Over the last year, I've watched the entire run of "Bones", "Eureka", and "Haven." My husband and I are working our way through the new version of Battlestar Galactica (excellent). My not-so-secret current obsession is with "Desperate Housewives."
When Desperate Housewives premiered (around the time of LOST, I believe) I dismissed it. Not sure why. Maybe I thought it was one of those shows where whiny women sit around and complain about all that is wrong with their lives--as long as those problems focus on their weight or love lives.
To be sure, there's plenty of love life talk on Desperate Housewives--making it the soap opera it is--but it's what else it offers that makes the show so much fun and kind of meaningful.
The show begins with a mystery. On Wisteria Lane in Fairview, USA, there are six women--all friends and, often, enemies. In the first moments of the first episode, one of those women, Mary Alice, commits suicide. Her friends--former model Gabrielle, perfect wife and mother Bree, neurotic Susan, stressed-out stay-at-home mom Lynette, and town harlot Evie--are left wondering why and through the season work out the secrets their seemingly happy friend kept buried.
During summers as a child, my mom and I would watch Young and the Restless. She loved her soaps and as much as I pretended to loathe them, it wasn't true. Everyone was rich and looked perfect, but was far from it. There was something about that that seemed almost...honest.
Desperate Housewives, like the Young and the Restless, takes "reality" and pumps it up to 11. As an adult, I can appreciate that even more. Day-to-day life can seem so mundane, but we all have things we're dealing with: careers, kids, relationships, personal issues. Most of the time we keep these bits about ourselves under wraps, sometimes even suffering in silence. Soapy shows, like Desperate Housewives, put these issues (admittedly exaggerated for effect) front and center. Some may watch and feel better that their own lives aren't as complicated; others may even take some level of comfort in seeing a version of life where the facade is stripped down.
While the people of Wisteria Lane are flawed, the show also does a good job of showing people at their best. A hand to hold. A shoulder to cry on. A hug from a friend.
Yup, Desperate Housewives is often silly. Convoluted. Teetering on desperate. But what keeps it from falling over the edge are main ladies of Wisteria Lane--all incredibly different, but in them attributes every woman can relate to.
