So if you’re familiar with my website, you know I occasionally do MOVIE REVIEWS featuring either GOOD MOMMIES IN MOVIES (for inspiration) or BAD MOMMIES IN MOVIES (for vindication).  Well…

WEEDS is back for season 5! And in honor of that I am adding it to my Bad Mommies in Movies list. Oh, also my Good Mommies in Movies. Cuz know what? A mamma can be a little of both.  Mary Louise Parker’s character in the Showtime series WEEDS is. I am. Aren’t you…a little?

 

ANY EPISODE OF THE SHOWTIME SERIES “WEEDS” – I’m a fan of WEEDS. I’ve been watching it from the beginning. As a mom, I found the premise totally riveting. NANCY BOTWIN, upper middle class SUBURBAN HOUSEWIFE and MOTHER of 2 suddenly loses her HUSBAND and sole breadwinner to a heart attack. He leaves her penniless. Does she take a job at the Pottery Barn? Uh, not if she wants to keep the pool heated. Actually, not if she wants to keep the pool. Oh, and the house that goes with it. And the lifetsyle that goes with that. What can an under-educated, unemployable 40ish woman do to keep maintain a lifestyle that includes $150 a week Starbucks habit? Duh. Sell WEED!  

Okay, we totally understand a mom doing what she has to do to support her kids. Kudos to her for that. GOOD MOMMY. But selling weed? Even if you totally sympathize in the first couple of seasons, which personally I totally did, by the later seasons, you realize she’s just taking unnecessary risks. Cuz guess what? Nancy emerges as a bit of a thrill junkie who takes to the drug biz and starts going down all sorts of dangerous paths that make us question her suitability as a mommy.  When she begins repeatedly risking her life, we start to think that maybe this obsession to maintain a lifestyle isn’t worth leaving her TWO BOYS without a mother.  BAD MOMMY. But she still has a conscience, as evidenced by her ratting out her Mexican Mafia lover last season. GOOD MOMMY. But now’s she pregnant by him! AND he’s pushing her around and raping her against his desk and she’s just taking it!  BAD MOMMY. Or wait, maybe GOOD MOMMY, cuz she’s doing it to protect her boys. But isn’t she a BAD MOMMY for getting them in this predicament to begin with?

Oh who am I to judge? I’ve not walked in Nancy’s 4 inch tall, spiky, strappy Jimmy Choos. Not that I ever could. Not with my weak ankles and inner ear issues.

Bottom line, the show is a delicious guilty pleasure. Not only does it make you feel better as a mom (hey, at least you aren’t using your kids as your drug mules!) you’ll live a little vicariously through Nancy and all her wild and exciting adventures. (Face it, the only border you’ll be heading for is the one they talk about in the Taco Bell commercial).

Also, you’ll wish you could look so hot and skinny in baby doll dresses despite a constant diet of high-fat blended coffee drinks… oh and this season, a pregnancy!  A must-see for assuaging guilt AND just plain fun.