Desperate Housewives

First of all I can't understand these negative reviews! There were lots of character and plot development for each character. There were also lots of great emotional moments and the episode is filled with great humour. I laughed so hard at many parts! My favorite scene was with Gaby and Carlos and Tom and Lynette. Carlos bought a plasma TV for them because Lynette saved Celia's life. I think that scene shows that their frienship is unbreakable. The funniest scene was at the private school with the Solis family. I laughed so hard at that scene! Without giving away all the storylines, I end my review here. An absolutely entertaining episode with great moments.

I can't believe the way they're behaving. Gaby's making a big deal out of a comment. Lynette's upset that Tom's taken her job. Has she forgotten that last week neither of them had a job. Bree takes Orson in. I think she should cut all ties with him. She should pay for his care and rehab. And Susan, she's a major control freak. That's how she's with Julie and look at what happened-- she's been getting involved with older men. She must have been scarred by her father's absence. And now she was nearly killed. And she's telling Mike that he can't work at the club. She should now that Mike would never do anything. And mike has done so much for her like taking the rap for her when she killed Dave's family. She should be more tolerant.

Felicity Huffman, where would Desperate Housewives be without you? Up poop creek without a paddle, that's where. While we find ourselves hopping onboard the endless Scavo merry-go-round of job acquisition for the seventeen millionth time, as Tom decides that he knows what's best for Lynette and informs Carlos that she won't be returning to work when the baby is born, Huffman rescues the whole thing from being another dead-end, eye-rolling rehash by delivering a star turn when Lynette breaks down and confesses her true feelings about the loss of her other child to her husband. It's a beautifully harrowing sequence, full of heartbreakingly believable emotion. It's a shame that Teri Hatcher can't muster up a similar range in order to salvage her car crash of a B-story, which is predicated, yet again, on her penchant for over-reaction. Sure, the idea that she now owns a strip club is enough to raise at least a smirk, but the direction that the writers choose to take the story in is probably the most Housewives achingly obvious anyone could dream of. And that pay-off... if any single member of the viewing audience actually buys into that, I'll eat my hat. Actually, scratch that, I'll eat my entire wardrobe. "Yeah, I know, Susan'll show Mike how upset she is by working the pole herself! Yeah, that'll raise a titter... and get the dads shifting uncomfortably in their seats too! PHWOOOOOARRR!" Euck. There's nothing like sacrificing believability for a few cheap thrills, is there?



Elsewhere, the writers take the Orson/Bree dynamic down the road most expected, but at least Cross and MacLachlan have enough chemistry to keep the thing afloat and allow the audience to actually invest in their relationship. Let's hope things don't miraculously improve for them in the space of a few episodes. Gabrielle and Carlos actually get something remotely interesting to do as someone finally realises the potential inherent in having, you know, some diverse ethnic representation on the Lane. Well hell, at least it isn't just Gabrielle being selfish for once. And then there's Ana's quest to 'land' Danny, a storyline that is made all the more depressing by the fact that it only seems to take a mild change in tone to turn him round to her feminine wiles, despite showing absolutely no prior interest. Oh well, young love is fickle I suppose. But does anyone actually care about these two? They're so underused and underdeveloped that it's hard to muster up a shred of interest in their burgeoning romance. Especially when it comes at the expense of, you know, actual plot progression on that most important of points that is being squarely ignored: who the hell strangled Julie Mayer? 'You Gotta Get A Gimmick' is a bit of a nowhere episode, nudging a handful of narratives forward but couching the rest in fairly meaningless fluff (Susan/Mike, I'm looking at you). And where was Shawn Pyfrom, huh? He's in the 'guest starring' credits but unless I blinked and missed it, nowhere to be found onscreen! Now THAT would've improved things somewhat...

I thought this weeks episode was really comical. My favourite moments:



Karen: Want to know who I fantasise about?

Gaby: No, not necessarily.

Karen: Tom Scavo

Susan: Wine. Now!



Gaby: Looks as though we're going to have to spell this out for you. You do know you're a girl, right?



Gaby: Well you're a self-WIPING Mexican.



Although there were a lot of comical moments, there were some nice meanings underneath, with Gaby's family history.



Although Eva provided a lot of the laughs, the genius acting of Felicity Huffman really shined through again with her scene with Tom in the kitchen discussing the loss of their baby. Quite touching.



The only thing I'm not really a fan of is Orson taking advantage of Bree's wishes to repent for her sin. After seeing the pictures of those two in last weeks episode I was starting to wish they'd be back to how they used to be. I suppose Orson's behaviour is understandable, but I prefer Orson's nicer side because I don't love to hate him.



And Susan on the pole? Wow..

