Housewives love 'Housewives'
"Stepford" women, get out of town. These feisty,
spirited and desperate women have moved in and taken over.
By ERIN CRAWFORD
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
November 9, 2004
'Desperate Housewives," a hot new ABC series about four
gorgeous neighbors up to their strapped chemises in soapy problems,
isn't reality TV, but Iowa housewives say it's more than a little real.
Millions of viewers have turned the black comedy/drama into the
top-ranked new show of the season, revealing the seedy side of
stay-at-home. For anyone who has ever wondered, "How hard
could tending to the home front be?" the show has answers
aplenty: Marriages on the brink of breaking, resentful teenage
children, unruly small children, suspicious suicides, blackmail
and a gardener resentful of his role as a casual sexual plaything.
The show's sometimes violent and frequently sexual content has
attracted the eye of the American Family Association, a "ministry
devoted to the preservation of traditional family values,"
which has organized an Internet campaign against the program.
Three major advertisers dropped their support of the show after
its first episode.
But the show's high Nielsen ratings have kept it from being
threatened by such protests. Advertising Age reported ad prices
are up for the show, and the show reportedly has a waiting list.
Some women seem hesitant to admit they watch the show, due to
its sexy and darkly comic content. But then, having to force
the kids out of the room before the show starts is probably
half of the appeal.
"When that show comes on, Mommy's locking the bedroom door
and you can't come in," said Tracy Edwards, a West Des Moines mother.
In the first episode, seemingly perfect Mary Alice Young
(Brenda Strong) killed herself, and her neighborhood friends
found a note addressed to her reading, "I know what you
did. It makes me sick. I'm going to tell."
The show's real drama are the four women, each in the midst of
melodrama. Fans can relate to their situations, be it parenting
troubles or marital problems, including:
Mothers find it hard not to see a little of themselves in Lynette's
harried mother. Viewers who feel helpless against the Martha-zation
of the home front feel for Bree. A few even wonder if they couldn't
find room in their household budget for a gardener.
Lisa Corwin, 39, of Clive wouldn't use the words "housewife"
or "desperate" to describe herself, but she appreciates
the show's mystery and comedy.
"The first episode was hysterical, when the kids went into the
pool at a funeral," she said. "People think your day runs
really smoothly when you're a stay-at-home mom, and stuff like that
happens."
The housewives on the show are desperate, but never boring - exactly
the opposite of real life, according to most viewers. Most fans
of the show probably don't have murder mysteries to solve, a
gardener who looks like a male model or a closet full of designer clothing.
Corwin called the show an escape from reality, rather than a taste of it.
"It's fiction and it's fun," said Edwards, part of a
church group of mothers, Moms and Moppets, at Plymouth
Congregational United Church of Christ in Des Moines. Many of
the women in the group are fans of "Housewives."
Edwards, who has four girls between the ages of 21/2 and 9, is
"hooked," as much by the show's dark central mystery,
concerning a toy box full of human remains, as by the adult
drama. She compares it to "Twin Peaks," David Lynch's
out-there TV series from 1990.
"Most of it is really far-fetched," she said.
"They all dress way too nice. Maybe in different areas
that might be true, but in my group of friends that are housewives,
we don't look like that."
Watching the show, Susan's mishaps make her laugh, but Lynette's
struggles with kids and Bree's push to present a perfect home ring true.
"There are times when you feel like your whole identity
is wrapped up in being a mom," she said. "How your
house looks, how your kids behave.
"That's what's frustrating. When you have a career, you
have a separate identity. But when your job is your home . . .
you never leave your workplace."
Waukee mother of three Jennifer Caim-Lovell, 33, sees a bit of
herself in perfectionist Bree.
"Wanting everything to be in its place, to have a perfect
lunch for the kids," she said.
Caim-Lovell said Gabrielle's situation with the gardener makes
for a great fantasy. "That gives you that feeling you had
when you first met your husband, to have that sort of
attention," she said.
Network executives seem to be paying attention to moms, too.
"Wife Swap" on ABC and "Trading Spouses"
on Fox ask two moms to trade lives. "Nanny 911" on
Fox imports a British nanny to get a family's children in
ship-shape condition.
Judging by how quickly "Desperate Housewives" has
shot to the top of the ratings, there's plenty of interest.
But as Michele Mohler, 32, could tell you, it's hard to keep
up. She's been meaning to watch "Desperate Housewives"
after seeing it featured on "Oprah" and keeps missing
it. It's hard to schedule TV time with three kids, ages 13, 8
and a few weeks.
Mohler is trying out a temporary arrangement as a stay-at-home
mom for the first time.
"Now that I'm home, all the laundry and cleaning, you have
more time to think about it," said the Ankeny mother.
"You lose who you are."
On the upside: "Usually you're so busy, you don't have
time to think about it," she said.
Still, it seems like everybody has time for an hour of TV about it.
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