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Show:		9.0
Picture:		8.0
Sound:		8.0
Extras:		7.0
Score:		8.0

Director(s):	Craig Zisk • Paul Feig • Lev L. Spiro
Writer(s):	Jenji Kohan, Roberto Benabib, Matthew Salsberg, Rolin Jones
Starring:	Alexander Gould • Elizabeth Perkins • Hunter Parrish • Justin Kirk • Kevin Nealon • Mary-Louise Parker
Genre:	Comedy • Television
Website:	http://www.sho.com/site/weeds/home.do
Release Date:	June 02, 2009

List Price:	Blu-ray - $25.99
Amazon:

Before we lavish Weeds: Season 4 with accolades for reinvigorating a show on the decline, it’s important to remember how they got there: they pressed the restart button. Yes, like some Hollywood CEO, the Weeds creators realized the corner they’d written themselves into was inescapable without anything other than a total meltdown. And meltdown they did. In fact, they set fire to the Weeds universe in an effort to transplant the cast into a new setting with new storylines. So now, with Weeds firmly planted into its new garden, the growth begins anew – and yeah, it’s terrific.

With Majestic little more than a patch of smoldering suburban remains, Nancy (Mary Louise Parker) takes her crew to Ren Mar, California where they set up a new life. Moving away doesn’t just erase all the past sins (as much as the writers would like it to) and everyone decides, at one point or another, to blame the pot ring on Celia (Elizabeth Perkins) who has earned the ire of pretty much everyone. The investigations into Nancy relent and she begins her new criminal career at a maternity ward store under the attentive watch of Guillermo (Guillermo Diaz), an employee of the Mexican mafia. Meanwhile Nancy’s brother-in-law Andy (Justin Kirk) and Doug (Kevin Nealon) decide to set up a coyote business as Doug searches for his deported lost love. Nancy’s increasing involvement in the Mexican mafia with Esteban (Demian Bichin) has left her children Silas (Hunter Parrish) and Shane (Alexander Gould) to fend for themselves in their new setting – and fend they do.

Season four has Weeds making major course corrections and getting back in the groove. The situations have evolved, the comedy has gotten sharper and the actors appear more comfortable than ever in their respective characters. Nancy’s personal drama still receives the majority of the screen time, but Andy and Doug take on a storyline that for the first time feels like more than just an afterthought to keep their characters busy. The same can be said for Silas and Shane, though less so. The most impressive aspect of any Weeds episode is how much they pack into the 27 minute format; it feels like a longer show than it actually is due to the high concentration of plot in each installment (that’s a good thing).

The video and audio presentation of Weeds: Season Four on Blu-ray doesn’t set it apart from the DVD version enough to merit the bump up in format. The picture retains brilliant colors, accentuated by the plethora of desert scenes, but compared to other series with Blu-ray transfers the difference isn’t nearly as noticeable; the filming style unto itself doesn’t take full advantage of what high-definition can show off – so it’s really not that surprising that the Blu-ray doesn’t seem like a visual improvement. The same holds true for the audio.

Blu-ray Bonus Features

Now this is where the true question of ‘DVD or Blu-ray?’ comes into effect. By that I mean the versions are so starkly similar in extra feature offerings that the format bump once again seems pointless. The only actual addition to the Blu-ray version of Weeds: Season Four is two episode-commentaries with a picture-in-picture box featuring Justin Kirk and Kevin Nealon. The concept itself would typically warrant the bump-up, I mean who wouldn’t be enticed by commentaries featuring the two funniest actors in the series? What the back of the packaging doesn’t tell you is that there are only two episodes with this feature. Compounding the problem, Kirk and Nealon aren’t really all that funny in the commentaries – in fact, they’re so brazenly nonchalant and uninvolved in the commentary process (Nealon even takes a phone call – okay, that’s funny) that the conversation can come to a complete lull at times. It’s easy to tell why they only filmed two of these, but at the same time the potential was incredible and misleading to anyone thinking of buying the Blu-ray after reading that feature off the box.

Beyond this “bonus” featurette, the Blu-ray has all the same featurettes as the DVD including an episode by episode look at the title sequences, a gag reel, production pieces and actor retrospectives. They’re all interesting and not just for Weeds devotees – but considering it’s a Blu-ray version, you can’t help but wish they’d thrown in more to differentiate it from its DVD clone.