Sigh. I used to love Weeds. Great show. Excellent dystopian suburban humor. But then it got ridiculous. Ventured into fantastical and the absurd. And STILL no one killed Nancy.
Which brings me to the second to last episode of the seventh season, “Qualitative Spatial Reasoning”. That title alone brings me to the point of this post. I can’t stand the snooty, faux-intellectualism of the last few seasons of Weeds, as if Jenji Kohan can take any sort of topical issue, run 5 minutes of research on it, douse it in her dark humor and thus totally capture it. Uh, no. These writers have definitely not seen the inside of a hedge fund. Yes, those guys are fratty and elitist, but they are not mentally challenged. They had to be very sharp and very tireless to get to where they are and if they were running a Ponzi scheme they’d never say a word about it aloud with the likes of Nancy in the room. But what was even more irritating (Yes, I’m drinking some Haterade) was Nancy receiving funding from this hedge fund (More confused writing. Is it a hedge fund or a private equity firm or a venture capital firm? Oh you didn’t know there was a difference Jenji? You thought you could just interchange them and sound smart and relevant and well-read?) based on the fact that she was selling dime bags of weed to wealthy customers for $500 each by marketing them as a luxury product from Provence in a fancy box with a bow on it. Nice try, Nancy/Jenji. But no one is going to buy dime bags for $500, ever. If it was that easy to market products to the affluent customer, we would all be selling cheap stuff marketed as high-end stuff and making a killing. The affluent customer doesn’t just buy it because it’s expensive. What happened, you overheard a conversation somewhere and you decided it’s high time someone ridiculed overly conspicuous consumerism? Do you know the arena where cheap crap is marketed as a high-end product and makes awesome profits? Yes, it’s celebrity-licensed or designed merchandise!
This animal-print garbage bag was mass-produced somewhere in China to be passed off as a high-end designer item that is worthy of a $109 price tag. Sadly, the only people who are gullible enough to buy it are those unfortunate “aspirational” consumers, who would like to buy luxury goods, but can only afford the celebrity-knockoff versions of them. It honestly makes me sad when people buy celebrity brands. They are usually terrible (although Jessica Simpson has quite legitimized her empire) and don’t last longer than a few seasons. I bought a pair of Paris Hilton heels once because they were basic and only $25. Then my dog chewed them. I figured it was my lesson to never buy celebrity brands again.
What were we talking about? Oh yeah, Weeds. The show’s gotten lazy and it makes everything look so easy (Ponzi scheme! Venture funding! Arms dealing!). The wealthy customer is not so easy to trick. Yes, they like to brag about how much they paid for something, but if they were bragging about a $500 dime bag, they would get laughed out of whatever swanky event they were at. As Doug Wilson put it, “These are well respected members of high society; they do coke.”