Over the weekend, as I recouped from quite the celebration of the birth of my two hetero (and homo) life partners, I did what I do best (and what I hate that I do best) I watched television. Since the Netflix competition happened, my life has become a little bit more unproductive. I removed my television from my room as to not be zombified by endless hours of brainwashing. Alas, the entertainment industry was, as always, one step ahead of me and made everything available online.
It wasn't enough that Netflix was mass distributing digital television to my computer, but Fox and NBC teamed up against them as well as Apple on this deal by releasing Hulu, which although still in beta-like phase, still contributed to my brain-feeding (rotting) frenzy.
On Netflix I burned through Heroes, The Office, and Dexter (not to mention I'm currently tied up with The Wire on DVD). On Hulu I've been rewatching Firefly, and killed both seasons of 30 Rock. Last night, as I ran out of The Wire DVD's, much to my surprise Netflix had finally uploaded something new that appealed to me. Weeds.
Weeds is about a single mother named Nancy who sells drugs for a living. After the death of her husband Judah she had no source of income and decided that was it. To make sure she can continue to do this she buys a shop, which sells "cakes" so her real business is no longer under threat. Nancy has two kids, Silas and Shane. Their uncle Andy also lives with them to help support them, although he does a poor job. [TV Rage]The show started of a bit slow, as many do when they have complicated characters you have to get to know before actually understanding the show, but got more and more interesting as the storyline develops and situations arise. The cast is amazing. Kevin Nealon's character cracks me up and Mary-Louise Parker is a total smoke show.
One huge thing that got my attention while watching, was the theme song. Season 1 opens with Malvina Reynold's - Little Boxes. Catchy tune, I'd heard this song before but never actually put it into context as I did while watching the intro video montage. Season 2 mixes it up with covers of the song by a lot of different artists of indie fame. From Elvis Costello, to Death Cab to Ozomatli to the Decemberists, amongst many others. And the theme is not the only good thing the soundtrack throughout the show is impeccable and very well selected. I've heard everyone from Man Man to Of Montreal to Regina Spektor (who also does one of the Little Boxes covers). Defenitely a must if you're into music and, uh, "sub-cultures".
[Regina Spektor does Little Boxes]
Download [via My Old Kentucky Blog]:
Malvina Reynolds - Little Boxes
Elvis Costello - Little Boxes
Death Cab for Cutie - Little Boxes
