Episode Title: "Mother Thinks the Birds Are After Her"

Synopsis: With the embers of Majestic and Agrestic smoldering in their rearview mirror, Nancy and family flee southbound to the border town of Ren Mar, California; meanwhile, the DEA interrogates Doug, Dean, and Isabelle, who all pin the entire grow operation on Ceila; back in Ren Mar, Andy confronts his hostile father and new landlord Lenny.

Special Guest Star: Albert Brooks

Airs: Monday, June 16th, 2008; 10 PM ET; Showtime

Discuss.

well I am in the middle of season three and have to say this show is good but it is nothing like it was in its first two seasons. I fell in love with the show and the still like its humour but am not as into it as much as I was.

The third season in my opinion is too complicated and is going where the story needs to go (I understand that) but I really think this once big Comedy Series contender is weak for this years competition. MLP and EP still destve nominations but that's it.

I know this is about season 4 but I wanted to add my two cents.

Season 3 was a bit of a mess with the U-Turn stuff. Hopefully a new locale be good for the show, but a few of my favorite characters not returning is not good news. I guess time will tell. This show seems to stumble every season a few episodes in, before righting the ship at the end. A little more consistency would be nice.

I just finished watchin S3 and I was just curious as to why everyone thought this season was a disapppointment? I've not watched S1 or S2 so I have nothing to compare it with.

Was the U-Turn stuff widely considered to be a large part of the disappointment or were there other things that contributed?

BTW, what characters are not returning?

btw, does anybody else ever get that theme song stuck in their head forever like me? lol

ahahaha I always have the theme song in my head

Pats12fan well see based on my friends advice I just bought season 1 and 2 when they came out DVD because it seemed like a great show. The last episode of season 2 tipped me off not to just buy season three which I will not be buying.

The U-Turn stuff and the gang fighting with the Latinos was just just not a good story arc. The only new story in season 3 I am really enjoying is Matthew Modine's this is what the show is about and I think it evolved into something different that really isn't that fun to watch.

The third season is just kind of there and I am watching because I like the characters. The best things so far that are new in the third season are the friendship between Isabel and Shane, Matthew Modine's Majestic which is funny could have taken the show to continue on its suburban track. I think the point of this show is to make fun of the suburbs and how hypocritical the people are there, and this show has moved away from that, but that is the heart and soul of this show. I advise you to rent or netflx season 1 and 2. In my own personal emmy awards season one made this show a Best Comedy Series nominee.

I cannot wait for the premiere tonight!

I felt like season 3 was given a bad rap. It was in no way like the first two seasons but it wasn't that bad either. They took the show in a completely different direction and I suppose you just have to do that sometimes.

I didn't know of any characters not returning. Although if this is true it probably is Conrad, Heylia, and Vernita. They weren't in the cast promos for this season.

Conrad Heylia and Vernita are going to be in the first few episodes but are now going to be guest stars.

Moving in a different direction can be a good thing, btu I feel like season 3 was a big miscalculation.

I re-watched the season 3 finale last night and this show has a long way back to its former self. Season 3 collasped and hopefully this change of locale can turn the tide.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FishBiscuit,

quote:

Originally posted by movieman6:
Conrad Heylia and Vernita are going to be in the first few episodes but are now going to be guest stars.

Moving in a different direction can be a good thing, btu I feel like season 3 was a big miscalculation.

From everything I've read, they aren't in any of the episodes and are barely even mentioned.

Interesting but I'm not sure if it is interesting enough to last for an entire season. For me, "Weeds" is on "stop-watching" probation.

Mildly amusing. Albert Brooks was ok. I enjoyed the stuff at the police station with Celia, Doug, Dean(who I noticed was downgraded to guest star), Isabelle and Sanjay, but that's really about it. I wish they would've kept Conrad and Heylia, not Guillermo. Terrible move. Overall, pretty weak for a season premiere.


BTW, Hunter Parrish just gets hotter and hotter.

If this show is as bland as you all say it is time for this to be its last season.

I must say that it was not the best episode but considering it was the premiere I'll let it slide.

We just have to give them some time to set up the season. The season 3 finale gave us no clue as to what was going to happen this season except for the fact that Nancy would be trafficking.

