Weeds is an American black comedy-drama television series created by Jenji Kohan and produced by Lionsgate Television, which began airing on the Showtime cable television network in 2005. The show revolves around Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), a widowed Southern Californian mother of two boys—Silas (Hunter Parrish) and the younger, Shane (Alexander Gould)—who turns to selling marijuana to support her family after her husband unexpectedly dies. Over the course of the show, Nancy becomes involved in illegal activities on an escalating scale.

The first three seasons deal mainly with selling and growing marijuana locally. Seasons four and five follows the Botwin family moving to Ren Mar after Agrestic—their hometown—burns down due to Nancy's competitive dealers' fields catching aflame. In Ren Mar, Nancy gets married to Esteban Reyes, the mayor of Tijuana and the head of a drug cartel, with whom Nancy had a baby boy, naming him Stevie. At the conclusion of season five, Shane murders Esteban's campaign manager, Pilar, a scornful woman who threatened to kill Shane and Silas. Subsequently, the sixth season follows the Botwin family as they attempt to escape both the federal authority and Esteban's cartel. In the conclusion of season six, Andy, Silas, Shane, and Nancy have plans to escape to Copenhagen together until Nancy is found by Esteban and Guillermo who plan to bring Stevie back to Mexico and kill Nancy. This forces her to turn herself in to the federal authority in an attempt to save her life.

The first three seasons take place in the fictional town of Agrestic, California. The primary locale of seasons four and five is the fictional beachside border town of Ren Mar. During the sixth season, the Botwin family relocates to Seattle, Washington and then to Dearborn, Michigan, as a result of Shane's incident. The title plays on the word "weed", a slang for cannabis.^[1] The title sequence of the first three seasons features the song "Little Boxes",^[2] while seasons four and after depict intertitles.

The show first aired on August 7, 2005, and is currently in its sixth season, which premiered on August 16, 2010.^[3] The first season of the series delivered Showtime's highest ratings, and the debut of the fifth season had Showtime's highest viewership for a show with 1.3 million watchers. In 2005, Parker won a Satellite Award and, in 2006, she was awarded a Golden Globe for her performance on the show. In 2006, Kohan earned aWriters Guild of America Award for her work on the pilot episode, with Gould receiving a Young Artist Award in 2006 for his supporting role. Justin Kirk—an ensemble cast member, who portrays the boys' uncle Andy Botwin—won a Satellite Award in 2008 for his performance. In 2010, series' director and director of photography Michael Trim won an Emmy Award for his cinematography contributions. The show has also been nominated for nine Emmy Awards, five Satellite Awards, four Golden Globes, and two Screen Actors Guilds. The show has been renewed for a seventh season