later during the series finale]]!

** A [[spoiler: DEA agent]] (This one was admittedly second date)

** The brother of her [[spoiler: cellmate in prison who she was planning to buy drugs from]]
*** [[spoiler: the cellmate]]
** [[spoiler: her brother-in-law]]
** [[spoiler: a rabbi]]
* AmbiguouslyJewish: The Botwins for the most part, since none of them really take the faith seriously and the mentions are mostly PlayedForLaughs. Played straight with [[spoiler: Silas, who isn't blood-related to Judah]].

* BackForTheFinale: Guillermo, Dean Hodes, and [[spoiler: Josh Wilson (his first appearance since the pilot)]]. [[spoiler: Conrad]] returned for the penultimate episode.

** [[spoiler: Shane. Oh God, Shane]].
** [[spoiler: I THINK PINK'S YOUR COLOR, FUCKWAD!]]

** One of the darkest moments is the finale of Season 4: [[spoiler:As Nancy drives herself back into Mexico to answer to Estaban (whom Nancy is certain knows that she double-crossed him and that she will most likely be killed), she calls a gift basket delivery service and, in one of the tensest scenes of the entire show, messily narrates a card addressed to Silas to be placed on the basket. The sales lady eventually pushes Nancy to add butter cookies onto the order, too.]] Cue the first episode of Season 5: [[spoiler: Silas has received the basket (card complete with a signature of "Me. Mom.") and Andy goes on about how simple yet elegant the flavour of the butter cookie is.]]
** In the same episode, [[spoiler: Celia Hodes]] is kidnapped and held for ransom. None of the main cast will pay the ransom and spare [[spoiler: her]] death. The responses to the phone calls are still hilarious, though.

** As of the series finale, [[spoiler: all four of Nancy's husbands have died while being married to her. Andy was right]].

[[folder: Tropes C-D]]

* DirtyCop: Detective Ouellette is pretty corrupt. [[spoiler: Shane becomes this as well]].
* DisabledLoveInterest: Silas' girlfriend for the first season, Megan Graves, [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative hottest tsundere brainy deaf schoolgirl girlfriend since]] [[VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo Shizune Hakamichi]]. She's good enough a lip-reader and vocalizer that her disability doesn't prove to be much of an impairment even though Silas knows virtually no sign-language. Their relationship goes really well until he accidentally blurts out that he thinks she got accepted into a fancy college simply because she's deaf, rather than actually being intelligent and studious. [[spoiler: Silas learns sign language after marrying her in Season 8]].

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: After three seasons Estaban is killed off screen in prison in the season 7 premiere.]]
* DroppedAfterThePilot: A two-fer in Ep. 1x01 ''You Can't Miss the Bear''. Haley Hudson appears as Silas' cool, down-to-earth girlfriend Quinn Hodes, who is also the daughter of major character Celia Hodes. Similarly, Justin Chatwin appears as a fellow Agrestic drug dealer Josh Wilson, who is also the son of major character Doug Wilson. In Ep. 1x02 ''Free Goat'' Celia tells Silas that she sent Quinn to Mexico for sleeping with him, as well as revealing that Quinn had a whole day to tell him this herself, but apparently cared more about the songs on her iPod. [[spoiler: [[TheBusCameBack She returns]] for two brief appearances during the Season 4 Finale/Season 5 Premiere]]. Josh however, is not mentioned again until Season 4 in a short remark from a stoned Doug, [[spoiler: and in the last episodes of Season 8]].

* DrugsAreBad: When the show was announced, and for a good chunk of its run, some critics accused it of glorifying drug use. As the series progressed, however, while not following the trope exactly, drugs have not exactly had a positive impact on the protagonists. [[spoiler: The finale has Nancy selling pot legally, leaving the series closer to averting than confirming the trope, though the body count linked to her illegal sales remains]].

[[folder: Tropes E-R]]

** Quinn's boyfriend, who was willing to help her sell Celia's organs and body parts, dumps her on the spot when she starts savagely beating Celia [[spoiler: after Celia reveals she had breast cancer and thus can't become an organ donor]].
* EverybodyLaughsEnding: The [[spoiler: final scene of the series]], but [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools to great effect]].

* {{Gayngst}}: [[spoiler: Captain Roy Till]] after his boyfriend [[spoiler: Agent Schlatter]] was murdered.

-->'''Isabelle''': You know, maybe you should double-check just to be sure. I mean there's still some chance you'll die, right?
-->'''Celia''': Why would you say that?
-->'''Isabelle''': 'Cause when you think you're going to die, you're a much better person.

-->'''Marvin''': Don't nobody want a dead white lady on their hands!

[[folder: Tropes S-Z]]

--->'''Silas''': Shane can become... I don't know... one of those good serial killers who only kills other serial killers.

* TheStinger: Season 8's "See Blue and Smell Cheese and Die" contains one, featuring [[spoiler: Tim Scottson]]'s ex-girlfriend.

* TimeSkip: Two, one in [[spoiler: the beginning of Season 7 that flashes forward to the end of Nancy's prison sentence]], and the other in [[spoiler: the series finale that flashes forward to Stevie's bar mitzvah]].

** Celia takes the cake, though, when, at the end of Season 3, [[spoiler: she turns on the team pretty much as soon as the police take her in, when realistically, all she had to do was play dumb and the lot of them likely could have gotten off scot-free. Immediately afterwards, however, the rest of Nancy's team turns on CELIA, implicating her as the kingpin of the operation.]]

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: The entirety of the series finale, ''It's Time'', which takes place [[spoiler: during a TimeSkip for Stevie's bar mitzvah]].
** Nancy [[spoiler: is a successful mogul of a now legal pot enterprise. By the end of the series she faces the fact that she will have an empty nest, with two of her sons moved out, one in the course of moving out, and her fourth husband dead in a car accident. For the first time she will live her life without supporting anyone or being supported emotionally. She decides to sell her enterprise to Starbucks]].
** Silas [[spoiler: is a co-owner of Nancy's pot enterprise and is HappilyMarried to his [[HighSchoolSweethearts high school sweetheart]] who he has a newborn daughter with]].
** Shane [[spoiler: lived his life as an [[TheAlcoholic alcoholic]] with his CorruptCop mentor. He decides to leave the force and check into rehab]].
** Doug [[spoiler: is a cult leader. Also he makes up with his son, Josh, who he had previously disowned]].
** Andy [[spoiler: is now a father and a restaurant owner in his home town Ren Mar. While he will always love Nancy, he says that he can never be around her again]].
** Stevie [[spoiler: is a soccer prodigy. At the young age of 13 he is already facing an identity crisis, growing up with his now deceased adoptive rabbi father and discovering the truth about his biological drug lord father in addition to facing the fact that his mother has a "very confusing history". He convinces Nancy to let him transfer to boarding school in Minnesota during his bar mitzvah, which he walked out of]].

* YouKilledMyFather: [[spoiler: Tim Scottson is revealed to be sniper who shot Nancy in the Season 7 finale, and the shooting was an attempt to exact his revenge for his father.]]

* SuddenlySexuality: [[spoiler: Sanjay]] reveals his sexuality in the second episode of the third season, even though there are almost no indicators that he's gay prior to this. He even seems to be attracted to Nancy in the first season, though it's later played out as a "protective" role in the second season.

* BiTheWay: Nancy and Celia