Growing Belushi: I watch, so you don't have to

Is Jim Belushi's cannabis-themed docu-reality show worth a watch? I investigate.

A few years ago, I heard Jim Belushi was making a show about his experiences in the cannabis industry. Like a lot of people (I presume), I thought “I’ll have to check that out at some point.”

Then, like a lot of people (I presume), I never did.

Flash forward a few years to last month’s MJBizCon in Vegas, Belushi was featured on a panel discussing celebrity cannabis brands. I was in the audience, and quickly realized that an episode of his Discovery Channel reality show Growing Belushi was being filmed for the show’s third season.

Realizing that I may now be spotted on a future episode, I decided to finally give the show a watch. Considering they were potentially giving me another flimsy credit to add to my IMDB page, it’s the least I could do.

Discovery previously brought us Weed Wars, a 2011 reality series following Steve DeAngelo and the goings-on at Harborside Health Center. While that show wasn’t something I would describe as “good” by any definition, it was innovative in its depiction of real life cannabis use — something that had basically never been shown on cable television up to that point. It only lasted four episodes, but you could argue Weed Wars played a small role in making cannabis mainstream enough that conventional media publications eventually started taking the topic seriously, leading to better shows like Viceland’s Weediquette.

Discovery has also brought us past quality edu-tainment such as Mythbusters and Survivorman, so maybe — just maybe — Growing Belushi wouldn’t suck?

Here are some running notes from my experience watching the first three episodes of the show’s first season.