See Also: 'Pilot' Episode Guide

Hello Get Desperate Readers!

My name is Mariel and I will be reviewing episodes of Desperate Housewives for the upcoming season. However, since we’ve now struck reruns and not all of the season one episodes have been reviewed, I’ve decided to introduce myself to you all by taking a fresh look at past episodes as they air each week. Each rerun will be reviewed as though I haven’t seen subsequent episodes (for example, I won’t cite something that happened in the season finale.) I look forward to bringing you these reviews and hope you enjoy them!

Synopsis

The series premiere of ‘Desperate Housewives’ opens with a congenial shot of a typical suburban street in a typical suburban neighborhood. The viewer is then introduced to Mary Alice Young, who goes about her daily chores until finally, she opens a closet door, takes down a box, and pulls out a gun. She holds it to her head and fires.

Mrs. Martha Huber, Mary Alice’s neighbor, hears the shot. She rushes over and sees Mary Alice sprawled on the floor. She calls emergency services, demanding that an ambulance be sent right away.

The whole neighborhood turns out for the wake and, one by one, the viewer is introduced to each of the major players.

Lynette Scavo is a stay at home mom who was once working her way up the corporate ladder. She has four children. Gabrielle Solis was a model before she married Carlos Solis. Their marriage is rocky and consists of much arguing. Bree van de Kamp is known throughout the neighborhood for her many domestic talents. Everyone but her own family considers her the perfect wife and mother. Susan Mayer is divorced with a teenage daughter. Her husband, Carl Mayer, left her for his secretary a year prior.

All four women sit together and reminisce about Mary Alice. They discuss what could have made her kill herself and, as the camera pans back, the viewer catches a glimpse of Mary Alice’s husband, Paul Young, listening and looking menacing.

Later, Susan and Mike Delfino meet over her pan of mac and cheese and discuss their professions. Susan illustrates children’s books. Mike is a plumber. Mrs. Huber comes rushing in and informs Lynette that her three older children are swimming in the pool. Lynette storms out and yells at the children, but to no avail. She walks in and physically pulls them out.

Life goes on on Wisteria Lane. Julie, Susan’s daughter, kicks her soccer ball into Mike’s backyard in an attempt to learn more about him. He’s single and Julie informs Susan that she should ask him out. Susan heads to Mike’s with a housewarming gift and is quickly joined on the front step by Edie Britt, the neighborhood slut.

Meanwhile, Carlos leaves for work and the viewer is introduced to the gardener, John Rowland. He and Gabrielle begin to kiss and John stops long enough to say he enjoys hooking up but he doesn’t want to lose his job. Gabrielle propositions him for sex on the table and he relents.

In the van de Kamp household, the family is seated for dinner. Bree has prepared a cuisine meal but the family simply wants regular food.

Lynette is in the grocery store with her kids. When she runs into an old colleague, she is asked how likes being a mother. Lynette lies, stating it’s “the best job in the world.”

Gabrielle and John discuss her marriage to Carlos. John asks if she loves Carlos and she answers ”yes.” When John expresses confusion over why she’s having the affair she replies: “Because I don’t want to wake up one morning with the urge to blow my brains out.”

Susan finally gets up the courage to ask Mike to dinner. However, Edie is already there. Susan quickly tries to come up with an excuse for being there and says she has a clog. Mike offers to come over right then and Susan races home to clog her sink.

The van de Kamps go out to eat for dinner. When the kids go to play video games, her husband, Rex van de Kamp, states he wants a divorce. Bree ignores his statement and goes to get him a plate of salad. While doing so, Bree is distracted and places onions in Rex’s salad. Rex is allergic to onions and has a reaction, which lands him in the hospital.

Zach Young, Mary Alice’s son, wakes up to the sound of his father digging up the ground at the bottom of the drained swimming pool. Mary Alice’s voice over suggests that it is part of a family secret.

Tom Scavo comes home from his business trip and tells the kids to play outside. He takes Lynette upstairs and when he scoffs at her suggested use of a condom, saying that they can risk another pregnancy, Lynette punches him.

In the hospital, Rex tries to discuss their marriage. Bree again avoids the conversation and takes his flowers to the bathroom, filling the vase with fresh water. While she’s in there, she cries. When she emerges, she once again looks perfect.

Gabrielle and Carlos are headed out to the party when Carlos mentions that the grass hasn’t been mowed. When they arrive at the party, Gabrielle sneaks back home and mows the grass.

Susan finds out that Edie Britt is planning on having male company later that evening. She assumes it will be Mike and decides to go to Edie’s house on the pretext of borrowing sugar. No one answers the door so Susan walks in and sees the house set up for seduction with candles and clothing strewn around. She drops the measuring cup and sits on the couch. She tosses one of the discarded items of clothing over her shoulder and it lands on a candle and sets the curtains on fire. Edie’s house goes up in flames as Susan runs out of the house.

Susan hears that Edie’s male friend was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Susan is saddened until Mike walks up to her to ask what happened. After talking with Susan, Mike then goes home to make a mysterious sounding phone call. As he speaks, he lays a gun on the table.

The next day, Lynette, Susan, Gabrielle and Bree all gather to pack up and take away Mary Alice’s things. They find a letter that Mary Alice received the day she died. The terse message reads: “I know what you did. It makes me sick. I’m going to tell."

