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Dark comedy starring Mary-Louise Parker as a widow with an illegal side business Year: 2005-2012 Certificate: 18 Before Walter White in Breaking Bad, there was Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) in Weeds. She looks like apple pie but as a widow selling marijuana to support her family, she's tough when she needs to be (though nowhere near as desperate and dangerous as Walter). The illegal side hustle is only part of the story in Weeds as, really, this antihero show is all about Nancy, plucky, resourceful and not without her sizeable flaws. She's strongly performed by Parker, an actress who's had a very long screen career (The West Wing, Angels In America, The Assassination of Jesse James to name but three) but rarely with characters as meaty as Nancy, a role she picked up three Emmy nominations and one Golden Globe award for playing. The first three series are the best ones to watch as, after that, the family start to move around (Washington, Michigan, New York, Conneticut) and it becomes a little disconnected, even if the change of location is superficially refreshing. The woman behind the show was Jenji Kohan, who would go on to greater fame with the early Netflix hit Orange Is The New Black. (Eight series)
