Timely 'Desperate Housewives' is life after 'Sex and the City'
Friday, October 1, 2004
By MELANIE McFARLAND
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER TELEVISION CRITIC
Everyone, everything, erupts. Mount St. Helens is about to. So,
apparently, are many domestic saints -- mothers, wives, all doing
their level best to keep from blowing their tops. The contortions
one endures to avoid losing it tends to result in some very interesting
tales, some of which we'll see in ABC's "Desperate Housewives."
Premiering at 9 p.m. Sunday on KOMO/4, this four-star romp
through suburban paradise is filled with mothers, fathers, wives
and husbands going to campy, fantastic lengths to stave off despair.
Serving up the kind of dialogue that leads to tears and cackles, it
may be the most joyfully scathing look at stifled lives network TV
has ever seen.
The arrival of this knockout cocktail of soap suds, comedy,
tragedy and mystery is quite timely as well. Many of us have
finished recovering from the afterglow of HBO's "Sex and the City"
and are hankering for something new.
"Desperate Housewives" has the same saucy bongos in the soundtrack
while presenting a very different kind of satisfaction than "Sex's"
boutique and boudoir escapades. Where "SATC" was a constant quest for
its characters' concepts of love and happiness, "Desperate Housewives"
demonstrates what happens once you find them and, alas, still aren't
satisfied.
Because sometimes marriage, motherhood, green lawns and white picket
fences aren't always the rewarding package society's dressed it up to
be. Sometimes, even in the best marriages, you just want to slug your
partner.
Sometimes you'll do anything -- mow the lawn at night in a designer
gown, stuff your child's school projects down the sink -- to cling to
any hope that'll keep you from wanting to blow your brains out.
This, and much more, plays out on Wisteria Lane, situated in the
Everytown at the crossroads of David
Lynch's and John Waters' sensibilities.
Weird, to think "Desperate Housewives" sprang from a mother's
love -- specifically, the mother of creator Marc Cherry, formerly
a producer on "The Golden Girls." As he explained to critics in July,
Cherry believed all that woman aspired to be was the perfect wife and
mother. Meanwhile, his mother was having "mini-breakdowns" throughout
his childhood. "It occurred to me, well, gosh, if my mom has these
moments, every woman has had a moment where she's close to losing it."
So Cherry gives us five ways to break down.There's the ice queen
route; the haggard way of the baby machine; you could become marital
road kill; a princess in a gilded cage; or a ghost, all realized by
what may be the best ensemble of seasoned actresses on television.
Not only does Cherry write great lines for each, he also grants
everyone her own scene-stealing sequence.
Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher), whose husband ditched her for his
secretary, is most likely to earn the love of our divorced legions.
Single, attractive and close to her precocious teenage daughter, Julie
(Andrea Bowen), she revives when Mike Delfino (James Denton), a single
plumber, moves in across the way. First she has to beat back the
resident strumpet, Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan).
Not far from Susan, Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman), once a
businesswoman on the climb, is struggling to keep motherhood from
swallowing her whole. Lynette exists on the dark side of maternity,
saddled with four screaming demons while her husband Tom (Doug Savant)
jets around on business trips. The scene in which Lynette drags her
spawn out of a pool in full funeral formals may end up being the most
memorable of the season, although Gabrielle Solis' (Eva Longoria)
midnight lawn maintenance runs a close second.
A supermodel yanked from the catwalk by a rich businessman,
Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira), who treats her like a possession,
Gabrielle beds the boy-toy gardener to get her kicks. Meanwhile,
Bree Van de Kamp (Marcia Cross) maintains by becoming Martha Stewart
with a Stepford upgrade, an impression Cross -- last seen as a
stalker on "Melrose Place" -- plays to the hilt.
Gone, but flitting close enough to narrate, is Mary Alice
(Brenda Strong), the smiling matron who, in the opening moments
of the premiere, puts a revolver to her head and pulls the trigger.
No one knows why. But it has something to do with a buried and
tiled-over secret -- one mystery threading the series together.
Outstanding as "Desperate Housewives" looks, it's dangerously
heavy on the estrogen, which may drive away most guys on the couch.
Gynocentric though it is, hints are dropped in the pilot that the
men on Wisteria Lane have a few tricks of their own to be revealed.
Having said that, look for the "Housewives" husbands to play a
larger role in these desperate lives, while allowing the women to
run the show. You know, kind of like your run-of-the-mill marriage.
Now the question becomes whether ABC will commit to "Desperate
Housewives" even if the ratings don't match the sky-high critical
plaudits. It needs enough time for the potentially addictive
tawdry stories to develop.
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