Family Root Metaphors and Family Themes

Family Communications Blog Exercise:

Root Metaphors: "We're the A Team", a group of strangers picked to live in a house on Atherton Street.

Family Theme: "Our similarities are what unites us, our diverse perspectives are what ignite us, our mission is to save the world, we are the A Team."

Weeds: A Closer Look At the Botwin Family

The following 4 clips are from the HBO TV series Weeds about a newly widowed suburban house wife and mother of two (now 3) who resorts to dealing pot in order to keep up her cushy lifestyle.  

Shane Botwin Speaks At Graduation

Shane Beheads a Little Girl

Isabelle Put in Suprise Choke Hole by Mom

Nancy Flips Out

Nancy might be a misguided mother most of the time but she loves her kids. The Botwin family consist of:

Nancy (Mom)

Silas (Oldest Son)

Shane (Youngest Son)

Andy (Uncle)

 The nanny and housekeeper Lupita

The boys dad (Judah) died before the show began, and his brother Andy has always been a part of the boys life but he begins to step up  into a more parental role.

In Weeds there is another dysfunctional family, the Hodes:

Isabelle

Celia

Dean

Weeds depicts family life in a unique way because it disrupts the concept of suburban life and showcases an insidious underground where "stanford wife" like characters such as Celia Hodes and Nancy Botwin become drug lords. Silas and Shane are thrown into a dangerous environment and Nancy has to go to great lengths to protect them from the business but in the end their exposure to drug trade makes it appealing to them. This makes Nancy's job as a mother even more difficult because not only does she have to keep them away from the often dangerous people she does business with, she now has to keep them from going into the dealing business themselves. On the other side, the Hodes family is dealing with divorce and cheating and all sorts of drama causing a different set of problems for the daughter of the family Isabelle who is a friend of Shane. For the Botwin's, family means sticking together even when someone is running from the police for.. setting an entire suburb on fire or killing someone with a croquet mallet, no matter what Nancy will always have an escape plan and Andy will tag along for comedic relief.

The first clip is a testament to Nancy's kind of horrible parenting skills, as her son Shane gives a pretty provocative speech and all Nancy can do is worry about herself when she spots a detective whose after her. Notice Andy sitting back and egging him on... that's really his form of parenting.

The second clip is another testament to Nancy's parenting as Shane decides to film a video of himself beheading a neighborhood girl. In this clip Andy again isn't much help.


The third clip is of Celia and Isabelle Hodes and it depicts how Celia parents.. not very well, she was recently released from prison for being a drug lord and is having trouble adjusting to life on the outside. Notice how Isabelle just brushes off the choke hold, I think she's kind of use to it by now.


The Forth Clip is of Nancy and the whole family including Lupita, after a devastating event, Nancy chooses to vent in an unconventional way. By stripping and jumping into the pool... just a normal day for the Botwin's!