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Behold the distinction between regular television and cable: Network programming abounds with women in conflict, but somehow the weekly woes of the Desperate Housewives seem frivolous when compared with the perils of Nancy Botwin, the pot-dealing soccer mom played by Mary-Louise Parker on the hit cable series Weeds. Who knew the drug business could be dangerous?

Still edgy and absurd, the third season of Weeds (on Showcase, starting Wednesday at 10) picks up life with Nancy exactly where it left off in last year's cliffhanger finale: With our wide-eyed heroine in the middle of someone's nice suburban kitchen, with roughly a dozen semi-automatic machine guns levelled directly at her person. As always, Nancy appeared on the verge of either laughter or tears.

On one side, the AK-47s were held by original-gangsta types, headed by a drug lord named U-Turn; on the other, a cadre of angry Armenians who had just shortly before murdered Nancy's boyfriend, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent for the U.S. government.

And both groups seemed very intent on leaving the kitchen with Nancy's large stash of non-medicinal-use marijuana, which was missing. You don't see these sorts of problems discussed on Oprah.

And this was not the first occasion the character has had a gun pointed at her. “Above all else, Nancy is a survivor and a mother,” says Parker, an Emmy winner in 2004 for the HBO miniseries Angels in America. “She takes care of her family, even though it has put her into some hairy situations. But I like doing those scenes, actually, because it's so incongruous to see this woman who looks this particular way functioning well with gangsters. I find that really interesting.”

Partly comedy but more a surreal soap opera, Weeds is the highest-rated original program on the U.S. cable outlet Showtime, and the series has performed comparably well here on Showcase, which wisely secured the first two seasons.

The premise of Weeds is a pipe dream, so to speak: Set in the fictional southern Californian suburb of Agrestic, the series casts Parker as a young and newly widowed mother of two who covers the mortgage by pushing high-grade herb to her friends and neighbours. And Nancy always has the good stuff.

Sometimes it seems like almost everyone in Agrestic is getting high – something else you'll never see on network television. A constant blue haze of pot smoke hangs over the postcard-perfect housing development.

There are very few Cheech and Chong types on Weeds, however, and no attempts to glamorize the dealing profession. Nancy's probationary period as a dealer was decidedly rocky in the show's first season. “It was a shock at first, because she was still grieving when she was dropped into this world,” Parker says. “Nancy has stifled a lot, but she has this volcanic personality that comes out in little spurts. By necessity, she's had to get tougher.”

Life didn't get any easier for Nancy in the second season of Weeds, which saw her blackmailed into a secret marriage – by the aforementioned DEA agent – while simultaneously expanding her drug empire with grow houses and wider distribution outside Agrestic.

“It's kind of the evolution of a gangster,” says Weeds creator and executive producer Jenji Kohan. “Nancy is finally owning up to what she does and getting comfortable in that role.”

Over two seasons, Nancy's personal growth has been paralleled by life changes for all those in her immediate circle. Her teenaged son Silas (Hunter Parrish) is growing up fast – he nicked the missing weed, incidentally, and now wants his cut of the family business – as is 11-year-old Shane (Alexander Gould), a wickedly smart kid last seen driving out of town in a van with the ex-girlfriend of Nancy's malingering brother-in-law Andy (Justin Kirk), who remains the same old jerk as before.

In other supporting-character developments, Nancy's prim and vehemently anti-drug best friend, Celia (Elizabeth Perkins), has survived a cancer scare and also a sleepover session with Doug (Kevin Nealon), the perpetually stoned local councilman and full partner in Nancy's thriving cottage industry.

Though already quirky to a fault, Weeds expands its ensemble of players this season with recurring appearances by Carrie Fisher and Matthew Modine as a sharkish divorce lawyer and a sleazy real-estate agent, respectively.

More intriguing is the addition of former Full House oddity Mary-Kate Olsen – in her first acting turn without her twin sister, Ashley – who plays Tara, a young waif who embraces God and pot with equal passion. “She's a Christian,” the elfin actress says simply. “She teaches Silas and wants to tell people about the Bible. Maybe she's stoned while doing so, but she wants to tell them about it.”

The buzz eventually fades, though. Parker envisions the day when Nancy can put away her scales and resume her normal suburban existence. “It's hard to imagine anyone being involved in this business in their old age,” she says. At the same time, toward the end of last season, Nancy was getting very good at the pot trade, and stranger things have happened.

“It's a hard life, the life of a drug dealer,” Kohan says, “but in doing our research we met some people who have been in the pot business since the seventies and were living a very nice life, with kids in private schools and lovely cover businesses. I don't think there can be a happy ending or a tragic ending with this show. There's always something in the middle.”