Pages tagged “weeds”

Welcome to the latest blog from Paste magazine, our List of the Day. We're launching this week with the unveiling of five of our favorite TV characters each day from now through Friday.

20 Best TV Characters of the Past 20 Years
If we're honest with ourselves, we don't have favorite TV shows; just shows featuring our favorite TV characters. Networks have openly acknowledged this reality by creating spin-offs like Joey and Angel, based around characters from established hit shows. Can you imagine an episode of Seinfeld without Kramer bursting through the front door with a crackpot scheme in tow? Great TV characters shape the culture in which we live. They become a sort of adopted relative we all share—that crazy uncle or aunt whose exploits we laugh about and pick over with delight. Even when they're gone, they live on in re-runs like old family movies. If we consider our dogs and cats family, why rule out Homer Simpson? In that spirit, here are Paste's 20 favorite TV characters of the past 20 years (limiting ourselves to one character per show so as not to stack the deck with the entire cast of Arrested Development). Viva la Tivo!

Let's keep this business-like: Yes, the Weeds Season 4 premiere involved our dear dealer Nancy (Marie-Louise Parker) and the Botwin family fleeing to Bubbie-in-law's house. No, neither business partner Conrad and Nancy, nor drug king-pin Guillermo and Nancy, are to have any romantic future. Yes, Nancy will (supposedly) struggle more this season with ethical quandaries and find a new love interest. No, she will not be dealing harder drugs.

If ever there was a reason to listen to the same song 10 times in a row, this is probably it. Weeds, the popular Showtime program chronicling the life of a suburban drug dealer/mom and her family, will release its Little Boxes Dimebag #1 tomorrow (June 17). The digital-only album features 10 versions of the show's iconic theme song, "Little Boxes," which is performed by a different artist at the start of each episode. This collection includes versions by Rise Against, Engelbert Humperdinck, Randy Newman and Billy Bob Thornton & The Boxmasters, amongst others.

Scandalous money-making side-projects of wholesome-seeming ladies-next-door will light up the fictionalized television market in June, when Weeds returns early for a fourth season, juxtaposed with British import, Secret Diary of a Call Girl. The former picks up with dealer-mom Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) adjusting to a literal, wildfire-induced blaze-up of her own neighborhood, while Diary follows the life of a legal secretary by day, call girl by night (Billie Piper, of Dr. Who fame). O, the duality of woman.

Diary, which really should have been called Hookers, just because it’s fun to say, “I need to get home in time for Weeds and Hookers,” is based on this anonymously-penned book that began with this anonymously-typed blog. Only on the show do you actually get to see the naked bits fly around, so its popularity/potential to succeed in the American market is understandable.

Meanwhile, Weeds has consistently garnered a sizable audience and impressive number of prestigious awards. Fans will no doubt return to its source, Showtime, for the high-grade product they’ve come to expect. Hopefully, episodes will continue to be laced with quality theme-covers and incidental music from the likes of Man Man, Elvis Costello, The Decemberists, Donovan and others.

Lastly, happy belated Valentine's day wishes for "Weeds" co-stars Parker and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who just got engaged.

Related links:
Showtime: Weeds
ITV: Secret Diary of a Call Girl
Paste: Shins, Man Man record song for Weeds

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.