This episode didn't offer very little in the form of storyline advancement, other than an interesting development in the Bree/Orson relationship, but it was still quite funny, something the show has been doing consistently since 2004. Even without a major thing happening tonight (I can't believe they're still doing this whole Juanita private school/home school thing) I found myself thoroughly pleased with the effort brought forward by everyone.



The cast is really enjoyable right now and I think the people who said this should be lacking without Edie are eating crow right now as I hardly miss her. The only ones I don't particularly care for are Angie and Dominic and thankfully they did not appear here.



Good episode tonight, on a night where there was very little opposition from other networks.

I thought there were a few specific things in this week's episode of Housewives that really worked well. I only wish we could have expanded on a few things more.



I'll start with Susan's moderately amusing storyline. It got off to a flat start when she attended a meeting with Karl's other beneficiaries as his lawyer informed friends and family of what was left from his will. Susan's inattentiveness and disinterest wasn't cute so much as annoying; as sleazy as Karl was, you still gotta show some class, woman! But things took a turn for the funny when it turned out Karl left half ownership of his strip club to Susan!

I think this idea can lead to some really great little stories, but I doubt it will go past what we got tonight; Sue found out Mike has been there and totally flips out about it. He's a red-blooded American male is he not? After a spat about forbidding him to go, Susan gets her point across with an outrageous strip-tease of her own on the stage. Being the red-blooded American male that I am, I can say that even though the plot was less than engaging, this scene was my favorite part of the episode. Teri Hatcher is a beautiful woman, so I thank the writers for this treat!



Bree continues to get lackluster material this year. Many are disappointed that Orson is the one who survived. I applauded the choice and saw the potential for where they could continue to go with the troubled couple. I'm not sure I can fully say they are going there yet, but a few steps are in the right direction. Bree, feeling guilty about all the recent events, gets advice from her pastor about tending to Orson. Orson has every right to be as cold and mad at Bree as he wants, but ultimately he still ended up in her care. His realization that he should sympathize with her side of the situation, I think only made Bree look worse. She's not guilty because she's sorry, she's just concerned she won't get into Heaven now. Wow. Are they trying to make her the least likable housewife on the show? To see that Orson will begin to take advantage of the situation garners no sympathy for Bree from me at all. Housewives 90210 moved along as well. Julie and Danny went to see that other kid friend of theirs do bad stand-up comedy and Ana (where have you been?) finally got to connect with Danny. It was an awkward transition from her saying something b*tchy to him liking that side of her. Sorry if I didn't care about any of this.



Gabrielle and Carlos were trying to get Juanita back into a fancy prep school. "I'm Mexican?" This kid has been terrific! Most of this plot was played with great comedic timing and beats; the best being the scene where the Solises wonder why their daughter would think she was white, and we get a great pan shot of their 'perfect' all-white neighborhood! I can't believe the writers went there, but I loved it. Eva Longoria-Parker continues to be fantastic with all of this. From her excitement about never needing to home-school anymore to her tender scenes about her own poor upbringings, I really thought all of this material (a lot of it very sensitive) was extremely well handled. I'm awarding this as Story of the Evening.



The Solices also got the Scavos a 62" HDTV as a 'thank you' gift and Lynette was allowed time off for the pregnancy. Tom took over her work (remember he can do this stuff too) and was actually damn good at it. Lynn worried about her job security, but the crux of the issue was that she and Tom just have not talked about the death of that unborn twin. These two share a great argument and in an odd decision from the writers, the dilemma doesn't resolve itself. Most plots carry on in several episode arcs, but within the show, all stories normally have some closure (or build to a cliffhanger). To leave this one unfinished made the episode feel incomplete to me in a weird way.



Overall, though, this week was a vast improvement over last weeks meaningless "what if" dreams. We got Susan stripping, a commentary on self-race-hating, and McClusky fantasizing about Tom. Not a bad outing, I'd say

As good as this episode was, it felt really different. It really felt like Season 1 and the lighting was very bright! The camera angles though and stuff felt really strange - they were really close to the character's faces! As much as I liked this episode, I found it hard to sit through the Ana/Julie/Danny teenager crap. I'm glad Ana is getting more screentime but I wish they would adapt more to her rebellion instead of her stupid teenage love games with Danny. Lynette's storyline wasn't that good but her scene with Tom towards the end was amazing. Once again her acting doesn't fail. Bravo!

Gabrielle's storyline was very good. I think this is the first time race has ever been used as a storyline for the show. I'm glad that they had many times where the neighbors clashed in the storylines - that made it feel quite realistic! Bree/McCluskey, and I really liked that scene on Gabrielle's porch..so funny! The beginning with Susan in that office was hilarious! The strip club scenes were probably the funniest of the night, too, and the ending when Susan threw the bra on Mike with his cute childish grin!