Season one of Showtime's hit series Weeds premiered in 2005. The pilot episode featured the development of the ethically questionable protagonist Nancy Botwin. Nancy Botwin is a house wife who was recently widowed, now faced with the sole provider for her upper middle class suburban family. The answer to Nancy's financial woes lies in selling Marijuana, her client base begins small mainly consisting of the parents in her luxurious town then escalates into a store fronted as a bakery used to distribute her product. Although Weeds is fronted as a parody of suburban life, filled with stereotypes of race, class and gender, they are all delivered in a ironic comical way. For this text I will examine the story arch of the first seasons of Weeds limiting the focus to Nancy Botwin's interactions with the ideologies of race, class and gender that are highlighted within the first season.
Masked by humor there is evidence that reinforces the symbolic annihilation that states if you are not male white and straight you are irrelevant to society. This can be taken lightly in a society where irony thrives, however the existence of such ideology represents the current existence that could be interpreted as something we are just laughing at or that we are so desensitized to seeing such an existence in various media texts we can easily find humor in it.
Although it seems as though my sense of humor is absent when really I find this show hilarious, however the overall claim I would like to make is that, however the fact that Weeds is funny could be passively be reinforcing the “norms” that can be both oppressive and insulting. The first scene I will examine within this ideological analysis is the introduction and theme song of the show, which depicts the conformity of a 9-5 suburban community, which will lead me to the topics of race, class, gender and the American Dream.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8StRAJCork
INTRO LINK
I haven’t seen Weeds, but it seems like a really promising program to analyze. Your main concerns for the final paper are these: 1. Stay focused. To take a whole season of a complex show, and analyze at a scope of race, gender and class is likely to be either a really long paper, or kind of vague. So focus down to keep your clarity. 2. Even in the brief clip you provide, there is a lot of rich ideological material, but at a more abstract level than race-gender-class. For example, the animation of the subdivision growing suggests a set of complex ideas about the opposition of nature and culture, and that is a metaphor for the idea of an illegal natural product in its own right. And the theme of homogeneity connects up with a philosophical framework of purity. So be sure to connect the concrete narrative of the program with the larger metaphors and abstractions that constitute ideology.
ReplyDeleteI think that this series would be very good to write about due to the racism and gender slashing throughout this series. Most of the time the mother is dating an African American, and later dates an hispanic man. She is also a drug dealer but in other shows only males are drug dealers. So this piece should be interesting to read and write about.
ReplyDeleteI have always wanted to watch Weeds but we don't get HBO at me house. I have several friends that rave about it and say that it is a must see. I think that is is interesting that you picked this show as your topic. You have a lot to work off of from what it sounds like and I know that the show has been on for awhile so you will be able to pull a lot of examples from it. Best of luck!
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