Analysis

ABCs new hit drama starts out with a technique that has become the latest trend in TV… narration through voice overs. However, instead of having a main character of the show speaking to us, we quickly learn that the voice is that of a mostly unseen character, Mary Alice Young. Mary Alice is unseen due to the fact that she committed suicide earlier in the week. It’s a slightly morbid realization, but certainly effective in drawing in the viewer into the story.

Early on in the episode, we are treated to a flashback scene where Mary Alice and the four other women, Lynette, Gabrielle, Bree and Susan, are gathered together over coffee. They appear to be close friends and even discuss intimate details, such as the infidelity of Susan’s husband. This leads us, as well as the four women, to believe that whatever was bothering Mary Alice could have been talked over with her friends. By the end of the episode, however, it becomes apparent that this is the irony of the show that ties in with the title…through the rest of the episode we see that all four women are holding secrets to themselves that they don’t feel is possible to share with anybody else, thus making them the “desperate housewives” that they are.

This irony is what makes the show appealing. Who doesn’t have secrets that they long to share with close friends in order to unburden themselves? Even though the plotlines are rather scandalous and most certainly over dramatized for entertainment purposes, the concept of it all almost seems like a breath of fresh air after some 70-plus years of television…a show that puts forth the idea that the ideal suburban family life is merely a façade. Considering the reality TV trend these days, having a TV drama that attempts to wipe away this façade should certainly do well.

Aside from the normal day-to-day routine and problems of these four main women, by leaving the pilot with a cliffhanger it would seem that the series will also be partially focusing on the mystery surrounding Mary Alice’s suicide. This raises many questions, one of the most important asking whether the show can sustain such a story arc. It is my thought that if the show continues to focus primarily on the four women and their lives, leaving the Mary Alice situation to be a mystery slowly solved over the course of the season, then the show will be able to maintain a respectable balance between drama and entertainment.

The cast of ‘Desperate Housewives’ is a mix of those known and those who aren’t so well known. I must express my delight at seeing Teri Hatcher in television again. I thoroughly enjoyed watching her in Lois and Clark and I can tell I’m going to enjoy the character of Susan; the poor woman's obvious ineptitude is enough to make the seriously frazzled among us wince in sympathy.

Felicity Huffman is another that I will enjoy seeing more of. Considering her roles in Sport’s Night and Frasier, it would seem that she’s one that tends to be typecast into the strong businesswoman role. Even for ‘Desperate Housewives’, the character of Lynette was working her way up the corporate ladder of an advertising firm before becoming a mother and, from the look one her face in the flashback scene where Tom suggests she become a stay at home mom, Lynette had no desire to stop climbing. The character has clearly been tagged as a fish out of water in the job of mother, thus making Lynette just different enough from Huffman’s past roles to be interesting.

Fans of daytime soaps may recognize Eva Longoria who played Isabella Braña Williams on The Young and the Restless. Although she has had other stints in prime time, ‘Desperate Housewives’ looks to be the breakout piece for Longoria. I have to admit, this woman does seem to have talent. In just the pilot episode alone, Longoria was able to convincingly portray a woman who, although she has sketchy morals and a tendency to be spoiled, is actually a very sympathetic character. You can’t help but understand that Gabrielle isn’t having an affair to be malicious so much as she’s simply lonely and perhaps a little lost on what it is she truly wants. Watching the affair develop for the rest of the season should prove to be quite interesting as the pilot is merely a taste of what’s to come. Perhaps some explorations into the background and motivations of Gabrielle Solis are in order.

Marcia Cross is no stranger to prime time television, as some of her past credits include shows such as Melrose Place and Boy Meets World. Here in ‘Desperate Housewives’ she plays the rather obsessive-compulsive Bree van de Kamp. It’s not hard to be irritated by Bree’s need for perfection. However, the biggest question that arises concerning Bree is why she feels this need. Rex himself states that he misses the woman he fell in love with the woman who “burned the toast and drank milk out of the carton.” Bree, too, seems to be a character whose background the writers could have a field day exploring and perhaps, with a little more insight as to why she is the way she is, Bree will also come to be seen as more sympathetic.

I feel the need to mention that there is also an up and coming young actor by the name of Jesse Metcalfe that viewers should keep an eye on. Up until recently, Metcalfe could be found playing the part of Miguel Lopez Fitzgerald on NBC's daytime soap opera, Passions. He now plays John Rowland, the Solis’ gardener with whom Gabrielle is having her affair. An hour show in which a character has maybe a total of ten minutes of screen time is certainly not enough to accurately judge a character. However, I will venture to say that from what we were able to see, Metcalfe will have his work cut out for him playing a teenage boy that gets mixed up in the throes of a very adult affair. Although you can tell John is trying to be a man, the questions he asks of Gabrielle are very much those of a boy. To him the world is still black and white and the fact that Gabrielle is indulging in this affair should mean that she doesn’t love Carlos. Gabrielle’s answers to his questions seem to be designed to further thrust him into having the understanding of a man…real life definitely has shades of gray.

So, by taking the pilot episode alone, it would seem that ‘Desperate Housewives’ certainly got off to a good start. Scandal, mystery, and sex…what more do people want in a TV show these days?

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