See Also: 'One Wonderful Day' Episode Guide

With Desperate Housewives now a pop culture phenomenon, it is not very surprising that many mainstream media outlets decided publish reviews of last night's season finale, "One Wonderful Day." But what no one could have predicted was the overwhelmingly positive response to the episode:

• "Oh what a tangled web series creator Marc Cherry has woven this season," wrote Boston Herald critic Amy Amatangelo. "Cherry, who co-wrote the finale, delivered a satisfying end to the year's hottest hour. The final episode before the summer hiatus answered just enough burning questions while leaving other mysteries simmering beneath the well-manicured surface." More thoughts from Amatangelo, as well as an overview of last night's most important plot developments, can be found in the full article.

• Gael Fashingbauer Cooper at MSNBC used "One Wonderful Day" to compare Desperate Housewives with ABC's other mystery show, Lost. Here's an excerpt from her article:

  [Both] have tangled plotlines that weave in and out each week, taking viewers up and down a roller-coaster of emotions, and making it almost impossible for them not to tune in again to see what happens. Yet one of the major differences between the way the two shoes handle these plotlines seems even clearer after Sunday's Desperate Housewives finale. Desperate Housewives is willing to answer some of its mysterious questions and give readers a little bit of closure. Lost, heading into its own two-hour finale this Wednesday, is still dangling a dozen carrots in front of impatient viewers.

  For the full article, please follow this link.

• Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lucio Guerrero predicted that the storyline dealing with Mary-Alice's death will be the "watercooler talk of today," and praised the performances of the show's lead actresses. "Although the actresses are typically recognized for their comedic timing on the show, it was the dramatic chops that got the spotlight Sunday," the critic wrote in his review. "When Bree learned the bad news about her husband, we watched [Marcia Cross'] strong outward appearance melt away to the raw emotion of loss."

• Possibly the most viscious critics of a television show can be its fans. But in an interview the New York Post conducted with some of the most dedicated fans, it seemed they were quite pleased with the finale. "It answered all the questions -- all the secrets were finally revealed," said 34-year old fan Vicki Evans. Her favorite plot twist turned out to be the courtroom scene in which it Carlos Solis looked like he was nearly going to beat the rap -- until John Rowland walked in, told him he'd been sleeping with Gabrielle, and made Carlos go mad.

• "Last night's season finale stomped mercilessly through suburbia like, well, that thing in the jungle in Lost, wrote Choire Sicha at Salon.com, before going on to list the major plot developments from last night's episode. And with Sicha's major complaint being ABC's tendency to air a commercial every five minutes, she seemed to enjoy the episode as a big guilty pleasure. "To the finale's credit," Sicha wrote, "it coughed up almost as much plot as you’d get if you held Aaron Spelling upside down and shook him quite vigorously."

• Frazier Moore at the Associated Press wrote that the "One Wonderful Day" finale fulfilled his expectations:

  Desperate Housewives made good on its pledge to solve the posthumous mystery of Mary Alice as its smash first season concluded on Wisteria Lane, the ABC show's mythical but all-too-recognizable slice of suburbia. A cultural phenomenon like few TV series in years, this saucy blend of melodrama, whodunit and dark comedy had viewers hooked from its first night last October. But, as expected, it left questions hanging at Sunday's final fade-out.

  To find out what those questions were, check out Moore's full review, republished at the Star-Telegram.

• And in a shorter AP review republished at WRAL-TV, the press service provided an overview of the episode's most important events.

• And finally, over at BlogCritics.org, Meryl didn't provide an analysis of the episode, but instead wrote an extensive recap for those of you who may have missed the finale.

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