So, I watch "Weeds." I really liked it for about three seasons, but, for me, it has jumped the shark. Not in a terribly humiliating way, but enough for me to be disappointed.

Their biggest mistake was in changing the location. Having Nancy in the suburbs was central to the show. It was satire on upper-class, suburban life. It has now turned into a show about putting all the characters through crazy situations to see what they will do next. I'm really unhappy with the character development this season. Nancy has given up almost all pretense of being a concerned mother (she gets upset when the lives of her children are threatened, but that seems to be the extent of her maternal instinct). Shane has turned completely emo - he even tries to make his pain sound poetic. Doug, who was once a lovable screw-up, has turned into an annoying, asshole screw-up. Back when the racial insensitivity, drug-use, and general crassness were occasional, I liked Doug and thought he was funny. Now he's just sad.

I do like the way they've dealt with Silas. In fact, I thought it was kind of cool how they matured him at the same time they made Shane the problem-child. I like that Silas is trying to start his own legal business and that he is becoming the voice of reason. I also still like Andy. Not the whole business of him being in love with Nancy (Sidenote: The writers had to take a beautiful, platonic friendship between a straight man and an unrelated, straight woman and inject some sexual tension into it. That makes me angry; how often do you see friendships like that that work and don't have the sexual tension? I loved that the writers were not taking that very obvious route, but no longer. Just because two straight people of the opposite sex are friends does NOT mean that they want to, or inevitably are going to jump each other!), but I like that they have stayed true to the concept of his character. He's another lovable screw-up, but he always had more substance than Doug. And now he wants to do something with his life. Kudos, Andy!

The thing that bothers me most, though, is the part of the show that is hitting too close to home for me. Nancy has started a relationship with Esteban, a Mexican drug lord/politician. First of all, I don't see why they are in love and it feels like a telling and not showing thing to me, but it really bothers me that Nancy has gone off and remarried. For anyone who doesn't watch the show, Nancy's husband, Judah, died just before the events of the show. He's never mentioned anymore. Andy is his brother, and he doesn't even mention him. It's like he doesn't matter to Nancy, Andy, or the boys at all. And now she has a new husband who she presumably loves; the boys have a step-father and Nancy no longer has any formal relationship with Andy (if brother/sister-in-law is considered formal...) I just don't understand how they can all be so comfortable with ignoring their former lives. I hate Nancy for that more than anything else.