Monty Brinton

WEEDS
Showtime · June 16 · 10 PM
Number of episodes: 13

The Scoop Last we saw TV's favorite pot-dealing soccer mom, Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), she had walked away from suburban Agrestic in a blaze of gasoline-fueled glory. In season 4, Nancy's clan — sans partners in crime Conrad (Romany Malco) and Heylia (Tonye Patano) — resettles near the Mexican border in the beachside home of her late husband's father (played by Albert Brooks), where new relationships are formed and old ones explored. But as is the Weeds way, trouble is never far behind. ''Nancy can't sit still without a little danger on the horizon,'' says series creator Jenji Kohan. ''It's her drug of choice.'' Fittingly, Nancy will graduate from dime bags to gangster-worthy quantities. ''This year is the first time we're testing her moral code,'' says Kohan. ''She's always been able to rationalize her behavior, but she may not be able to hide anymore. Her gray areas become black and white, which, for her, is a big confrontation — what is right and wrong?''

Boundary Issues Look for some of Agrestic's other characters to head down south, like Doug (Kevin Nealon), who helps Nancy's brother-in-law Andy (Justin Kirk) sneak Mexican immigrants across the border. ''The essence of the show this season is the border,'' says Kirk, ''which is much more exciting to me than the underbelly of suburbia.'' Kohan agrees: ''It's an election year, and we really wanted to deal with issues like immigration, drug trafficking, and culture clash. Moving south and going to Mexico just puts us in the eye of the storm.'' —Shirley Halperin

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