TV: Burning Down the House

0.cached.png

By Newsweek Editors

See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.

Where there's smoke, there's fire. So it should have come as no surprise to fans of "Weeds"—Showtime's hit series about a single mom who sells marijuana in her California suburb—when Nancy Botwin torched her house just in case the encroaching wildfires didn't do the job. What may surprise viewers is how much changes on the show as a result. In the season premiere, Nancy (Mary-Louise Parker) has relocated her family to a Mexican border town, leaving behind her old life and a few key characters. "Things run their course," says "Weeds" creator Jenji Kohan. "When it's time to move on, you move on."

It's a gutsy move, but narrative reboots have become commonplace for shows in need of a jolt. Thrillers such as "24" and "Lost" have tinkered with skewed timelines and new settings. Now melodramas and comedies are taking the same liberties. The surgical drama "nip/tuck" relocated from Miami to Los Angeles for its fifth season. This season of "Desperate Housewives" featured a devastating tornado and, in its finale, jumped five years into the future.

There's freedom in freshening staid storylines—but also a risk that fans won't stick around. Critics lauded the new directions of "Lost" and "nip/tuck," and both rebooted shows handily won their time slots. But they later hemorrhaged so many viewers that their respective season finales were the least-watched yet. Kohan is confident her fans will remain loyal. "What surprised us is that despite how much we changed, it still really feels like 'Weeds'," she says. And if the experiment fails, well, who says you can't go home again?

Read More on News