Parker, who won a Golden Globe for Season 1, is still a pleasure to watch.
4) "Sh*t Highway." The DEA is on Nancy's tail, and Majestic wants to run its sewage right through Agrestic. Meanwhile, Silas likes community service and the people he meets, much to Mom's chagrin.
5) "Bill Sussman." Andy goes AWOL, Shane goes to summer school, and Nancy gets in deeper with U-Turn.
6) "Grasshopper." Mary-Kate Olsen guests in this episode that also finds Nancy charged with the job of mending fences between Majestic and her community.
7) "He Taught Me How to Drive By." U-Turn takes a wrong turn, there's a pregnancy, and everybody tries to sabotage everybody else (except for Silas, who enjoys spending time with Tara).
8) "The Two Mrs. Scottsons." Nancy meets Peter's other ex-wife, Valerie (Brooke Smith), while every other cast member gets involved in a relationship, it seems.
9) "Release the Hounds." Sullivan and Doug come to blows over a golf membership, Tara turns out to be more conniving than she looks, and Conrad and Silas bond.
10) "Roy Till Called." The DEA comes calling again.
11) "Cankles." Nancy tries to find out who tipped them off, while Silas learns that Tara isn't what she seems.
12) "The Dark Time." While Andy and Dean play "murderball," Doug runs afoul again, and Heylia and Conrad abandon ship.
13) "Risk." Nancy experiments with a new supplier, while Heylia finds a new neighborhood.
14) "Protection." More trouble for Nancy. Meanwhile, Heylia shows Celia a thing or two.
15) "Go." A wildfire symbolizes how out-of-control everything has gotten, as people have to flee their community and Silas finally comes to terms with who Tara is.
Video:
In his review of Season 1, Dean remarked that the MPEG-2 encoded video (1.85:1 aspect ratio, which fills out the entire screen) looked inconsistent, and I'd have to say that's the case this season too--but not nearly as bad as Seson 1. Some frames look remarkable, while a few (and only a few, mind you) look so grainy it snaps your head back for a moment. Sometimes the picture looks a little soft, while most other times the black levels are so strong you really see the people and objects pop out. Dean complained that interiors were often murky, and while I didn't find that to be the case, there was still a little inconsistency.
Audio:
The audio is a nice DTS HD 7.1 Master Audio, the clarity of which is established in every title song (sung by a different performer every episode). The show is largely dialogue, though, and so the seven channels seem underutilized unless we get background music. That said, there's still good balance between the bass and treble. Subtitles are in English and Spanish.
Extras:
Lots of bonus features here, though they're all brief and there are a few turkeys. First, the commentaries. There are six decent commentaries for Episode 1 (writer Kenji Kohan), Episode 4 (producer Mark Burley), Episode 5 (actor Justin Kirk), Episode 9 (director Ernest Dickerson), Episode 14 (writer Roberto Benabib), and Episode 15 (Kohan again). Trivia tracks are also included for seven episodes, though they're not terribly episode-specific. In fact, from what I watched, they're among the most trivial trivia tracks I've seen. Dull and really reaching for information. Like, how many women smokers are there, when the Lexus first appeared, or what factors are involved in determining alimony. Who cares? Come on, where's the juicy stuff? Not here.
Aside from a gag reel, soundtrack sampler, and a throwaway "Little Boxes" musical montage, what's left are a handful of featurettes and "Kush Kush and Away," a Blu-ray disc game. The featurettes are "Uncle AWOL" with Justin Kirk, which is just a character recap, "Little Boxes" with singer-songwriter Randy Newman, who gives a little musical history lesson, a Mary-Kate Olsen bio (for fans, obviously), and "G.M.A.--Good Morning Agrestic!," which is a basic town/concept surface-level featurette that doesn't really show or tell all that much. That leaves the game, which is probably the most primitive, low-tech game I've seen since the early Space Invaders and Pac-Man graphics. Two stick figures are manipulated through little rectangles that are supposed to be donuts but look an awful like Pac-Man power pills. There are multiple levels, but they're all just as low-tech stupid as the first. Whoever came up with the idea of including this on the Blu-ray is probably running an errand for U-Turn right about now.
So all that's worthwhile, really, are the commentary tracks.
Bottom Line:
"Weeds" won't be for everyone's taste, especially this darker third season. But subtle black humor abounds, and if you can picture "The Sopranos" sleeping with "Desperate Housewives" (instead of the fishes), you've got a fix on the direction this show has taken. "Weeds" received 10 Emmy nominations its first two seasons, and Parker, who won a Golden Globe for Season 1, is still a pleasure to watch.
