Weeds: Season Six [Blu-Ray]

After a few unfocused seasons wrapped up with a Mexican drug cartel, the Botwin clan have found their footing on the lamb. Last season's cliff-hanging game of whack-a-publicist brought youngest son Shane's burgeoning psychopathic tendencies front and centre. It was a gamble that could've easily allowed the show to continue slipping into fractured tangents of bad behaviour. Instead, the distasteful, if arguably necessary, act unites the core family while setting a fresh trajectory for the story. Fleeing the scene of the crime and Esteban Reyes (Demian Bichir), the evil bastard partially responsible ― everything that happens in Weeds is Nancy's fault, at its core ― for royally screwing up the Botwins' lives, and the show's tone over the past couple seasons, the Botwins decide to change their identities and attempt to reintegrate into society without resorting to criminal activity. Some of the season's best moments involve Andy (Justin Kirk) trying to impress the arrogant head chef (Peter Stormare, The Big Lebowski) with his culinary skills at the hotel where he's employed as a dishwasher. Only a show as unconcerned with realism as Weeds is could convincingly fashion the type of first day the Botwins have working at the hotel. Silas (Hunter Parish) ends up making extra cash by stripping down to his underwear and reading to a lonely old man; Nancy (the seemingly ageless Mary-Louise Parker) finds a hairy, naked dude, post-dominatrix session, handcuffed to the bed. It doesn't take long for the natural born pot-slingers to revert to their old ways and get into heaps of new trouble. By the end of the season, the family have weathered some serious emotional moments, a requisite kinky sex romp and a guest appearance by Richard Dryfuss as Nancy's lovelorn former high school teacher. The finale gives a greater sense of resolution than at any point since Agrestic burned down. The writers still haven't got a firm handle on how best to use the Doug Wilson character to unleash Kevin Nealon's formidable humour. Season six mostly uses him to tie the Mexican mobsters back into the main story, but the special features give the impression that a lot of Nealon's best material happens off camera, or at least out of scene. The gag reel is the most obvious source, but a commentary with the gangster duo of Hemky Madera and Enrique Castillo is filled with anecdotes of Nealon's boundless hilarity. A commentary with Justin Kirk and Kevin Nealon is consistently hilarious, brimming with bullshit. Their slightly jerky chemistry continues to illicit chuckles in a semi-faux Q&A with each other and they dish the funniest sound bites in the "Bye-Bye Botwins" feature. Also: Kirk mediates a Q&A session with Weeds' creators and another seven episode commentaries of varying degrees of interest, with head writer/creator Jenji Kohan's contributions being the most informative and entertaining of the non-cast members.