Following in the footsteps of House M.D., which just finished their eighth and final season last month, Weeds will be doing the exact same thing this summer. The eighth season which premieres this summer on July 1st at 10/9c will be the last for the popular Showtime series. That will leave Dexter as the longest running show on the cable network, and right now the plan is for that series to finish on its eighth season as well (too bad The Office isn’t taking cues from Showtime). However, it sounds like the show’s creator haven’t exactly decided how to finish Nancy Botwin’s (Mary-Louise Parker) smoky journey. More after the jump.Series creator Jenji Kohan knows that this season will include another jump forward in time and focus on the assassination attempt cliffhanger from last season, but she hasn’t figured out how it will all end yet. The creator told EW, “We wrack our brains every year for crazy cliffhangers and we’re trying to figure out how to top ourselves.” That doesn’t seem like the best way to write a series, trying to wow audiences with a shocking twist just because you can, but fans seem to enjoy it since the series has lasted this long.Showtime president David Nevins points out,

“There were two shows, Weeds and Dexter, that really got Showtime taken seriously for cutting-edge original programming. How they get brought home is really important. In this case, both for the sake of the two women behind the show [series creator Jenji Kohan and Golden Globe-winning star Mary-Louise Parker] and an audience that’s really invested in the show. TV fans love nothing better to complain about how shows end and we really want to end this one the right way.”

When Weeds comes to a close, it really will mark the end of an era on Showtime, and once Dexter concludes, the cable network will have an even bigger gap to fill. Here’s hoping the two new shows Showtime brings to the table this fall, Masters of Sex and Ray Donovan, can fill these gaps when the time comes and the network has plans for some more long-running series to hit their mark.