5) "Bill Sussman." Andy goes AWOL, Shane goes to summer school, and Nancy gets in deeper with U-Turn.
6) "Grasshopper." Mary-Kate Olsen guests in this episode that also finds Nancy charged with the job of mending fences between Majestic and her community.
7) "He Taught Me How to Drive By." U-Turn takes a wrong turn, there's a pregnancy, and everybody tries to sabotage everybody else (except for Silas, who enjoys spending time with Tara).
8) "The Two Mrs. Scottsons." Nancy meets Peter's other ex-wife, Valerie (Brooke Smith), while every other cast member gets involved in a relationship, it seems.
9) "Release the Hounds." Sullivan and Doug come to blows over a golf membership, Tara turns out to be more conniving than she looks, and Conrad and Silas bond.
10) "Roy Till Called." The DEA comes calling again.
11) "Cankles." Nancy tries to find out who tipped them off, while Silas learns that Tara isn't what she seems.
12) "The Dark Time." While Andy and Dean play "murderball," Doug runs afoul again, and Heylia and Conrad abandon ship.
13) "Risk." Nancy experiments with a new supplier, while Heylia finds a new neighborhood.
14) "Protection." More trouble for Nancy. Meanwhile, Heylia shows Celia a thing or two.
15) "Go." A wildfire symbolizes how out-of-control everything has gotten, as people have to flee their community and Silas finally comes to terms with who Tara is.
Video:
In his review of Season 1, Dean remarked that the MPEG-2 encoded video (1.85:1 aspect ratio, which fills out the entire screen) looked inconsistent, and I'd have to say that's the case this season too--but not nearly as bad as Seson 1. Some frames look remarkable, while a few (and only a few, mind you) look so grainy it snaps your head back for a moment. Sometimes the picture looks a little soft, while most other times the black levels are so strong you really see the people and objects pop out. Dean complained that interiors were often murky, and while I didn't find that to be the case, there was still a little inconsistency.
Audio:
The audio is a nice DTS HD 7.1 Master Audio, the clarity of which is established in every title song (sung by a different performer every episode). The show is largely dialogue, though, and so the seven channels seem underutilized unless we get background music. That said, there's still good balance between the bass and treble. Subtitles are in English and Spanish.
Extras:
Lots of bonus features here, though they're all brief and there are a few turkeys. First, the commentaries. There are six decent commentaries for Episode 1 (writer Kenji Kohan), Episode 4 (producer Mark Burley), Episode 5 (actor Justin Kirk), Episode 9 (director Ernest Dickerson), Episode 14 (writer Roberto Benabib), and Episode 15 (Kohan again). Trivia tracks are also included for seven episodes, though they're not terribly episode-specific. In fact, from what I watched, they're among the most trivial trivia tracks I've seen. Dull and really reaching for information. Like, how many women smokers are there, when the Lexus first appeared, or what factors are involved in determining alimony. Who cares? Come on, where's the juicy stuff? Not here.
Aside from a gag reel, soundtrack sampler, and a throwaway "Little Boxes" musical montage, what's left are a handful of featurettes and "Kush Kush and Away," a Blu-ray disc game. The featurettes are "Uncle AWOL" with Justin Kirk, which is just a character recap, "Little Boxes" with singer-songwriter Randy Newman, who gives a little musical history lesson, a Mary-Kate Olsen bio (for fans, obviously), and "G.M.A.--Good Morning Agrestic!," which is a basic town/concept surface-level featurette that doesn't really show or tell all that much. That leaves the game, which is probably the most primitive, low-tech game I've seen since the early Space Invaders and Pac-Man graphics. Two stick figures are manipulated through little rectangles that are supposed to be donuts but look an awful like Pac-Man power pills. There are multiple levels, but they're all just as low-tech stupid as the first. Whoever came up with the idea of including this on the Blu-ray is probably running an errand for U-Turn right about now.
So all that's worthwhile, really, are the commentary tracks.
Bottom Line:
"Weeds" won't be for everyone's taste, especially this darker third season. But subtle black humor abounds, and if you can picture "The Sopranos" sleeping with "Desperate Housewives" (instead of the fishes), you've got a fix on the direction this show has taken. "Weeds" received 10 Emmy nominations its first two seasons, and Parker, who won a Golden Globe for Season 1, is still a pleasure to watch.
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[release]23324[/release]