Buena Vista

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.

What if you took the Desperate Housewives and placed them on an Army base? If that thought has been keeping you awake at night, sleep tight, gentle reader. You can find out simply by picking up a copy of Army Wives on DVD. I’m not exaggerating about this at all. Army Wives has the very same soap opera plotting and tone as the ABC hit does. You gotta really be into that sort of thing if you have any hope at all of keeping up with the antics of these four friends, or of having any desire to. I’m afraid I have to confess that I am not in that group and so found the 19 episodes to be very trying indeed.

The series follows the trials and tribulations of four wives of enlisted Army personnel. They call themselves “The Tribe”. Claudia Joy (Delaney) is the unofficial head of the group. The other women are Denise Sherwood (Bell), Pamela Moran (Brannaugh), and Roxy LaBlanc (Pressman). The show often focuses on their rather emotional situations and makes a center for itself in the idea that these women are there for each other. In this second season the Army life aspect of the show was intentionally held back somewhat, and the stories dealt more intimately with the wives. Likely a good move for the target audience that would have very little interest in the military aspects of the setting.

It’s the end of the October Road for Nick and the gang. If you want to blame anyone, there’s plenty to go around here. First of all, the writers’ strike didn’t do anyone any favors by delivering only a 6 season first year. While the cast was made up of good actors, there is never any kind of chemistry between them. They look like actors thrown together because they have to be. The writing is uneven. Did anyone ever really plan out what this show was really about? There are fans; every show has some. But there was never enough to make this one fly at all. Blame me, if you like, for not being kind to the first release and repeating those same criticisms here. The truth is, it was never a good show, and a DVD release isn’t going to change that. You do get to see all of the episodes here. At last count, ABC was not necessarily planning to air all of the completed episodes. That makes it a good buy for the fans. If all 6 of you pool your money, maybe you can share one set.

Enter Nick Garrett. He’s a writer who has published a hugely successful best selling novel. It’s been made into a major film, and busty women approach him in clubs to tell him how much it has affected their lives. The audio version is read by Johnny Depp. You would think Nick has it made. The trouble is that Nick doesn’t have a clue how to begin to write his next book. His solution is to take a trip back home to the places that inspired the first book. His hope is to make a quick hit and run visit, but he ends up staying for a while. Nick soon discovers that you really can’t go home again. Everything and everyone changes, as Nick is finding out. Not everyone is happy about how they feel they might have been portrayed in the novel, and Nick might even have a son. If this is starting to sound a bit like a soap opera, then you have October Road pegged.