One can make a convincing argument that great TV series such as "Dexter" and "Breaking Bad" would never have existed without Showtime's groundbreaking series "Weeds." It raised the bar for antiheroes, those lawbreakers and outlaws we know we should dislike, but just can't bring ourselves *to* dislike. In other words, "Weeds" was one of the first American TV series to attempt the high dharma of making compassion popular.
The episode I'm watching tonight is the series' last, but I don't know this yet. I do notice that it's a two-parter that starts up (for those of us who saw the previous episode, and the rest of this year's shows) as shockingly as the first episode of the final season of "Breaking Bad." That previous episode of "Weeds" ended with A Return To Agrestic, and a set of New Starts and New Directions for almost all characters. "Cool," said I, watching it last week. "I can't wait to see where they all are next week." I did not know at the time that I was watching one of the last episodes of "Weeds" ever. Still not knowing this, I fired up the latest episode. The credit sequence fades and the show starts and Bam!, we're not in Kansas any more, Toto. We're not in next week but some years in the future. No mention of this is made, however; we in the audience are supposed to figure out the timeline from hints dropped in conversation, all during the first five minutes. Successful (and now legal, because marijuana is now legal) businesses have been founded, and prospered. Marriages have come and gone. New babies have been born. The most recent "new baby" we remember from the previous episode is being Bar Mitzvahed. Computers and iPhones are now as thin as playing cards. And all of this in the first five minutes, without a word of boring-assed exposition. I am SO hooked already. I pause the show, partly because I am curious about the two-parter thing but also because I'll have to go to dinner before finishing the episode and this mini-review, and I do some Googling. I immediately notice headlines that announce reviews of the Last Episodes Ever Of Weeds. I stop Googling immediately, and read none of them, because I want no spoilers to this experience. I'm off to dinner now. More later... :-)
