Spare Room Be our guest…

The convenience of MySky meant we didn’t have to choose between the first episodes of conflictingly scheduled new dramas Weeds, on Prime and Hotel Babylon, on TV One.

But viewers who are still at the whim of programmers were forced to make a choice. I hope it was the right one, because one show is a lungful of fresh air, while the other is a complete stinker.

Hotel Babylon has the understated sex-appeal of Max Beesley (Bodies) on its side, but even for women who love the bastard-of-few words-type, his charisma doesn’t sustain an hour of drama.

As for the rest of the clutter in this drama: the music is an intrusive jazz-wank, the writing is clunky and the hotel foyer looks like the set of a variety show. Too much living in the land of Posh and Becks for me.

Weeds is my pick of the two. Hell, Weeds is probably my pick for best show on television; I’ve already seen Sopranos and Rescue Me doesn’t start until the end of the month.

Weeds is everything Despo Housefraus isn’t – liberal instead of shallow, gritty instead of candy-coated, with characters who drink martinis and don’t suddenly become alcoholics.

And there is a black family who supply the drugs. No they’re not middle-class, but they are warm, they have a real relationship with the protagonist and they’re not just used as a plot device like the piano-playing homicidal apple dumplings.

On Weeds, Nancy (Mary-Louise Parker – Fried Green Tomatoes, The West Wing) sells pot to maintain her lifestyle (and that of her two kids) after her husband dies suddenly. Her friend Celia (Elizabeth Perkins – About Last Night, Must Love Dogs) is a flawed and bitter wife and mother with problems of her own. Her husband is “ploughing” the pretty tennis coach, her youngest daughter “Isabelly” is chubby (much to Celia’s distaste) and her teenage daughter hates her.

This drama is not for the faint-hearted. Don’t expect Bree’s euphemisms. It is the blackest of comedies. After finding her husband has been shagging the pretty Asian tennis coach, Celia confronts her over a drink or six; none of the amateur hysterics, but plenty of humour.

Tennis coach: He went down on me for days.
Celia: He always did good work down there.

The politics of pot is central to the series, but not in an annoying let’s-make-it-legal kind of way. It is however, a gentle reminder to those who tend towards the reefer-madness mentality, that not everyone who smokes marijuana are in gangs or wasters on the dole – some are middle-class, employed and very responsible.

Weeds is on Prime, Wednesdays at 9.30.