Life After WEEDS – Mary Louise Parker, Kevin Nealon, Jenji Kohan Talk Futures

• Tweet
• Pin It

The Television Critics Association (TCA) grist mill keeps turning, and now that we’re mowing through conferences with cable networks, we get to know about shows we actually care about. This is especially the case with Weeds, the Showtime original series that has its end-date all set.

Naturally, most of the questions put to Mary-Louse Parker, Kevin Nealon, Justin Kirk, and Weeds creator Jenji Kohan were the same as any hit show gets: Where is this season going? Who’ll die? Who else will die?

And, as you’d expect for a show winding down its final hours, Weeds didn’t divulge much. Beyond an anecdote of Mary-Louse Parker crying when she read the final script, we get no flash of how Weeds will die.

What we do know about are the lives of these stars after Weeds.

Mary-Louise Parker, catapulted back onto the screen in a big way by her cable TV success, is starring in a sequel to the last big picture she featured in, Red. Mary-Louise is reprising her role for Red 2, then says she’ll steer back to the small screen. She likes TV apparently, and considering her fierce performance as Nancy Botwin, that’s no surprise.

Justin Kirk is aiming for the same. Slated for a starring role in an upcoming comedy from NBC, Animal Practice, he’ll be chasing the dream of syndication once again – only this time, through a network.

Kevin Nealon seemingly has more sense than to tie his pennant to one of the Big Three. He’ll be staying around Showtime, doing stand-up comedy at first and then hoping to find a home for a new show he’s penning.

As for the mother and wunderkind of Weeds, Jenji Kohan, she’s already knuckling down on a number of new projects. True to the game a writer must play in Tinseltown, Kohan has a heap of irons in the fire: Split, a potential mid-season NBC series that pairs her with Weeds producer, Stephen Falk. Whales, a pilot about professional poker players that Showtime is sniffing at, created alongside Weeds producer Matthew Salzberg. And finally, a show of her own that’s as good as streaming, coming from Netflix, called Orange is the New Black.

To say that we have only pinches of info about any of these series is to overstate it. Only Orange is the New Black has shown any ankle, and that’s because its title is identical to a popular book about women in prison. Considering the subject matter that’s teased Jenji’s attention, a “girls in stir” series would be well suited.

Hell, for all we know about the Weeds season 8 finale, it could be a sequel.