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| The show basically asks "how much do you really want to know about your neighbors?" The problem is that, as Susan Mayer says, "Sometimes people pretend to be one way on the outside when they are totally different on the inside." That's something true of everyone on the show. |
(2004) Television Review
by MAURICE BROADDUS |
| This
page was created on October 11, 2004
This page was last updated on
October 11, 2005
—Overview
—Photos
—About this Series
—Spiritual Connections
—Blog
Maurice here
—Blog
Melinda here
|
|
| CREDITS |
| Cast:
Teri Hatcher .... Susan Mayer
Felicity Huffman .... Lynette Scavo
Marcia Cross .... Bree Van De Kamp
Eva Longoria .... Gabrielle Solis
Nicolette Sheridan .... Edie Britt
Jamie Denton .... Mike Defino
Steven Culp .... Rex Van De Kamp
Ricardo Chavira .... Carlos Solis
Mark Moses .... Paul Young
Andrea Bowen .... Jenna Mayer
Cody Kasch .... Zack Young
Jesse Metcalfe .... John
Brenda Strong .... Mary Alice Young
Runtime: 60 min (including commercials) / USA:45 min |
| POSTER |
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| AVAILABILITY
ON VIDEO AND DVD |
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|
| SYNOPSIS
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| A
primetime soap with a truly contemporary take on "happily every
after," this new hour- long drama takes a darkly comedic look
at suburbia, where the secret lives of housewives aren't always what
they seem.
Looking
down on her friends and family isn't a way of life for Mary Alice
Young (Brenda Strong) … it's a way of death. One day, in her
perfect house, in the loveliest of suburbs, Mary Alice ended it
all. Now she's taking us into the lives of her family, friends and
neighbors, commenting from her elevated P.O.V.
Her
small circle of girlfriends are wondering why one of their own would
do something so rash… and so messy. There's Susan Mayer (Teri
Hatcher), the divorcee and single mom who will go to extraordinary
lengths for love; Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman), the ex-career
woman who traded the boardroom for boredom, mixed with moments of
sheer panic as the mother of four unmanageable kids; Bree Van De
Kamp (Marcia Cross), the Martha Stewart on steroids, whose family
is about to mutiny; and Gabrielle Solis, the ex-model with everything
she's every wanted – a rich husband, a big house – so
what is she doing with John, the 17-year-old gardener (Jesse Metcalfe)?
And there are her neighbors, including serial divorcee Edie Britt
(Nicollette Sheridan), whose romantic conquests have everyone buzzing.
Then
there are the men: Hunky new neighbor Mike Delfino (James Denton),
a supposedly widowed plumber who has Susan and Edie vying for his
attention; Rex Van De Kamp (Steven Culp), who's just told Bree he
wants a divorce; Gabrielle's better half, Carlos (Ricardo Antonio
Chavira), who figures he bought his wife a $15,000 diamond necklace,
so she should do whatever he tells her; as for Mary Alice's newly-widowed
husband, Paul (Mark Moses), there must be a reason why he's acting
so suspiciously – and why he's digging up the pool in the
middle of the night!
From
her unique vantage point, Mary Alice sees more now than she ever
did alive, and she's planning to share all the delicious secrets
that hide behind every neighbor's closed door in this seemingly
perfect American suburb.
|
 Review by MELINDA LEDMAN BLOG
Desperate Housewives
I
have heard a lot of flack from the Christian community over
this show, and most are appalled at its immoral content:
primarily the endorsement of multiple extra-marital affairs.
But, I have a different viewpoint. Unlike many movies out
there, this show follows the affairs to their true end results!
It doesn't just show an affair and pretend that everyone
lives happily ever after - that some get away with it, that
others get caught, that forgiveness is in the air, tra la
la la la! It deals with the REAL LIFE consequences of betrayal
and the REAL LIFE difficulty of remaining faithful when life
around you seems to be crumbling.
