If ever there was a television program in the perfect position to satirize marijuana of the medical (and non-medical) type in Colorado, it's Showtime's Weeds.
And in the latest episode from the sixth season -- an impressively strong one for such a long-running series -- the entertainingly dysfunctional Botwin family did just that, with a focus on the MMJ supply chain and the importance of pot for parents hoping to survive childrens concerts.
This year, the Botwins -- mom Nancy (Mary-Louise Parker), kids Silas (Hunter Parish), Shane (Alexander Gould) and baby Stevie, joined by uncle Andy (Justin Kirk) and ne'er-do-well former councilman Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon) -- have been on the run after Shane used a croquet mallet to kill the ruthless political advisor of Nancy's husband, a corrupt Mexican politician.
Hence, the graphic that opened the show: "Somewhere in Colorado."
The first scene finds Andy and Silas chatting up a massive guy wearing an "Estes Park" T-shirt outside a nondescript building that's presumably a medical marijuana center. They explain that they'd "go into the dispensary ourselves, but since you're the supplier, you can cut out the middle man."
The pair add that they "drive from state to state, spreading our message -- a sometimes gooey, baked message of hope" to "sick children," "glaucomic people" and "all people in need" -- some of them "people in other states less progressively minded than Colorado."
Mr. Estes Park considers this spiel for a beat before asking, "So you're drug dealers?"
"Pretty much," Andy admits.
"Cool," the guy says, clearly ready to make a purchase from a source that could hardly be less legitimate in the eyes of local law enforcers.
The Colorado moments don't end there...
Later, while Nancy and Andy take baby Stevie to the doctor over concern that his feces is (appropriately enough) green, Silas and Sean head to the "Colorado Amphitheater" -- presumably a stand-in for Red Rocks -- in an attempt to sell pot to concert-goers.
At first, the plan seems likely to be a smash given a sign touting a bill of the Dave Matthews Band, Phish, O.A.R. and, um, Run Squirrel Run. However, venue personnel soon change out the placard for one advertising the Zoobie Woobies, a kiddie band in which the performers dress as animals: a kangaroo, a penguin, etc.
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Fortunately, Silas realizes there'll still be demand for their product, and he's right, as exemplified by a desperate mom who tells him, "Gimme that shit" while her over-stimulated kid makes noise nearby.
Check out the first part of this last sequence below:
More from our Television & Film archive: "Frontier Airlines' CEO Bryan Bedford nearly gets a sh@# shower on Undercover Boss."
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