Dark and darker comedies “Weeds” and “The Big C” have their season premieres back to back at 8 and 8:30 p.m. Monday on Showtime.
They aren’t sitcoms. They are half-hour meditations on tragic contemporary life with droll senses of humor. Jail time for dealing pot, and Stage 4 cancer — hold the laugh track.
As Season 7 of “Weeds” lights up, it’s three years from the time we last saw Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) surrender to police. She’s now getting out of jail (with quite the goodbye scene with her Russian-American cellmate), and moving to a halfway house in New York, thanks to witness relocation, where she’ll serve her sentence. The boys, meanwhile, have spent the intervening years in Copenhagen. Silas (Hunter Parrish) has become a model, Shane (Alexander Gould) has launched a puppet theater, Andy (Justin Kirk) is in a serious relationship. And Doug (Kevin Nealon) has been busy sampling the Danish product. When they hear that Nancy is out, they’ll be drawn back into her orbit.
As Season 2 of “The Big C” begins, Cathy Jamison (Laura Linney) is still bravely fighting her dire cancer diagnosis and now moving on to new therapies. Alan Alda shows up as an oncologist running a clinical trial; Gabourey Sidibe, Cynthia Nixon and Hugh Dancy also have guest roles.
Parker plays her character with a more guarded edge; Linney displays greater vulnerability to illustrate Cathy’s wild emotional ride. Both characters are on journeys of discovery.
“Everybody’s got something,” Cathy says knowingly.
“Big C” producers say they’re following the Kübler- Ross Model of the five stages of grief as themes for each season: Season 1 was about denial; Season 2 is about anger. We’ll see whether the series outlives the model.
“Weeds” has its hard-core adherents. But “The Big C” feels fresher because it is. Parker and Linney are two smart actresses, in two quirky, empowering and award-worthy roles.
FX’s “Wilfred”
Speaking of dark cable comedies, a curiously surreal one debuted on FX this week, pitting former “Lord of the Rings” star Elijah Wood against a man in a dog suit and hoping Americans will appreciate the dark humor.
“Wilfred” airs Thursdays at 11 p.m. on FX.
Only suicidally depressed Ryan (Wood) can see the man in the doggie suit, played by Jason Gann, creator of the original Australian short film which gave rise to the show. To everyone else, Wilfred appears to be a regular four- legged pooch.
Gann’s Wilfred is a foul- mouthed, uninhibited id who steers Ryan into trouble at every turn. Ryan is contemplating suicide as we meet him, and his anxieties only mount from there. (Mount may be the wrong word, given the circumstances and Wilfred’s inclinations.)
When Wilfred encourages Ryan to break into a neighbor’s house and steal a pot plant, then intentionally leaves Ryan’s wallet behind at the scene and encourages Ryan to partake of the paranoia-inducing strain, things are only starting to deteriorate.
Viewers are meant to puzzle over the weirdness — what does the vision mean?
Is anyone else reminded of “Topper”? Or James Stewart and his bunny pal “Harvey”? Similar ideas, only this time the emphasis is on the crude.
When’s the last time a loser and a man in a dog suit shared a bong on TV?
Don’t expect firm answers. This dog has a more philosophical bent. To him, “biting’s the easy way out.”
Just know that, as Wilfred explains, “everything is related to everything else.”
“Wilfred” is the very definition of a low-budget, high- concept show. And that’s the cable comedy game at the moment.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
