Television

The residents of Wisteria Lane have become household staples in the last four years. Even after watching the show, I’m still not sure I understand what it’s about, but I’ll try and give my take on it anyway. It would appear to this reviewer that the show owes at least part of its genesis to the HBO hit Sex And The City. There is the same narrative angle, this time by a deceased member of the group. Still, that narrative contains many of the same kinds of observations as the HBO show and appears to imitate it as often as not. The show also deals with the exploits, often sexual, of a group of women. This time they are married, but that doesn’t seem to stop the flings, or at least the fantasies any. Finally, the best correlation between the two shows is how much both depended almost entirely on the personalities of the women themselves instead of any particular element of story or concept. Here the women are the concept. In the first season it appears young housewife Mary Alice (Strong) commits suicide. She now looks down (or up, I guess) on her neighbors, offering the commentary that is the show’s narration. At the end of each episode she offers some tidy little wrap-up, adding comments on how the lives of these women are evolving.

The plot is pretty much standard soap opera fare. There are love triangles, diseases, and the typical complications you can find on any given weekday during the networks’ afternoon programs. Of course, here we have prime time production values and a decidedly A cast of actors. It’s very likely that Desperate Housewives might have actually benefited from the writer’s strike, which reduced the run of episodes down to 17. The writers spent more time dealing with the characters and less trying to pretend they were creating compelling drama. Where the show works is in these quirky, almost black comedy moments between the characters. Since there is no “story” to really speak of, I guess it’s more important that you meet the residents of Wisteria Lane. Susan (Hatcher) is married to Mike (Denton). She’s kind of an airhead and is the housewife most likely to be on the outside of a joke or reference. Her husband might or might not be a murderer. Perhaps denizens of the show have a better grasp of the 411 on that situation than I got. Susan was raising her daughter Julie (Bowen) on her own before she married Mike. Julie shows far more maturity and intelligence than her mom. Lynette (Huffman) was once a big time corporate executive who is now raising four kids and is married to Tom (Savant) who also left corporate America and runs a pizza shop. They are also raising Tom’s daughter from a previous affair, who absolutely hates Lynette. Katherine (Delany) is the local “perfect housewife”; she’s a cooking champion and is a bit of a snob, refusing to share her lemon meringue pie recipe with anyone. She and gynecologist husband Adam (Fillion) are the newest residents of Wisteria Lane. Bree (Cross) is a rival to Katherine in all of this homemaking stuff, but it appears they learn to work together before the season ends. Bree is married to Orson (MacLachlan), who has had more than one ex-wife turn up dead. Unfortunately for Orson, it is the husbands that are expendable in this show. Last but certainly not least is Gabrielle (Parker). She’s obviously the best looking of the group and acts like she knows it. Her husband is the town’s mayor, but she spends far more time with lover Carlos (Chavira). She has expensive tastes and wants to be pampered. Together these ladies go through guys and catfights like they were pitches at the All Star Game.