I am a married man and first recorded Desperate Housewives (DH) on VHS to watch later on after our kids were asleep due to its airing in the middle of the prime time format (before their bedtimes) and this was definitely NOT appropriate material for their ages (all below teen) plus it aired here during ESPN NFL Sunday night football. Being married with kids, I thought I might enjoy this and somewhat identify, but unfortunately fell behind after only a few episodes and mixed up all the tapes since I stupidly didn't chronologically label/date each 2-episode tape which I tried in vain to do later. Well, to make a long story short, I decided to wait for the DVD set and rented it at Blockbuster, saving all the tapes for this season. Watching it on DVD, I found it to be far better than on broadcast TV, eliminating all the annoying bottom third news/promo scrolls, commercials and weekly cliffhangers. I rented out all the discs sequentially and watched all the bonus features on them, especially the extended episodes. DH has become one of my all-time TV faves... so much so that I have bought the Season One DVD box set which I highly recommend. In fact, you will more than likely watch some episodes several times for plot clues, humorous scenes and just great eye candy... the women (and men) are drop-dead gorgeous. I am now caught up to this season and am religiously watching the show each week, never to fall behind or miss another episode again. DH is comfort food... the characters are rich with hidden secrets, pasts, flaws, weaknesses and admirable qualities. Like the writing and production of the ABC show "Lost" (another of my faves), creator,/writer/director/producer Marc Cherry has totally fleshed out his characters and involved them in amazingly well-written plots full of twists, turns and jaw dropping surprises.
The four main housewives of Wisteria Lane in the fictitious city of Fairview are Lynette, Bree, Susan and Gabrielle. Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria), aka Gabbie, is the self-centered, primadonna, former-supermodel Latina diva who is cheating on her rich, chauvinistic, alpha-male husband, Carlos Solis (Ricardo Chavira) with their gardener, John Rowland (Jesse Metcalfe), a high school boy. Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher, an Emmy nominee) is the recently-divorced, cute, klutzy, emotional single mom of a teen-aged daughter, Julie (Amanda Bowen), who falls almost immediately for the new neighbor, a mysterious handsome plumber named Mike Delfino (James Denton) who is also a "scoring" target of her neighbor rival voluptuous, vixen, platinum blonde, realtor, Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan), whom with Susan is seemingly always in constant competition. The prim, proper, well-mannered, immaculately dressed and groomed Bree Van De Kamp (Marcia Cross, an Emmy nominee) is an ultra-conservative, Baptist, NRA member, Republican socialite wife of a doctor, Rex Van De Kamp (Steven Culp) who on the outside is the homemaker/housewife extraordinaire with two teenagers, Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) and Danielle (Joy Lauren) who seemingly are perfect kids, but this IS Wisteria Lane after all. Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman, who won the Emmy) is a former ad-executive who gave up her career after marriage to her fellow ad-exec. husband Tom Scavo (Doug Savant), so that she could properly raise her four children... twin 8 year old boy hellions plus their one year younger brother and infant daughter. This over-burdened wife and mom is the epitome of a desperate housewife - Lynette is probably the most identifiable character on the show and therefore clearly earns the most audience empathy.
Each episode opens with a nicely narrated recap/intro, wonderful Emmy-nominated title sequence and Emmy-winning theme by Danny Elfman and is wrapped up in poignant, narrative moralistic fashion. The brilliantly-conceived (by Marc Cherry) series' plot opens immediately with the apparent suicide of the four main housewives' neighboring wife group-hub and friend, Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) and is narrated (as well as acted) wonderfully throughout the entire series by her. There are several clouds of mystery surrounding her suicide, including a mysterious blackmail-type of note. This is pretty much the glue that holds all the subplots together, spawning several other subplots and introducing new characters as the series develops. Whatever you do, do not watch this season or any of its coming attractions (change channels on commercial promos) until you have seen last season - you will miss way too much character and plot development. DH clearly should have won the Emmy, but due to a major male voting portion of the academy's unfamiliarity with it and the "Raymond" hype of closing the book on 9 successful seasons, it lost out to "Everybody Loves Raymond," the sentimental choice. It was far better production-wise (with some amazing camera-work), scripting, editing, directing, costuming, casting as well as acting. I expect DH to win the Emmy for Best Comedy Series this season if it is nearly as good as it was in its debut year- so far, so good. Last season, it won for six of the astonishing fifteen Emmy nominations it received. In summary, DH is a guilty pleasure that really leaves you feeling not too guilty about enjoying it on a regular basis.
10/10 stars - practically perfect, flawless television entertainment
The four main housewives of Wisteria Lane in the fictitious city of Fairview are Lynette, Bree, Susan and Gabrielle. Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria), aka Gabbie, is the self-centered, primadonna, former-supermodel Latina diva who is cheating on her rich, chauvinistic, alpha-male husband, Carlos Solis (Ricardo Chavira) with their gardener, John Rowland (Jesse Metcalfe), a high school boy. Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher, an Emmy nominee) is the recently-divorced, cute, klutzy, emotional single mom of a teen-aged daughter, Julie (Amanda Bowen), who falls almost immediately for the new neighbor, a mysterious handsome plumber named Mike Delfino (James Denton) who is also a "scoring" target of her neighbor rival voluptuous, vixen, platinum blonde, realtor, Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan), whom with Susan is seemingly always in constant competition. The prim, proper, well-mannered, immaculately dressed and groomed Bree Van De Kamp (Marcia Cross, an Emmy nominee) is an ultra-conservative, Baptist, NRA member, Republican socialite wife of a doctor, Rex Van De Kamp (Steven Culp) who on the outside is the homemaker/housewife extraordinaire with two teenagers, Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) and Danielle (Joy Lauren) who seemingly are perfect kids, but this IS Wisteria Lane after all. Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman, who won the Emmy) is a former ad-executive who gave up her career after marriage to her fellow ad-exec. husband Tom Scavo (Doug Savant), so that she could properly raise her four children... twin 8 year old boy hellions plus their one year younger brother and infant daughter. This over-burdened wife and mom is the epitome of a desperate housewife - Lynette is probably the most identifiable character on the show and therefore clearly earns the most audience empathy.
Each episode opens with a nicely narrated recap/intro, wonderful Emmy-nominated title sequence and Emmy-winning theme by Danny Elfman and is wrapped up in poignant, narrative moralistic fashion. The brilliantly-conceived (by Marc Cherry) series' plot opens immediately with the apparent suicide of the four main housewives' neighboring wife group-hub and friend, Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) and is narrated (as well as acted) wonderfully throughout the entire series by her. There are several clouds of mystery surrounding her suicide, including a mysterious blackmail-type of note. This is pretty much the glue that holds all the subplots together, spawning several other subplots and introducing new characters as the series develops. Whatever you do, do not watch this season or any of its coming attractions (change channels on commercial promos) until you have seen last season - you will miss way too much character and plot development. DH clearly should have won the Emmy, but due to a major male voting portion of the academy's unfamiliarity with it and the "Raymond" hype of closing the book on 9 successful seasons, it lost out to "Everybody Loves Raymond," the sentimental choice. It was far better production-wise (with some amazing camera-work), scripting, editing, directing, costuming, casting as well as acting. I expect DH to win the Emmy for Best Comedy Series this season if it is nearly as good as it was in its debut year- so far, so good. Last season, it won for six of the astonishing fifteen Emmy nominations it received. In summary, DH is a guilty pleasure that really leaves you feeling not too guilty about enjoying it on a regular basis.
10/10 stars - practically perfect, flawless television entertainment