"A Comedy Series about Dealing in the Suburbs"

I'm not one to normally catch onto the biggest show fad this season, or follow an all new drama, comedy, dramedy, thriller, fantasy, or fhriller(?) to the point where I would devote my 9:30-10:30 pm slot every Thursday night. I always find most shows on network television to be trite in terms of premises (a high powered lawyer faces his biggest case yet, a doctor straight out of med school finds life...an estranged mother and daughter [or father and son] duo rediscover their relationship, etc etc), the archetypes of characters are predictable, somebody always falls in love or hooks up with another character, and suddenly everyone in the world is as witty and intelligent as the person who wrote the script. It's like clockwork.

So when I decided to get into a show to fill my ungodly amount of free hours since I'm only a part-time worker, I figured I should find a premise that does interest me. There are still your witty predictable characters, but at least the story is original:


For those of you who are unaware of this delightfully original storyline, a single mom from the fictional (yet surprisingly realistic and believable) suburban neighborhood of Agrestic, a town full of professionals who drive big SUV's, drink "It's a Grind" coffee, shop at Costco, hold up their Christian values on the PTA in the public schools, hire Mexicans as housekeepers, live in large luxury suburban cookie cutter houses and are afraid of minorities, who takes up selling marijuana to the affluent citizens in her neighborhood in order to continue to provide this lifestyle for her two children since her husband had recently passed away from a heart attack. Along the way she learns the ins and outs of slanging weed, the different types of qualities of grass, where the best markets are, how to put up a front business, how to deal with competition, deals with discipline problems from the two sons who now lack a father figure, and even unknowingly hooks up with a DEA agent.

Say what you will about the legality or morality of the use of recreational drugs, (and there have been critics who have said that this show condones drug trafficking), but this show is much more than that. Other than the obvious props to the suburban weed slanging business (realistically portrayed...but...ya know...I wouldn't know...), the show's deep subplots involving the issue of providing for your kids no matter what, middle aged stoners trying to grow up and find a direction in life, an otherwise completely bitch of a mother who must face mortality after she's diagnosed with cancer, and a piercing attack on typical, excruciatingly boring and trite Christian suburban lifestyle are never cut thin or left hanging and are properly and well executed.

In other words, go to the library, rent out the first season, and tell me what you think. You shan't be disappointed.

Ok, Showtime, you owe me one for this promo.



"where's Bin Laden now? it's Saturday, so he's at Costco"
-BM