I do like that they are in a new location with some new characters. Albert Brooks was good. There wasn't enough Elizabeth Perkins IMO. This episode belonged to Mary-Louise Parker though. She was great!

All in all it's not a bad start to the season. Next week's episode looks killer!

I thought that this was a very good return episode, with Mary-Louise Parker regaining some of that initial charm that was missing from her character last season. The reboot can go either way, but I sort of like the idea of Nancy taking the drug business to the next level with the trafficking and teaming up with Guillermo, though that's not going to end up well. Albert Brooks was great here as the father-in-law. It's time to start filling in some of the blanks of Nancy and Judah's relationship, and some of why Andy's the way he is, and the ornery father is a good place to start with that. Having the rest of the group at Agrestic turn on Celia was funny, though I'm wondering how all of them will find their way back to interact with Nancy and co. in Ren Mar. I don't like them completely ditching Heylia and Conrad though. They've been integral parts of the show since the beginning that the audience has grown to embrace and expect to see. There's something foul about ditching the entire black cast like this with only a "they're long gone" explanation and no real closure to their characters' arcs. Oh well. Good start to the new season.

Grade for "Mother Thinks the Birds Are After Her": B+

I thought it was a pretty decent premiere. I really got a kick out of the scene with Nancy, Shane, Silas, and Andy waiting in the front yard when they thought Bubbie wasn't home. Especially Nancy talking about all of the info she learned from that little boy Rad who wouldn't shut up was very funny.

Liked too the rest of the Agrestic clan turning on Celia and her being rude as hell to the DEA man and him still liking her.

The scene with Doug and Dean in the alley...lol.

I thought it was ok (not great) for the season kick off. Albert Brooks was nice and I think will probably be a lock for guest actor next year. They really have some serious work to do though to get it back to where it was during season 1&2

I really enjoyed the first episode of this season. The show has a VERY different feel to it this year, which time will define as either a good or a bad thing. None the less, the new plot is very interesting. The only bad thing about this episode was I felt that it should have been longer. The setup for this season was incomplete and I thought that the episode ended at a weird point (especially without mentioning Heylia and Conrad when they highlighted them before the episode in the "previously on Weeds" recap). I wish they would have made it an hour (if only for the first episode this season). I agree with what someone else here said, Mary-Louise Parker did a fantastic job in the episode and it was nice to see her shine once again.

quote:

The show has a VERY different feel to it this year, which time will define as either a good or a bad thing.

I agree with this...it felt fresh. You could tell the writers wanted to bring the show somewhere new and exciting and the premiere showed at least half of that.

Time will tell if this new adventure will be exciting.

"Weeds" grows larger audience
Fourth-season premiere breaks new ground
by JOHN DEMPSEY
Variety

The fourth-season premiere of "Weeds" Monday at 10 smoked out a larger audience than any other original-series episode on Showtime in the last four years.

The Monday "Weeds" half-hour harvested 1.35 million total viewers, which gave a strong leg up to the 10:30 half-hour "Secret Diary of a Call Girl." Its 949,000 viewers made "Diary" the highest-rated opening-night debut of a new series in Showtime's 30-year history.

Another notable Monday new-season premiere in cable TV, A&E's "Intervention," scored better debut numbers than any of its previous four primetime seasons -- 2.1 million total viewers from 9 to 10. These powerhouse numbers helped the series premiere of the lead-out show, "Psychic Kids," chalk up a solid 1.7 million viewers.

For Showtime, the success of "Weeds" and "Diary" is testament to the network's full-throttle push into first-run scripted programming; it's commissioning more original series than ever before in its history. Showtime's historical drama "The Tudors" has just begun production in Ireland on its third season. The dark half-hour comedy "Californication," with David Duchovny, is in production on its second season, for a fall airing. "The L Word" is wrapping up production on its sixth and final season.

The network's highest-rated 60-minute series, "Dexter," has started production on its third season, which kicks off in the fall. And Steven Spielberg is co-exec producer of "The United States of Tara," a new half-hour comedy written by Diablo Cody and starring Toni Collette and John Corbett. Showtime has committed to 12 episodes of "Tara," to begin early next year.

"Weeds" has 12 more episodes in its current season. "Diary" has seven more in its rookie season, but Showtime had already given the go to 16 more episodes of the London-based series it co-produces with IMG and Tiger Aspect.