Continued on Melinda's Blog
|
| |
 Review
by MAURICE BROADDUS
Website: www.MauriceBroaddus.com Email: maurice@mauricebroaddus.com
Holds a Bachelor's of Science degree in Biology (with an undeclared major in English) from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. He works as an environmental toxicologist by day and is a horror writer by night. Obviously his areas of interests includes religious studies, folklore, and myths. He is a notorious egotist who, in anticipation of a successful writing career, is practicing speaking of himself in the third person. Oh yeah, he's married to the lovely Sally Jo and has two boys: Maurice Gerald Broaddus II (thus, retroactively declaring himself "Maurice the Great") and Malcolm Xavier Broaddus. |
 "'Most
men lead lives of quiet desperation' ... Really, and what do women
lead? Lives of noisy fulfillment?" Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher) asks.
Such desperation takes many forms and leads down many paths, all
of which are intriguing and riveting.
 Desperate
Housewives is like nothing currently on the air right now,
so how do I offer another show for comparison? Part (murder?) mystery,
part soap opera, and part dark comedy, I imagine that the pitch
meeting for it went something like "think Twin Peaks
meets The Stepford Wives
meets Melrose Place, with the dark humor of Heathers."
That may be a little too much, but you get the idea. ABC, network
television, is taking a chance with a different type of show that's
both smart and deals with adult themes.
 The
show basically asks "how much do you really want to know about your
neighbors?" The problem is that, as Susan Mayer
says, "Sometimes people pretend to be one way on the outside when
they are totally different on the inside." That's something true
of everyone on the show. The denizens of Wisteria Lane are an interesting
and varied (though not all that varied) lot.
 Mary
Alice Young (Brenda Strong), our narrator, spent her day as she
did every day, "quietly polishing the routine of my life until it
gleamed to perfection." That is, until she killed herself before
the first commercial break. Don't worry, though. She leaves behind
a husband, a son, and a family secret. Plus, she continues as the
narrator for the show. Susan Mayer, recent divorcee, enjoys a Gilmore
Girls-type relationship with the daughter she has custody of while
pursuing romantic possibilities. Lynette Scavo (the long-underappreciated
Felicity Huffman) plays an uber-mom who
sacrifices her fast track career for the sake of being a stay-at-home
mom. The cheating Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria) is a model who
"enjoys" more of a business relationship with her husband than a
marriage. Bree Van De Kamp (Macia Cross), a "plastic suburban housewife"
does everything that people think a perfect wife and mother should
do, except connect with her husband and kids.
Everyone has things going on beneath
their perfect surfaces. In a lot of ways, in all
the ways we've come to identify success, these women have everything
anyone could ever want. And yet, there is still something missing,
so every day is a (desperate) search to connect, to find something
meaningful in their lives. When asked "Don't you just love being
a mom?" Lynette Scavo reminds herself, and us, that "for the person
who asked it, only one answer was acceptable." So she lies. Life
is full of such encounters. We struggle with our longing to be genuine
versus our need to present ourselves as having things together.
In other words, we often sacrifice the realness of our relationships
in order to cultivate the surface ones we've come to depend on.
There is a constant longing to share, but the need to maintain their
image usually wins out.
"We all have moments of desperation,"
Mary Alice Young narrates. Desperation points to a hole within us,
a hole we want to fill by any means necessary. Stephen King once
wrote a book titled Desperation whose
main theme was that if you weren't in a state of faith, you were
in a state of desperation. It all boils down to the conversation
that Gabrielle has with her gardener-turned-lover (who, as she says,
is "far too young to smoke"). When asked why she married her husband,
she answers "Because he promised to give me everything I ever wanted."
Since the husband, in fact, gave her all of those things, yet this
gardner still finds himself in bed with her, he logically asks "Then
why aren't you happy?" She tells him that it "turns out that I wanted
all the wrong things."
The drama shows remarkable promise,
and like its characters, there is a lot going on.
So much that it may be difficult to sustain (and they may wish to
learn from the mistake that Twin Peaks
made and not try to keep the show going once the mysteries have
been solved). Deliciously funny and engaging, this is definitely
one of the bright spots of the new television season.
—Blog
Maurice here |
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| COMMENT
ON THIS FILM |
| —Blog
Maurice here
Your
Private Comments.
I will not post these comments.
What are your personal thoughts? I also welcome your spiritual
concerns and prayer needs. I will correspond with you, usually
within two weeks.
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