Desperate Housewives (ABC)Starring: Marcia Cross, Eva Longoria, Felicity Huffman, Teri Hatcher, Dana Delaney, Kathryn Joosten, Drea DeMatteo, Kyle MacLachlan, Ricardo Chavira, Doug Savant, James Denton, Richard Burgi, Kevin Rahm, Tuc Watkins, Jeffrey Nordling, Beau Mirchoff
Ah Desperate Housewives. Even though at the end of last years season finale I vowed that I was done with this show, I still find the ladies of Wisteria Lane irresistible. Of all the shows I watch I consider this my guiltiest of guilty pleasures.
Last season was without a doubt the worst season so far. It started off well with the series jumping ahead five years into the future. Gaby was a harried housewife with two young daughters and a blind husband, Susan and Mike had gotten a divorce due to an auto accident they were involved in, Bree and Katherine's catering business had taken off, resulting in Bree becoming a Martha Stewart-like celebrity, Orson had gone to prison for three years due to his attempted murder of Mike at the end of Season 2, and Lynette and Tom now had three teenagers to deal with, as well as a struggling pizza restaurant.
Edie, who had left the neighborhood five years ago after getting on the wrong side of the other women, returned, now married to the creepy Dave Williams. As is tradition with this show, Dave had a secret agenda for wanting to move to Wisteria Lane. It turned out that he had lost his wife and daughter in the accident Mike and Susan were in during the five year gap, and he wanted to hurt them both by killing their young son MJ. Unlike past mysteries on this show, his secret was predictable from the very first episode, and his storyline was dragged out for the entire season.
This season picked up by answering the cliffhanger question from last year: Who did Mike marry? Susan or Katherine? The answer, although incredibly predictable, is Susan. But this is a good thing because it allows Katherine to drop the needy nice girl act and return to her Season Four roots as the manipulative bitch I loved so much.
We also have new neighbors. New Yorkers Nick and Anglie Bolen move into Mary Alice's old house with their college aged son Danny. Danny quickly gets involved with Susan's daughter Julie, and Karen witnesses them fighting one evening. When Julie is strangled and left in a coma by a mysterious assailant, the neighborhood is thrown into an uproar. Hopefully the mystery as to who attacked Julie will be better than last years lame mystery. There are already several suspects, and I have a feeling there will be several twists along the way until we find out who attacked her, and why. Are the mysterious new neighbors involved? Maybe, maybe not.
Other things happening on the street include Bree having a secret affair with Karl, Susan's ex-husband, Katherine slowly losing her grip on reality as she tries to sabotage Mike and Susan's relationship, Lynette and Tom expecting twins, and Gaby and Carlos dealing with his live-in troublemaking niece Ana.
Last season I was worried that when Edie was electrocuted by some downed power lines that the show wouldn't be the same without her. So far I haven't even noticed her absence. There are enough characters in this large cast to keep things interesting.
So far, this season, now three episodes in, is much better than last year. All the characters are getting decent amounts of screen-time, the storylines are all entertaining, and the mystery is so far so good. Hopefully it doesn't run out of creative steam by the halfway mark like it did in Seasons 2, 3 and 5. But even if it does I'll keep watching.
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