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When "Desperate Housewives" first premiered in early fall of 2004, it was a major and vast hit: It was the number one show of television for the week, and audiences all over were enthralled and taken with the likable characters and equally likable actors who portrayed them. The show then was able to make more appropriate ends meet; there were magazine articles, and reviews hysteria, with each one of the 'housewife' actresses getting the proper amount of attention and stardom. The ratings soared, and sky rocketed; the producers, and writers were satisfied, the plot lines worked perfectly. Each housewife had a storyline that lasted the entire season, only one really big desperation for each one, but one that was real and enough to soak up the satire and make it last an entire season, while giving audiences something to think about. Each housewife represented you or someone you knew, male or female, and though juiced with satire, the show had a gritty realism that was hard to shake off. When a housewife made a decision, shocking, or expected, it was with requited realism. and enough down to earth material, so that when a big moment occurred, it was Big! And it kept audiences tuning in for more week after week. After twenty - two episodes of almost perfect, entertaining satire, and wit, the season finale aired, and gave Mary Alice Young, the show's unseen narrator, a real purpose (not to mention a damn fine finale monologue) and gave audiences a real cliffhanger, everyone was waiting to see what was next....
Next came in the form of an episode called 'Next', as the season two opener. Though starting with a not so witty, more of an expected one note commentary by Mary Alice, who has no real value to the show anymore, and clumsy comedy that was inserted where it was not needed, the show still showed promise for an exciting season. But that is where I was wrong. The show had lost all that had made it work. It lost that fresh charm, the new realism, and likable wit and satire. Mary Alice speaks in monologues that are irrelevant, and some do not seem to make sense when you think about it. The characters are not the strong women that they were, they are false, and totally bogus, not believable for a second, except for a few good turns by Felicity Huffman, and Marcia Cross, and a couple by Teri Hatcher, but as for the rest of them, they all seemed to become more like caricatures instead of the characters we came to love. They act out of line, like complete idiots who don't know what to do with their lives, and the story lines became short lived, and some real good ones were never resolved, while others were far fetched and resolved in a short second, then dropped as if they never happened. Most of all, the biting satire, the women in power, and the 'all is well that ends well as long as I said so' motifs are completely gone and forgotten.
Alas, 'Desperate Housewives' has become just another nighttime soap opera. It always was, but as I said, it had a biting satire, comedic touch, that no one could really label. It was new, fresh, original, and in your face. No matter what you thought, you could not turn away from it, and had to know more. Now, about 3/4 through the second season, I honestly dread to think how they are going to pull the show back together. The ratings are dropping ever so slightly, and there seems to be more stupid plot development and bad episodes. The only thing desperate about it now is that the characters are no longer desperate, and the audience seems to be flailing. It is typical dysfunction among the crowds and in a few seasons, two or three, at the most, the show will disappear, and people will forget all about it, because there is nothing memorable about it anymore.
This show went from a seemingly loud message begging to be heard, to pure escapism, not a formula that suites it. I guess I can say I was with a show of pop culture phenomena for awhile, but this just goes to show that nothing good lasts forever. Oh well, as a review said about another wasted opportunity of a show: There was almost a good show there once.
score /10
HeartMonger 22 January 2006
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1272590/ |
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22-11-2019 06:21:37
