Feeding the chick-hit habit
By Annette John-Hall
Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted on Sat, Oct. 16, 2004
"Desperate Housewives," TV's suburban answer to
"Sex and the City," serves up an addicting formula.
But don't get hooked too hastily.
We're getting a little too needy when it comes to Desperate
Housewives.
Seduced by this new show featuring saucy women wearing couture
and serving pie, we're acting like jilted lovers on the rebound.
Sex and the City abandoned us. Friends faded away. Soul Food
said, "See ya." So after Sarah Jessica Parker cast
us aside as if we were low-slung jeans in a pencil-skirt season,
we latched onto the next thing that seemed to understand what
women really want - and that is happiness via sex, clothes,
money, men and chocolate.
There are plenty of us, for sure. The new ABC series made its
9 p.m. Sunday debut at No. 1 in the ratings, drawing 22 million
viewers. This past Sunday, the second episode attracted 20.8 million,
good for fourth place.
It's already on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. Oprah chatted
up the cast yesterday.
But let's not get carried away. Before we start cult-posting on
Desperate Housewives message boards or hosting Desperate Housewives
housewares parties or citing Desperate Housewives as a cultural
reference, remember that we've seen only two episodes.
The girl-world attraction is understandable, of course. For most
of us, it's a guilty pleasure. We could be watching the History
Channel, but how can we resist a dark and funny show that drips
soap while it wallows in dirty laundry?
And even though the characters are over the top, we can relate.
Felicity Huffman (Sports Night) plays Lynette, a harassed mother
of four who goes from boardroom to bored room - also known as
bedroom - where she sucker-punches the friskiness right out of a
husband who dares suggest they "risk" sex without a condom.
Teri Hatcher (Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman) is Susan,
the divorcee who tries to out-duel rival and local hussy Edie (Knots
Landing's Nicollette Sheridan) for the neighborhood bachelor's
attentions - with fiery results.
Eva Longoria plays Gabrielle, a hottie ex-model who gets back at
her rich, cold husband by allowing the 17-year-old gardener to
"fertilize" her "harvest."
Marcia Cross (Melrose Place) plays Bree, a ghostly-looking perfectionist
with homicidal tendencies. OK, we can't really relate to attempted
spousal murder, but it makes for great water-cooler conversation.
You just know there's going to be all kinds of tantalizing drama on
Wisteria Lane. Especially since the show started with narrator Mary
Alice (Brenda Strong) whipping up some waffles, picking up the dry
cleaning - and then shooting herself dead. Clues dribble out week
to week.
The well-acted serialworks, so far, because the ironic quirkiness
is balanced by enough real-life minutiae - for anyone who counts
carbs, does Pilates, and carpools the soccer team - to make an hour's
investment a week worthwhile.
In fact, elements of Housewives could easily be worked into spin-offs
of those shows that left us behind.
We can imagine Friends' Monica, Phoebe and Rachel trading in their
lattes for Lexuses in strip-mall paradise. Or Sex's Carrie, Miranda,
Samantha and Charlotte moving from nightclubs to book clubs. Heck,
the Joseph sisters of Showtime's Soul Food were a city version of
the Housewives quintet. Teri, Maxine and Bird may have stood on
firmer moral ground, but they carried just as much baggage.
Unlike Sex and the City and Soul Food, though, Housewives resides
in the land of network TV. These suburban goddesses don't have
raunchy dialogue and steamy visuals to help propel the plot. The
series is puffed up now, but it may be just a matter of time before
the soufflé falls.
So while Desperate Housewives is great for an occasional date, let's
wait till at least Halloween before declaring it our next great love.
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