Media Analysis about Weeds

I watched the first season of the show called Weeds for the media analysis. Overall, I really enjoyed the show. I did not particularly like the topic, which was about a single mom who sold weed, but overall it was a funny show that kept you wondering what was going to happen next. I found that the show is trying to send the message that anyone can be a drug dealer and that it is easy to do and you won’t be caught by law enforcement.

All of my claims are directly towards weed drug dealing. I think that harder drugs it is a lot different and you are dealing with a lot different type of people. This show seems to prove that everyone smokes weed and that it okay to do.

This show is about a woman named Nancy who is a single mother of two boys. She sells weed to many clients and that is what the whole show is based around. She hides it from her kids but they eventually find out towards the end of the season. She finds herself in bad situations when she tries to start branching out and selling to a school. One thing that is very different and unique about this show is that Nancy is a drug dealer but they make her appear to be a good person. She drives a range rover and lives in a very nice neighborhood. Her house looks very fancy. There is a picture below of an overview of her neighborhood and it seems to be a very nice area.

One common theme throughout the movie was anyone who was a part of the drug dealing world seemed to be black. She bought her drugs from a black woman and her son. The people who started messing with her towards the end of the season were black as well. There is a picture below of a man who is a drug dealer himself.

Up to what I watched there has not been any run in with the law enforcement or criminal justice system. The whole show was more so focused on the crime itself. Towards the end of the season they really focused on what she is getting herself into and the types of people that she is working against. In the drug world the show seemed to prove that it is very dangerous. When Nancy started branching out into selling drugs at a school she started stealing customers from someone else and they ended up throwing pennies at her car and proving to her that this is a bad industry that she does not want to be in. In the next picture, she is proving to him that she should be in this industry by holding a gun to him. This is when the man started leaving her alone.

Another scene in this show was when a drug dealer pretends to be a cop and steals all of Nancy’s drugs. This part made me really scared for her because I thought it was truly a real cop and that she was going to get in trouble. When she gets in the car and the man says that he will give her a warning but wants to keep all of her drugs that she has in her bag. When she tells her drug maker the story, they tell her that it was not a cop because if it was he would have not let her off with a warning. The drug makers son ends up beating the man up and he ends up giving all of her drugs back. There is a picture below explaining this scene.

I feel like the key ideas and attitude towards drug dealing is not necessarily really bad in this show. It shows that a person can make a lot of money by doing this. It is a risky business to get into especially for a single mom.

This show offers a new perspective of crime because it shows a woman who appears rich, is actually selling drugs. When you first see Nancy in the show, you would think she has a lot of money and has a good job and is just a pretty woman. In reality, she is complete opposite. She is poor and can barely pay for anything. She is a woman who you could not typically think is into the drug dealing world. It offers the perspective that really anyone can sell drugs.

I think that this show is a new way to shape our beliefs of the crime of drug dealing. Like Rafter said in her article called Why They Went Bad. She explains that crime films help shape our beliefs so fundamental that we are scarcely aware that we have them. The belief that crime can be explained, for instance, and opinions about who is qualified to explain it. Our view of the world as basically benign or threatening; and unstated and unexamined stereotypes about who is likely to be dangerous. They tell us not only what to think but also how to feel about crime, criminals, and criminal justice. I feel like this is a perfect example for how Weeds is trying to shape our beliefs in a different way. They are trying to prove that anyone can be a drug dealer. Even a single mom of two kids who lives in a nice house can still be a drug dealer. I feel like this show really opens people eyes up and that not all drug dealers are bad people. Yes, there is obviously some but a person like Nancy is not a seen as a bad person from the outside world. I did find it interesting though that everyone else except Nancy in the drug dealing world seemed to be like bad people.

Even the people that she sold drugs too, where not bad people. It showed that they were just everyday people who like to smoke weed every once in a while. Now, I am completely against people smoking weed or selling it but I don’t think this shows makes a good point that not all people involved with this crime are bad people.

I think because of this reason that the U.S. audiences will find this image of crime compelling. I think that people will want to watch the show because it is different and unpredictable.

My emotional attachments when I watched this show were definitely towards Nancy. I was always so nervous of her getting caught. I mean if she did get caught it would be a huge problem because it would change her life forever. Would she be able to keep her kids and if she went to jail what would happen to her kids. I was definitely attached to her family and curious what was going to happen if she did get caught.

I think that the narrative structure makes certain people or outcomes more desirable for sure. I think that anyone who watches the show wants Nancy to not get in trouble and that is a particular outcome that people desire. I think that the viewer gets connected with her family and what is going on with her life because of the narrative structure. It makes the audience feel more involved and know a lot more about her family. This definitely makes me want her to not get caught so she can keep her life the way it is right now.

I think this narrative structure tells us that the entertainment industry views weed dealing and not a bad thing. I found it interesting that the entertainment world make it look like it is so easy to get away with selling drugs. Throughout the whole first season she had no run in with the law. Except for the last scene of the season when she realized she was dating a DEA agent. Obviously, I didn’t keep watching the show yet but I think I am going to keep watching to see what happens next. It just makes it look like law enforcement did not care or pay attention to this particular crime. It may or may not be true. I really have no idea but I thought that was an interesting aspect to the show because it makes it seem like anyone can do it.

It was also interesting to me that there was a shop where you could buy almost anything related to weed. This is interesting to me because when this season was made weed was not legal at all in any states. There was a store where you could buy food that had weed in it or you could also buy weed plants or even weed there as well.

I am definitely really interested in how the rest of the show turns out. It seemed like it was getting to a whole new part. I am interested to see that now that weed is legal in some states if the shows view changes about the drug. If I find anything interesting or related to this class I will definitely post it to my blog.