|
Home | Show Index | Blog | Movie Reviews | Site Updates | About Me | |||
 |
||||
|
 |
Desperate Housewives: a surprise hit with substance by Billie Doux [Originally published on N:Zone in 2004] "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." -- Henry David Thoreau. "Susan had met the enemy. And she was a slut." -- Desperate Housewives. I don't watch mainstream dramas, truly I don't. (Well, okay, "ER," but that's it.) I'm a sci-fi baby and a Buffy-holic, brought up on "Star Trek" and "Quantum Leap." Give me some spaceships or vampires, and hey, I'm there. But there's something about "Desperate Housewives" that speaks to me. I never miss it, and I can't stop myself from getting philosophical about the damned show. How's this for literary allusion: "Desperate Housewives" actually reminds me of what I liked best about the novels of Jane Austen. Now, wait. Stop laughing, and hear me out. Austen wrote beautifully about the limitations and frustrations that are a big part of the lives of ordinary women -- essentially about lives led in quiet desperation -- but she never whacked us over the head with her message. And that's the essence of life on Wisteria Lane. Yes, "Desperate Housewives" has a tasty chocolate coating of comedy and sex, but there's so much going on under the surface. The narrator of the show, Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong), committed suicide in the premiere. She is watching what is happening to her friends on Wisteria Lane, presumably from the afterlife. She appears to be more concerned about her female friends than her extremely strange husband and son, who may have been the cause of her death. Mary Alice's suffering is never mentioned, but it is definitely subtext. Her death is the primary mystery of the show. Susan (Teri Hatcher), our least conflicted character, has a successful career and a good relationship with her daughter -- but her defining characteristic is that she's a divorcee worried that she'll never find love again. She's a sweet klutz who often provides comic relief, but if you look carefully at the situations that make us laugh (being stranded in a dangerous part of town, getting locked out of her house naked, being thrown from a mechanical bull), they are all about her vulnerability. Susan is always waiting to get knocked down again, because she knows she will be. Lynette (Felicity Huffman) gave up a successful career to raise her four young, unruly children. Despite the fact that her marriage is probably the best on the show and her husband appears to truly love her, she is desperately unhappy and frantic to find an escape from a traditional woman's role that she sees as a prison. The parts of the show that feature Lynette are often the funniest, but I also find them painful. When you come right down to it, there's nothing funny about her frustration and exhaustion, just as there is really nothing funny about Susan's vulnerability. Gaby (Eva Longoria), my least favorite character, is a beautiful young trophy wife who cloaks her unhappiness by having a reckless affair with a high school boy. She doesn't address her problems, and she doesn't acknowledge that her traditional-type husband is the kind who might address her infidelity with violence. Gaby is a train wreck waiting to happen, and she is doing it to herself. It's hard to tell what's going on with her, because she is all surface. So far, anyway. Bree (Marcia Cross) has become my favorite character. I originally saw her as a Stepford wife on speed; I didn't understand her abrasive attitude, her need for cleanliness, her extreme manipulation of the husband and kids, her stubborn refusal to acknowledge that her perfect marriage was breaking up even while her beleaguered husband Rex was moving out of the house. Two episodes ago, we found out the reason for her neuroses: when she was a child, Bree's mother was hit by a car and killed in front of their house. While everyone was at the hospital, Bree went outside and washed the blood off the street. Keeping things clean and making the surface appear bright is the only defense Bree has against the pain that threatens to overwhelm her. These main characters, all women, are the glue that holds "Desperate Housewives" together, but the supporting characters are also good. I don't care for Edie (Nicollette Sheridan), who is a walking cliche, but I like the mysterious Mike (James Denton), who seems to be investigating Mary Alice's death (but why, and for whom?), and Lynette's husband, who truly cares for her and their children and occasionally seems to know what's really going on with Lynette. And then there are gems like Mrs. Huber, who dragged a collapsed jogger from her own lawn over to Bree's in order to ruin Bree's hydrangeas. You gotta love it. "Desperate Housewives" is unique, and very funny. The writing is superb. It's well worth the hype, and I can only hope that it'll maintain its unique pastiche of black comedy and sexy repartee for many seasons to come. |
 |
|
Home | Show Index | Blog | Movie Reviews | Site Updates | About Me