"Weeds": A summer high for season five

"Weeds" takes a violent turn at the start of its fifth season -- a little too violent in parts for my taste.

But as always, Mary-Louise Parker is fantastic -- no matter how fantastic the storyline -- and Justin Kirk is icing on her cake. Jennifer Jason Leigh is well cast as Nancy's uptight suburbanite sister in Oakland, who winds up taking in her younger nephew Shane because of circumstances down south for Nancy.

Elizabeth Perkins also looks to be in for another eventful season as Celia's situation  spins wildly out of control. The thesps who play Nancy's teenage sons, Alexander Gould and Hunter Parrish, continue to grow tremendously in their roles.

"Weeds" fires up its 13-episode run for Showtime on June 8, in tandem with the bow of Edie Falco's "Nurse Jackie."

The "Weeds" opener is nicely written by creator/exec producer Jenji Kohan and helmed by Scott Ellis. The second seg gets a little hard to take, tonally speaking, in parts ... but nevertheless, it's "Weeds." I'm hooked.