Looking for a new series to binge, considering either of these. I’ve seen zero episodes of each but have heard generally good things.
For those who have seen both, do you have a clear preference?
Response of “watch both” or “don’t bother with either” are welcome too.
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Weeds is great but I don’t think I finished it, however, I loved and watched Six Feet Under to the very end and bawled my eyes out to one of the best series endings of all time. I’d pick SFU first (and then Weeds if I was still looking for something).
Very minor recommendation. Weeds was pretty funny at times but never quite great. I just never got into Six Feet Under, I don’t even remember why now. The characters turned me off from watching it.
I’ve watched both but only made it about 1/2 way through Weeds while I’ve re-watched Six Feet Under at least 3 times. The difference I would say is that the main character in Weeds and the premise got boring for me while Six Feet Under had so many great characters (who were also very, very human ) who had really well developed story arcs. Plus, everyone should watch it just to make it to the ending- nothing can compare to it.
Weeds was funny when kept light, but they ruined the show by taking it in more serious directions. I never finished the series.
I’m a bit of the reverse. Watched all of Weeds, but only ~2 seasons of Six Feet Under. I will unequivocally state that SFU is a better show. Better written, certainly. However it had a character I actively disliked, the ensemble nature bugged me just a bit because I was more invested in some stories than others and it just failed to hold my attention after the first season. I should give it another chance.
Weeds is what it is, a much weaker comedic (at times darkly comedic) version of Breaking Bad. Many, many people bailed after the first couple of seasons and while I don’t blame them, I mildly enjoyed the entire run. I probably wouldn’t watch the whole thing again but I don’t regret doing so. It was fine.
I’d recommend SFU as the stronger show, but they’re fairly different in tone. Weeds is quite a bit wackier and keeps trying to escalate the wackiness season by season in a game of self-upmanship.
Another endorsement for Six Feet Under. My wife and I watched all of SFU in its first run. I enjoyed it and it’s one of my wife’s favorite series ever. We recently rewatched the whole series a year or two ago, and it really holds up well. One fun thing, since SFU had a “death of the week” character and many characters that appeared for a short run of episodes, there’s now a lot of “hey, that’s [name of currently well known actor who was unknown at the time]”. Rainn Wilson had a short story arc, for example. As mentioned, a fantastic ending-- the most final finale ever.
I tried watching Weeds on my own years ago and just couldn’t get into it for whatever reason.
I think it depends on what you’re looking for. Six Feet Under is a drama and Weeds was a comedy. I’ve seen all of Six Feet Under, and watched a few of the episodes twice, but I couldn’t finish Weeds. I think I got through 4-5 seasons.
I found the stories in Six Feet Under to be much better as well. And it does have one of the best TV endings to a show.
First season of Weeds was pretty awesome. Second was pretty good.
Kinda started getting into the “weeds” after that.
Apparently, it went 8 seasons. I don’t think I made it past 4
Never saw Weeds, but I’ll put in another vote for Six Feet Under.
Weeds like OitNB is a Jenji Kohan show. And while she has got a quirky, irreverent voice, I’ve never seen shows jump the shark as early or as often as either of these. On top of that, Weeds is a Showtime production which means it pushes edgy shit on screen to a ridiculous level.
That said, I’ve watched Weeds all the way through maybe 3 times over the years.
I loved, loved, loved Six Feet Under. I also loved the first few seasons of Weeds, but never finished the series. It seemed to be the same old thing over and over. So my vote is SFU.
I’m pretty in line with what @Tamerlane has to say about both shows. I watched both all the way through and pretty much enjoyed both but I never found SFU to match the hype it gets. Weeds doesn’t get much hype - most people say they dropped it after a season or two - but it was fine watching the dumbass family do dumbass things and get saved at the last minute. That’s TV for ya.
I just finished watching Six Feet Under for the first time. I thought it was good, but not great. Certainly individual episodes are great. The acting is superb. There are a few twists I did NOT see coming. But with certain characters I just got tired of their bullshit after a while.
I get the feeling that it was groundbreaking in its time, but a lot of its quirkiness doesn’t feel all that special in 2020. And with all the fuss about the ending, I expected something amazing. It ended about how I thought it should. Good, but not great.
One other note: SFU gets dark. It is not a feel-good show so much as a meditation on life and death.
SFU beats Weeds hands down. Better writing, better story arcs, extremely well defined characters (the fact that some people hate some of them is a testament to how well they’re written and acted–if they’re awful it’s intentional) who grow and change in spite of all their flaws. Amazing casting too. And I’ve watched the entire series through at least five times and the ending always gets me snivelling like a skint knee little kid. It stands the time test because the conflicts are universal and timeless. Plus a generally hilariously bizarre death at the start of every episode, can’t beat that.
Weeds, when it’s good, is laugh out loud hilarious but it doesn’t really stand the test of time. With the eponymous weed being legal in California these days it’s pretty hard to take the premise seriously any more and even at the time the prices and machinations were extremely exaggerated so anyone familiar with the cannabis scene at the time is gonna be eyerolling pretty hard. And the later seasons are way more so–they’re trying really hard to make cannabis into something it just isn’t and the business thereof something it hasn’t been for decades. So yeah, it wants to be Breaking Bad but picked the entirely wrong drug for the premise.
Breaking Meh.
Breaking A Bit Naughty.
Weeds was best when it was about the dark underbelly of suburbia. At some point it just became a Bonnie and Clyde family on the run show that lost its satiric edge.
Billy? Couldn’t stand him myself.
Billy was annoying but damned if they didn’t nail the behavior of a bipolar person on a manic binge though. Gave me PTSD triggers, it did, living with bipolar people can be nerve wracking.