Weeds: Season Two
Lions Gate Entertainment

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The two-disc set comprises all 12 episodes from season two. Seven of these episodes include accompanying commentary tracks with various crew members. In the first such track by Jenji Kohan, the series creator reveals her real-life inspirations for various plot turns and divulges how the show's theme song, "Little Boxes," came to be performed by a different artist (e.g., Elvis Costello, Death Cab for Cutie, Englebert Humperdinck) on each episode. A thoroughly enjoyable second commentary by the show's resident marijuana consultant Rev. Craig X Rubin (an enthusiastic, THC-fueled pot expert and founder of L.A.'s Temple 420) attests to the authenticity or bogusness of various aspects of the show (e.g., a grow light would never be turned off over a "mother plant"). Craig X returns in a separate bonus feature, where he counts down his top five strains of cannabis he deems the "Cream of the Crop." Describing his indica and sativa strains, he's like a weed sommelier on the Home Shopping Network. (Will number one be the Hindu Kush or the Mendo Purple?) For the featurette titled "Conrad's Grow Room," actor Romany Malco takes us into a specialty garden supply center to show us precisely how we might grow hydroponic "tomatoes" in our own home. It's advised to watch the DVD's bonus Trivia Tracks on the episode's first viewing because the text tidbits aren't nearly as rapid-fire as they were on VH1's defunct Pop Up Video and watching them for their own sake can get tedious. "Slangin' 101" is a silly glossary of marijuana synonyms -- wheezy, cheeba, FayDah, griffy, kutchie, rope, burnie, K.G.B. (Kind Green Bud) -- that could help you navigate an imagined conversation between Snoop Dogg and Cheech Marin. Further bonuses include a "Tools of the Trade" photo montage and a prerequisite gag reel.

-- Rob. Walton