 Desperate
Housewives Season
Three
Our rating: 2 out of 5
Rated: PG13
reviewed by: Charity
Bishop
It seems like I swear off this show and inevitably wind up returning to it,
because despite its complete lack of decent morals or anything remotely
resembling family values, it is also one of the best-written, most intelligent
dramas on television. I know it's nothing more than rubbish, but I cannot seem
to stop watching it.
The women of Wisteria Lane
have their secrets... and their doubts. After the brutal hit and run
that left Mike Delfino (James Denton) in a coma, his girlfriend Susan
(Teri Hatcher) is waiting and hoping that he will wake up. But her daily
visits to the hospital have introduced her to Ian (Dougray Scott), whose
wife lies comatose in a room just down the hall. Something more than
friendship sparks between them, leading Susan to experience feelings of
guilt that seep over into her other relationships. She has become most
concerned with her friend Bree's (Marcia Cross) proposed marriage to
Orson (Kyle MacLachlan), a dentist with a curiously mysterious and
potentially murderous past. It seems that his wife vanished without a
trace, abandoning him and his marriage... or did she? Susan's
determination to save Bree puts a strain between them and inevitably
pulls the rest of their friends into it.
Lynette (Felicity Huffman) is facing potential difficulties as the wife
of a brand new business owner. Her husband Tom (Doug Savant) has become
disillusioned with work, but they cannot afford for him to be a
stay-at-home-dad and so he wants to open up a pizza parlor, a notion
that would put a severe strain on their finances. To top it all off, she
is dealing with the presence of his illegitimate daughter and the
constant harping of the girl's overbearing, obnoxious mother. Then there
is the ugly divorce between Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) and Carlos (Ricardo
Chavira), and the scheming designs of Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan)
to take Mike away from Susan. One thing I will say about Desperate
Housewives
is that it's addictive and has one of the most likable set of
characters on television.
Even
though most of them are stereotyped (Susan the
Klutz, Lynette the Mom, Bree the Conservative, and
Gabrielle the self-centered model) the fact remains
that the audience cares about each and every one of
them. Well, maybe everyone but Edie. That I can
overlook their extremely immoral attitudes and
lifestyles and care about them as characters says a
lot about the strength of the writing -- and did I
mention that every season there are at least three
ongoing plots of a sinister nature? This time around
it's the fact that we know Orson ran over Mike...
which leaves us wondering what he plans on doing to
Bree. There's also a body stowed in a refrigeration
unit somewhere in the neighborhood, and some truly
hysterical quips and scenes . However, and I
must stress that word, the show is nothing more than
a cleverly written soap opera, with a cast of badly
behaving individuals whose morals are almost
nonexistent. Bree and Lynette seem to hold up pretty
good character-wise (although Bree does slip
significantly in one episode, and another has us
wondering if Lynette is going to have an affair) but
Susan is promiscuous (yet strangely, does not want
her daughter having sex, which is a blatant double
standard) and Gabrielle has no problem with sexually
manipulating her husband. There is never anything
excessively graphic, but a lot is implied.
Susan embarks on an adulterous affair with Ian (simply
because his wife is unconscious does not make him single) and as a
byproduct, his stuffy butler gets to see most of her naked body on two
separate occasions. Lynnette engages in some flirting with the new cook
at their pizza parlor, but fortunately backs off before it goes too far.
Bree intends to wait for marriage before sleeping with Orson, but
doesn't quite make it. Gabrielle seduces Carlos hoping to find out where
he has stashed most of his money, but as it turns out he was leading her
on. Edie, fearing she will lose Carlos, convinces him they should have a
baby together (and then deliberately continues taking birth control).
More revolting is when a man's ex wife and his mother collaborate to
drug him so that he cannot resist his ex-wife's sexual advances in order
for her to get pregnant. Bree's son Andrew also infers that he was prone
to giving out sexual favors when living on the street, and his sister
becomes involved with her teacher.
It is surprising that despite the volume of content
that is present over the entire season (even more apparent when it is
watched in a consecutive chunk) the audience comes to feel as though
they know and care about everyone in the neighborhood. Some of the
situations are comical and others are astoundingly honest in dealing
with real life situations. This season has a lot of smut in it, but it
also contains which may be the most important episode in the history of
the show: the emotionally charged "Bang," in which the local store is
held up with a half dozen people inside. The death of someone I hated
brought me to tears for the realization that human life is precious no
matter how horrible someone is, and really expressed well the importance
of family and friendship. I'm just sorry that there are such lax morals
involved.
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