Grid Effect

Well, well, well, look whose suddenly developing a conscious. We enjoyed last night’s episode somewhat, but we still can’t get on board with rooting for Nancy like we did in seasons one and two. I guess we are supposed to be concerned with her well-being now that she wants to cease feeding from the gutter. At least she is giving Shane some action if she is going to completely fuck over those that provide for her financially.

This is what I mean about this series trying to sell us on the virtues of Nancy Botwin. One minute she is sleeping with a corrupt politician, involved in a (literal) underground cartel which enables them to smuggle anything through. The next she is putting the guy who was generous enough to give her everything she has through the ringer with the CIA. “But they told me it was only marijuana” she so readily complains. Oh, well, that’s legitimate. Who would think MS-13 would lie about their practices? Fucking idiot.

Obviously it is noble that she objects to human trafficking, the bulk majority of the civilized world doesn’t support sexual slavery. It’s a bold stance, I know. But she doesn’t seem to mind the gun or drug trade. Those are legitimate for some reason. It is fine if you present her decision making as self-serving, entitled and not to be defended when it is so deplorable. But it is sold to us as just some predicament forced upon her. Like she had no choice but to join a Mexican drug gang, sleep with the kingpin after being offered every opportunity otherwise, then go and run to the feds after taking some herbal peyote or whatever the fuck that was last week.

At least in the wake of her fake epiphany she is giving Shane some action. I mean, does she not remember discovering pictures of her virile, naked twenty-something self in her son’s sock drawer? I can’t imagine she would begin spanking him with a rolled up newspaper if she did. Anyhow, he looked a little weirded out at first, but he’s totally going to be thinking about that during his next three-way. Seriously, what the fuck is going on with this show? At this point one would assume it was created by Larry Flynt.

There are still a couple running subplots that keep our attention. Mainly Doug struggling to get Mermex to find anything redeemable in him (though it was completely predictable that she would fall for Andy). And Silas attempting to sell weed out of her middle-aged girlfriend’s cheese store. Something that was only touched on in passing. We miss those days. Remember? When this series was about selling harmless recreational yet illegal drugs in an upper-middle class suburban community? That was great. Now instead of fun, satirical and fast-paced storytelling we are privy to overbearing plots so they can make generic talking points about health care. Talk about branching out of your element. This is like if The Sopranos suddenly cut to a black and white scene of Chris dancing the Charleston to everyone’s amusement at the bing.

Actually, I think Paulie would have loved to seen this.

I know a lot of fans of this series love Elizabeth Perkins as Celia Hodes. But we are entirely sick of her eating up 7-8 minutes an episode. Boo-fucking-hoo, you’re addicted to drugs after campaigning against the usage of them. And its not that we can’t feel empathy for her. We can. Just not in a comedic setting when you are trying desperately to be funny but still aren’t. And especially when she has been so fucking miserable when the series has wanted to portray her as admirable (making her all the more detestable). Before the end of this season we guarantee there is at least one Rush Limbaugh joke. We suspect it will come from either Dean or Isabelle.

Anyhow, we found little promising about this episode, And with only two left, we are getting less and less optimistic about the likelihood we’ll have any motive to watch season five. We know they will leave it on some massive cliffhanger, because that is generally the only point in which the plot significantly moves in this series.

Back in two weeks. Showtime, much like HBO, always takes Labor day weekend off to bring us an original movie.