There are two major additions to the Weeds cast in season four. The more noticeable would be Albert Brooks as Nancy's father-in-law, a chronic gambler living in his mother's beach house with a comatose mother who pronounces that he 'shits like a Swiss train' to prove how virile he is. The second, far more substantial addition is the talented Demián Bichir, who plays Esteban Reyes, the mayor of Tijuana and also the head of a large drug cartel that funds Nancy's associate Guillermo (Guillermo Diaz). Some may remember Bichir as another calculating leader in Steven Soderbergh's epic Che, where he played Fidel Castro.
Away from the lunacy of Agrestic, the planned California community where the first three seasons took place, the show finds a bit more focus on Nancy and her downward spiral. Her romance with Reyes becomes the show's central motor, even though it doesn't start till about halfway through. There's less urgency given to the law enforcement angle, represented here by Jack Stehlin's unpredictable DEA captain, and more given to her relationships with Andy (Justin Kirk) and Reyes. If anything, season four is ultimately about how good Nancy had it in Agrestic and how she now finds herself in thrall to the mastermind of a criminal conspiracy.
The minor plotlines and secondary characters that made the show a riot in the first place remain relatively intact. Kirk continues his outrageous-yet-endearing take on the unwelcome brother-in-law and with him, as always, is Doug, the perpetually stoned lawyer-cum-agronomist played to the hilt by Kevin Nealon. As for the children, Shane (Alexander Gould) joins the family business while older brother Silas (Hunter Parrish) falls for an older woman and opens his own dealership. The only exception is Elizabeth Perkins' psychotic she-devil Celia, whose farcical whirlwind played much better in the confines of Agrestic. Like Danny DeVito in the last season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, she has slowly mutated into a cartoon character with no sense of a central core, making many of her jokes hollow and insubstantial.
As the season goes on, it inevitably gets more serious, especially when Nancy uncovers that she is helping to traffic both heroin and young women over the border. It ends on a good twist (season five picks up exactly where four ends) and the sense of danger has certainly intensified since the days of Heylia, U-Turn, and the entire Scottson situation. Parker, who has seemingly been resurrected through Nancy, has become so comfortable with her character that even her more unexpected moments (an attempted usurping of Guillermo, her interactions with DEA agents) feel emotionally viable and it makes the private moments with the protagonist all the more moving. The show remains very funny and entertaining but for the first time since the first season, we are able to see the lonely, distraught woman in Nancy rather than the crafty mother wolf.
