Weeds Series Finale Review – “It’s Time” for your verdict on Nancy Botwin

Forget the pot puns, let’s seriously talk about the Weeds series finale.

Weeds aired its finale “It’s Time” on Sunday, September 16 2012

As I’m still emotional from the Weeds series finale, I am going to provide my live commentary from when I watched it live.

Little boxes.. little boxes. Sigh.

I love all the call backs. Every last one. Although yes, it does make me wonder if we are relying too heavily on nostalgia and loving the early seasons of the show rather than also celebrating the later seasons.. I know so many people criticized Weeds because it changed so much, but I felt like the writing was always so good that the plot could twist me around in any way it wanted and I’d still love the show.

So… Nancy is again the scandal making PTA Mom! … But I hate her hair. And, hey. Stevie is … older. Okay, they definitely jumped us forward in time and… I love it! And it makes for a chance to show us a world where marijuana is legal. Wow. Shane is creepy and skeevy and has a bad mustache. (But how else would they have aged him? Eh.) Megan and Silas are married with a baby – that’s cute. The futuristic attempts are interesting… although those holographic keyboards are real at ThinkGeek.com … Doug is a guru who drinks watermelon juice, buys helicopters and has one minion named Cinnamon. Lucky him.

More after the jump. Wheeee.

So many of us are angry at Nancy, so it is interesting to have Megan around. She is formidable against Nancy! And Nance never really had that.

Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin and Justin Kirk as Andy Botwin (Season 8: episode 13) – Photo: Michael Desmond/SHOWTIME

Seeing all of these old faces is great. Isabel is now Bruce? Huh. Poor Stevie learning about his Dad… that’s tough.
Doug with his son… now that is an usual storyline to bring up. Josh Wilson (Justin Chatwin, hi!) has been MIA for a long time! I want to know Josh Wilson, though. He seems fantastic and stable.

Now did realize why they had Josh come back… to talk to Nanc as yet another sentimental callback or touchtone to make her remember things, and reflect… and make us all emotional.

I’m proud of Andy for sticking with his idea of leaving and not talking to Nancy. She was toxic for him. And I love what he has now in Ren Mar with his restaurant and his daughter, Leni! Plus, there was yet another callback when Nancy walked in and he was just there, cooking. SIGH.
Do you think Silas and Shane are jealous of Stevie? Because Stevie is having one hell of a normalish teenagerhood. Even his childhood was more or less normal.

I think Nancy has become a homebody of sorts… she even has different kinds of milk. (Oatmeal milk?) She has one teenage son in the house. Jill is in India… it’s really just the two of them. I think she’s sad.

It’s ironic because Silas and Shane needed a Dad, but Stevie had too many. (Esteban, Jill’s husband, Andy, David Bloom…)

Interesting that Steven did end up in boarding school, since that’s what his Father would have wanted. His Father’s daughter went to boarding school, remember? She also had drug issues, of course… and Stevie doesn’t even know his half sister exists… that’s kinda sad.

Photo email booth = futuristic or ALREADY REAL AND I WANT TO GO TO ONE? Rehab in Pittsburgh.Laugh. When Nancy broke down, so did I. She is so desperate to make amends and have love and get what she gave up so recklessly….

“Your kid should toboggan.” But who is she to dispel any advice?

In the end, Nancy was flanked by her men. And she gave in, and relaxed. She stopped trying to get more than she could get. What was the image I took away from this? I saw a group of misfits, who don’t belong, smoking on the porch. I saw a family that had formed together… and as I draw back I see in broader strokes, a Mom who never stopped trying to help her kids.

END.

Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin, Justin Kirk as Andy Botwin, Kevin Nealon as Doug Wilson, Alexander Gould as Shane Botwin and Hunter Parrish as Silas Botwin (Season 8: episode 13) – Photo: Michael Desmond/SHOWTIME

I doubt you could have enjoyed the Weed series finale very much if you hadn’t been along for the entire ride, meaning that you didn’t give up after season 5 and then try to watch this episode. Basically, the show moved from showing us the silliness of Suburban life, to focusing on the Botwin clan. In the end, I was a bit mystified at how the Botwin’s ended up back in Suburbia with the same problems and issues as before. It may not have made perfect sense, but life never does.

They should have mentioned Celia. That was the one big mistake. Because they mentioned everyone else, even Tim Scottson again! And, okay, they should have used guest star Natasha Lyone better than they did. But bringing in a new character here was difficult when they wanted to honor so many other players. (They also could have played up the “Nancy is a new widow – again” angle.)

Now that Nancy is financially set and her kids are all grown and out of the house, do you think she’s finally out of the game? I think she’s addicted, and might very well try to get back into something again. I mean, now she’s going to have ALL this free time!

The title “It’s Time” works for me on many layers. It demands of me that I accept that the show really is over, and that is hard because I get so clingy … agh! It also references critics who say the show should have ended years ago. Even though it’s one of the less wordy episode titles of Weeds, it’s one of my favorites.

I am so glad that Jenji Kohan created this show, and that Mary-Louise Parker is the kind of cool actress that readily attached herself to this project. We all got to see Hunter Parrish grow up into a serious hottie, and we all lusted after Justin Kirk for years. We had a great “will they/won’t they” romance with Nancy/Andy without enduring a sappy, formulaic show. We got endless guest stars for amazing bite-sized roles (Zooey Deschanel!), amazing quotes, tons of humor, learned that people are unusual in every corner of the world, and had a great mirror held up to our American lives. (You don’t have to live in Suburbia to know that the PTA people usually have God-complexes.) My ultimate, final takeaway? Iced coffee’s with plastic lids and straws are exceedingly fun to hold. Carry one around on Halloween and you can say it’s your costume for being Nancy Botwin-Bloom.

Weeds finale songs: Song at the end of Weeds – “With Arms Outstretched” – Rilo Kiley. And the formerly used “Doddlin Song” – Peggy Lee.

I don’t know what more you could have wanted from the Weeds series finale, but feel free to hit up the comments and tell me.

P.S. I highly recommend Animal Practice with Justin Kirk this fall.

Photos: Showtime

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Follow TV Critic Jessica Rae on Twitter @ThisJessicaRae.