Widow's Weeds

Because I'm too cheap to get a Sky subscription, I need to join the queue at Blockbuster to get the DVD box sets for good new TV series. The advantage of this is that I get to devour episode after episode in a binge. No adverts and no waiting for next week's exciting episode - just a pure drama fix.

The downside is that I'm usually a few years off the leading edge, which is why I'm just now getting round to series 1 of "Weeds".

Nancy Botwin (played by the excellent Mary-Louise Parker) is a suburban Californian mother whose husband died jogging and who now makes ends meet by dealing marijuana to her uptight suburban neighbours and spoiled brat kids.

It's funny, but dark in a very British way. Dialogue is sharp, characters are cartoon-ish but amusing, and the plot is compelling. Very, very rude too - every single one of my favourite quotations has a swear-word in it, so I won't share them here.

The bits that don't ring true with me are the premise that a professional man, married for 17 years with two kids did not have life insurance. Also that the drug industry characters are way too genteel and lack menace. Very unlike "The Wire" in fact.

Otherwise, an excellent way to lose yourself for a few hours. Very er .. addictive.

Warning : a known side-effect of watching a box-set in a single sitting is that you'll be singing the theme song to yourself for days afterwards : "Little Boxes" by Malvina Reynolds

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,
And there's doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.