weeds

i actually wanted to write about weeds, after finishing all eight seasons of it. then i wanted to talk about louie.

i’d reference amy schumer’s Inside Amy Schumer and Inside Llewyn Davis, two very different productions, but these are the two things that came into my mind if i were to describe something similar to louie.

louie is this whole stripped down, bare, simple version of a man’s life. it is scripted, of course, and there are instances where it’s not scripted. but the reason why i like it, and why it’s received critical acclaim among viewers worldwide, is, i believe, its simplicity.

the show is basically this guy, wearing a black shirt and a pair of pants, with a scruffy goatee or beard and he just goes around doing stuff, doing comedy. but that’s just it. it’s the simplicity. it’s how simple the idea is, the realism and naturalism that it exudes. the opening and closing credits are just white text, some in upper case, some in lower case.

if you read about this show online, they’ll tell you that its episodes are edited solely on the creator’s macbook pro. can you believe that? it’s a show watched by around a million people every week on its basic cable channel FX, and even more if you count those people who download it illegally, or through netflix. it’s an actual tv show that’s edited on a personal computer. i think we need to take a step back and think about that. just think about that.

i finished weeds in 15 days. i don’t know how to feel about that. as with most tv shows, the kind of feeling that overwhelms you when you complete the series, knowing that there’s nothing else left for you to watch with respect to the series itself, really sucks. I’ve experienced this with the west wing, grey’s anatomy, six feet under and a lot others. that’s why people want to be left with a good series finale. and weeds, i don’t know. it might have delivered that. we had a good run, a good 15 days. i mean, i watched mary-louise parker’s character nancy go through all that shit that she’d been through, and it just, feels okay for her to be sitting there in the snow, surrounded by her original cast. for nancy the character it’s been 8 years (actually more, if you count the time jumps). for me it’s been 15 days. for mary-louise Parker the actor it’s probably been 8 years plus/minus. it’s a great show. it’s dark. it’s comedy. it told a story. a story about a drug dealer who originally had to deal to support her children, then went on to expand her objectives, then married a mexican cartel boss, then went on the run, then went to jail, then created a 50-store legal marijuana mini-empire that would eventually be sold to starbucks.

whenever i watch a show i always think about how it reflects on us people as a whole. you’ve got antiheroes, you’ve got people like walter white, nancy botwin. you learn a lot.