Weeds (2005-2012)

     Weeds is a television show put out by Showtime that started in 2005 and ended in 2012. It is a dark comedy that exposes the dirty little secrets that lie behind the pristine lawns and shiny closed doors of homes that started in the fictional town of Agrestic, California, supposedly a suburb of Oakland, centered around the Botwin Family, the head of which is a mother that sells marijuana to maintain the upper middle class lifestyle that was shattered when her husband died.

         So Nancy Botwin, played by Mary-Louise Parker is a recently single mother that ends up selling illegal drugs to make ends meet to support her two sons Silas(Hunter Parrish) and Shane( Alexander Gould). And along comes her free-thinking,wandering brother-in-law Andy(Justin Kirk) who offers to help her raise the kids and start her business. She has a good start, with family friend/accountant Doug Wilson(Kevin Nealon) as a loyal customer, but the business tends to be threatened by her narcissistic neighbor/PTA mother Celia Hodes(Elizabeth Perkins). 

    The series mostly deals with Nancy and the people that come into her life that either help or hinder her pot-dealing life. As  a newly widowed woman, she has many love interests during the show that add drama to her life including a DEA agent, a Mexican drug cartel boss/politician, and a Jewish rabbi. 

    The series ended in 2012, but in 2019 there was talk of starting it up again but since COVID hit, nothing has come up again. I hope it does, it was a good show.

 

We Need To Talk About Cosby (2022)

    We Need To Talk About Cosby is a 4-part documentary put out by W. Kamau Bell for Showtime in the early part of 2022. For the most part, this documentary series progresses chronologically from the beginning of Bill Cosby's stand-up career in the 1960's up to his sexual assault cases in the 2000's. W. Kamau Bell spoke on camera with those who have worked with or professionally knew Mr. Cosby and those who have accused him of his crimes and other experts on the entertainment industry during the 60's, 70's, 80's and 1990's. 

     Like the writer/director Mr. Bell, I also grew up watching Bill Cosby on TV. I probably first saw him doing Fat Albert, who is said to be based on a childhood friend of Bill's.  I don't remember all the character's names other than Fat Albert himself but I remember alot of music on the show. The documentary is not all about his abuse allegations. Mr. Bell is careful to give credit where credit is due. Bill being one of the first black comedians not to speak overtly about the differences in race relations like Dick Gregory, and still be extremely popular. But they do speak about Bill's references in his stand-up pieces about the aphrodisiac Spanish Fly, and other times of admitting of the effects of certain drugs on women. This was as early as 1969, and women that have admitted to coming forward accusing Mr. Cosby around the same time.

 

   

  " I think for many of us, the hardest thing about the Bill Cosby situation, is that we loved him for such a long time before we ever even heard about the allegations." says Bell during his documentary.  According to  the people interviewed by Mr. Bell, Bill Cosby has allegedly been abusing women since he first started his stand-up career in 1964.
      All of the assault stories told in the documentary involve some kind of drugging with Quaaludes or other depressant and usually involving alcohol with that. Most of the victims remember sometimes having no idea that they had been raped or assaulted sexually. This sometimes led the women to be taken advantage of again. The point that these women say that they were drugged messes with the question of the victim's consent. If a woman can't remember the evening after a certain point and remembers where she woke up makes rape impossible. Because the victim has to say 'no' for rape. Which is how the allegations against Bill Cosby are all sexual assault charges. 

    But of course, the most surprising things that happened during the documentary was that Bill Cosby was released from prison while W. Kamau Bell was filming! He was still doing interviews when Bill Cosby was released from prison due to a technicality.  

    Bill Cosby has had victims sue him in civil court in which Mr. Cosby had to pay $500,000. He is appealing.