The original post: /r/television by /u/Barca-Dam on 2025-09-22 09:26:08+00:00.

Just started rewatching Weeds (from 2005) and it’s a real eye opener how much society and TV have changed in less than two decades. Some of the stuff that was considered “edgy” or even just “normal” back then would be totally out of bounds today, and the things that were supposed to be taboo are basically just background noise now.

I’m still rewatching season one, and some of the things that have stood out to me are

1- The casual, friendly racial jokes between Nancy and Conrad’s family. None of it was mean-spirited, and it actually showed the closeness between the characters. Viewers understood it was banter, not racism. Now, even with the best intentions, you just wouldn’t see those scenes, people don’t trust the audience to know the difference between a joke and an attack.

2- One of the mums keeps calling her 11-year-old daughter fat, over and over, and it’s played for laughs, it’s especially wild because the actress herself was a chubby kid. Today, there’s no way a show would cast an actual chubby child and make them the butt of repeated fat jokes on primetime. Back then, audiences understood it was dark humor about dysfunctional families, not an attack on the kid herself. Nowadays, that kind of joke would be read as promoting child abuse or body-shaming, and the production would probably get shut down for even trying it.

3- There’s a subplot where Uncle Andy (a grown man) sexts his 16 year-old nephew’s girlfriend, and it’s played for laughs. But the thing is, everybody watching in 2005 knew it was wrong, that was literally the joke. The comedy was in how outrageous and out-of-order it was. Nobody took it as “this is fine in real life.” But now, even making a joke about something like that would get you dragged, as if the writers or actors genuinely condoned it.

4- There’s also a scene where Nancy and her stoned friend act like Indian food is some exotic new discovery. Everyone at the time knew it was a joke about suburban cluelessness, not that Indian food was actually rare. Now if you did that, people would accuse the writers of being out of touch or worse. Again, viewers back then could get the point without thinking the show was actually saying “no one’s heard of curry.”

The ironic part is, the big taboo back then was a soccer mum selling weed to her neighbours. That was supposed to be the jaw-dropping, edgy premise! Fast forward to today, and it’s honestly one of the least taboo things about the whole show. Legal weed is everywhere now. half the parents at the school gates probably have an edible company as a side hustle. The stuff that seemed “outrageous” is just everyday life in 2025.

So When people say “you couldn’t do that on TV anymore,” most assume they’re talking about shows from the 80s or even earlier. But the real shift didn’t happen that long ago. Shows from as recently as the mid-2000s, stuff we all remember. are suddenly way too hot to touch. It’s not ancient history; it’s the stuff we were just watching.

it makes you wonder (and kind of worry) about how much more things could shift in the next 15 or 20 years. What do we think is normal now that’ll look absolutely wild or unacceptable by 2040?

Anyone else feel this way rewatching old TV? What moments hit you as being totally out of sync with today’s world?