Oh, how I miss Weeds. The disappointing season finale of Mad Men* put me in mind of a show that did it right: with a jaw-dropping surprise that leaves the viewer, at least this viewer, gasping in anticipation of what will happen next season.
Nancy Botwin is ever on my mind, I guess, but more so in the wake of the Health Reform Bill from Hell that passed through the House this weekend. I know: Nancy Pelosi and Steyne Hoyer do not totter around on stiletto heels in body-conscious apparel, sucking down prodigious quantities of designer coffees. (In fact, allow me to pause while I try to erase such ghastly images from my memory.) But Nancy and our esteemed representatives in Congress have one very major thing in common. They have a job that is a front for a business.
In Nancy’s case, the job has been most recently managing a maternity boutique in a sleepy mall. Her business, however, was all about the drug- and human-trafficking tunnel to Mexico beneath the shop. She spends her day pretending to do her innocent little job, when in reality she is involved in a much more lucrative, and sinister, business.
Same with congressmen and senators. Their job is to APPEAR to represent the people and to protect them from the predations of the wealthy and powerful, but their BUSINESS is to enable the wealthy and powerful to extract every last ounce of flesh and blood from the people. If they do their job well, they are praised effusively by their victims.
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* I am aware that I’m in the minority on this.