It’s too easy to not watch a show that you weren’t watching before, so to add at least a modicum of difficulty, let’s cull some shows that were once favorites. It’s nothing personal. Sometimes shows fall in quality, sometimes they just get old, and sometimes we change. For whatever reason, here are a handful of shows that we have no problem saying goodbye to for Lent.

True Blood

I like(d) True Blood for what it is – a campy, soapy display of stylized violence with a fair amount of nudity. It continues to be very self-aware, but there seemed to be very little new space to explore. To recap, there have been werewolves, vampires, fairies, shapeshifters, panthers, and witches. That’s a lot of factions going head-to-head.

The shock value is gone, and while the sexiness and violence is still entertaining, it’s compromised by the total absence of a story to tell. I was able to make it through last season buoyed by the hotness of the characters, but no more. Unless they seriously overhaul their writing team, I’m going to bid the show adieu and get my nudity from the internet.

Law & Order: SVU

The show has been gradually declining in quality over the past five years. In fact, the decline was so gradual that indoctrinated viewers may not have even noticed. Now, with the absence of Christopher Meloni, it’s pretty clear that the show will keep trending downward. After 13 seasons and 286 episodes, there are only so many different ways a character can get raped and murdered. There are also only so many ways Ice-T can be informed of the nature of a crime, then respond with “That’s messed up.”

Yes it is, Ice-T. It’s very messed up. Just like your show.

Aidan Quinn will assume the role of a non-wacky “charismatic investment firm CEO.” Wow, it’s like the producers of “Weeds” are reading my dream journal. Martin Short, sadly, will not be reprising his role as Uncle Jack, the parapelegic fitness guru from”Arrested Development.” He will be playing an “eccentric attorney.” Seriously, guys. GET OUT OF MY DREAM JOURNAL!

6 photosNatascha McElhone

The upcoming season of”Weeds” jumps forward three years after Nancy Botwin’s prison stint is up and she’s ready to join the outside world via a New York halfway house. The shake-up is welcome, given that the previous formulas haven’t seemed to worked well for the show in recent years. In this scenario, Aidan Quinn and Martin Short are pulling double duty in a “Cousin Oliver” role. Those adorable moppets!

Mary-Louise Parker is great at vamping up her sex appeal on “Weeds” in her little boots and sun dresses. If you’re an admirer lik I am, you’ll love this season’s eighth episode. When Nancy Botwin (Parker) rolls her Winnebago into town, she hooks up with a local bartender and, because it’s Showtime, you see everything and then some. He spanks her pretty little bottom and she hits back!

More after the jump…

"That was kind of my idea because I felt like sex scenes can be incredibly rote,” Parker said in an exclusive interview while promoting the movie Red. “Generally there’s more going on with two people when they’re having sex than just them groaning and grunting. I feel like it’s a chance to really say something about someone.”

Who knew Nancy liked it rough? And how cool is Parker for going there? “There’s something about her that’s very immature and there’s something about her that, really, she needs something punitive. She needs a little bit of abuse and I think part of that is her inner guilt and part of that is her true helplessness. Part of that is there’s something kinky about her and I wanted it to be like that and I wanted it to go as far as it could because I felt like she was depleted at that point and she really needed something and needed to feel something.”

Showtime can have a naked woman wrestling up against a bar. The scene was bound only by the limits of Parker’s imagination, and her costar’s endurance. “I wanted it to go even farther than that but that was quite far and after we did one of the takes, [the actor] was like, ‘Um, I’m bleeding.’ I was like, ‘I don’t know why or how.’ He said, ‘I don’t either’ but he was awesome.

“Weeds” airs Mondays on Showtime. Episode 8 premieres October 11.

Weeds has a variety of incredibly attractive women on it, but in comparison to other shows, it has the milf market cornered.  Much is said about Mary-Louise Parker, but the unsung hot mom of the show is Elizabeth Perkins.  Playing Celia Hodes, she nails the “raging bitch” role down pat, almost too well.  It makes us hope her character experiences a softening-up that occurs as a result of her new relationship with an oddly juvenile co-worker, preferrably played by Tom Hanks.  That, or we could all just watch Big again.  Either way, she’s still hot.

A word from Elizabeth: “My sisters are very academically inclined so whenever they would fix me up, it would always be from someone in their world, people they would find attractive. When they came to the door in suits, it was over.”

Luckily, most of our readership don’t own suits, so it seems like we have a shot!  Check out more hot photos of Elizabeth after the jump!