ABC Fields Weird, Winning Drama
By Ed Bark
The Dallas Morning News
September 30, 2004
It's fitting, although maybe vexing to ABC, that its "Desperate
Housewives" series premieres Sunday night opposite the CBS movie
"Suburban Madness."
The latter easily could be the title of the former, set in an outwardly
becalmed 'burb teeming with festering spouses. One of them, Mary Alice
Young (Brenda Strong), begins the hour with a brief discourse on
"quietly polishing the routine of my life until it gleamed with
perfection."
Then she polishes herself off with a pistol shot to the head.
The actress originally cast for the role, Sheryl Lee, had played corpse
Laura Palmer on ABC's "Twin Peaks." It could have made for a
nice bit of symmetry on a series with an off-center, "Twin Peaks"
tilt to it. But the producers, in consultation with new entertainment
President Stephen McPherson, decided the show's posthumous narrator should
be lighter and "less ethereal," both off-camera and in flashback
scenes.
Producer-creator Marc Cherry added another dollop of Hollywood-speak in
a recent interview with TV critics.
"Sheryl Lee is a lovely, lovely human being," he said. "And
I felt personally just sick about the thought that we had to go this other
way. You have to do what's right for the show, but it upset me. We're
definitely going to try to get her back in some really juicy guest spot."
Frankly, there's little if any difference between the original pilot and
the new one, with Strong supplanting Lee. "Desperate Housewives"
remains delicious and appreciably more nutritious than your basic broadly
drawn prime-time serial drama. Beyond the obvious question - Why did Mary
Alice kill herself? - lurk multiple subplots driven by her four disparate
friends and other intriguing inhabitants of prettified Wisteria Lane.
Teri Hatcher ("Lois & Clark") returns to series TV as divorcee
Susan Mayer, whose spark plug teen daughter, Julie (Andrea Bowen), wants to
see Mom with a man again.
"I have a clog," she finally tells hunky plumber Mike Delfino (James
Denton), a newcomer who looks to be something else entirely.
Felicity Huffman ("Sports Night") plays beaten-down Lynette Scavo,
a former career woman now saddled with three unruly young sons and an infant
in a stroller.
Bree Van De Kamp (Marcia Cross) is a rigid send-up of Martha Stewart whose
husband, Rex (Steven Culp), comes unhinged while the family slums it at the
Saddle House family restaurant.
"I just can't live in this detergent commercial any more," he says.
Ex-model Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria) is living the pampered existence she's
always craved. But rich spouse Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) is demeaning
and demanding, sending Gabrielle into the arms of their 17-year-old gardener.
Meanwhile, why is the late Mary Alice's widower digging a hole in the newly
drained pool?
Sunday's one-hour premiere niftily sets all these subplots in motion, leaving
viewers with a spicy assortment of menu options. Huffman and Hatcher lead the
way, giving "Desperate Housewives" a sturdy foundation with lots of
built-in cracks. Welcome to the neighborhood - and the season's brightest,
darkest new drama.
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