The elevator pitch for Weeds must have gone something like this:
"A sexy widower sells marijuana to keep food on the table for her kids - with hilarious consequences".
Mary-Louise Parker ably filled the role of sexy widower as Showtime broke new ground with a series that took a lighthearted approach to drugs. While not glamourising illegal activity it definitely gave fans of anti-hero shows like The Sopranos something else to enjoy. Weeds may have paved the way for Breaking Bad as TV networks finally woke up to the idea that drugs culture, for better or worse, was a huge way of American life for criminals, kingpins and ordinary people like chemistry teachers. The other thing that made Weeds a success for eight seasons was the strong writing of a single, female lead character. In the late 2000s Desperate Housewives was huge but very much an ensemble piece with each different housewife having a different personality trait whereas each story rode on Nancy's shoulders, everything from gang wars to drive-by shootings. So much so that Mary-Louise Parker beat all four desperate housewives in 2006 to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a TV Comedy. She might have felt high that night.
