Desperate Housewives: Season 1
A prime time soap with a truly contemporary take on "happily every after," Desperate Housewives takes a darkly comedic look at suburbia, where the secret lives of housewives aren't always what they seem. Looking down on her friends and family isn't a way of life for Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong)... it's a way of death. One day, in her perfect house, in the loveliest of suburbs, Mary Alice ended it all. Now she's taking us into the lives of her family, friends and neighbors, commenting from her elevated P.O.V.
Member Reviews
A fantastic series - dctor
Always wondered why everyone was raving about Desparate Housewives. Rented it with no grand expectations and then could not stop watching. Season one is addictive, engaging and totally outrageous. The writing is quite clever, the writing team's creativity and wit is endless.Desperate Housewives Season One - CrazyCatLady
Meet the ladies of Wisteria Lane: pampered former model, Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria); stressed out workaholic mom-of-four, Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman); obsessive-compulsive "domestic goddess," Bree Van DeKamp (Marcia Cross); and, clutsy children's book illustrator, Susan Meyer (Terri Hatcher).
With the tag line, "Everyone has some dirty laundry", it's part soap opera, part comedy. You will find yourself hooked as you get drawn into these ladies' lives and loves.High-Quality Soap - Angora
This is by far, to date, the best season of Desperate Housewives, which is to say that, while it's not very good, at least most of it makes sense.
This show's stock and trade is in being ham-fisted, from ultra annoying narrator Mary Alice, to the pointless repetition of information across multiple episodes, to having the "bad" characters explain their evil schemes, in detail, out loud. The worst part, though, is that the mystery story (which is ostensibly what the show is based around) is resolved in the final episode by means of a flashback that summarises information viewers will have gleaned several episodes beforehand. There is no extra twist, unless the twist is that they don't trust us to put two and two together on our own.
The strongest side-story of the season is probably the slow dissolution of the Van de Kamp marriage, although it would have more power if they didn’t overdo it by using every single instance of conflict as a way to pointedly show how Bree Van de Kamp (surprise!) actually has feelings, even though she hides them. The other story arcs (Susan’s romance with neighbour Mike Delfino, Gabrielle's infidelity, and Lynette's ongoing struggle with motherhood) are still mostly amusing at this stage, and occasionally poignant.
If you've somehow managed not to watch Desperate Housewives up until now, and want to know what the fuss is about, the first season is relatively painless to watch, and will give you an idea of what the show was like in its heyday, during which time it was, again, still not very good, but better than a regular soap opera.
Member Reviews
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A fantastic series - dctor
Always wondered why everyone was raving about Desparate Housewives. Rented it with no grand expectations and then could not stop watching. Season one is addictive, engaging and totally outrageous. The writing is quite clever, the writing team's creativity ...Desperate Housewives Season One - CrazyCatLady
Meet the ladies of Wisteria Lane: pampered former model, Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria); stressed out workaholic mom-of-four, Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman); obsessive-compulsive "domestic goddess," Bree Van DeKamp (Marcia Cross); and, clutsy children's ...High-Quality Soap - Angora
This is by far, to date, the best season of Desperate Housewives, which is to say that, while it's not very good, at least most of it makes sense.
This show's stock and trade is in being ham-fisted, from ultra annoying narrator Mary Alice, to the pointless ...