A Deep Look into "Desperate Housewives"

A few hours before starting this story, I watched the final episode of Desperate Housewives. It's a show I've been bingewatching for a few months recently. I honestly never thought I'd watch a second of the show, let alone eight seasons' worth in a few months' time, but here I am. To further detail this, I have to go back two decades.

This is a story of my thoughts on Desperate Housewives, and how I, a very bitter and insecure Family Guy fan, originally refused to embrace the show back when it aired on ABC. On May 1, 2005, Family Guy returned to the Fox. At that time, Desperate Housewives' first season was ending. As the ABC show gained more steam, a thought started to develop in my mind: "Oh boy, here's another thing they'll use to pick on Family Guy."

At that time, both shows conflicted with each other; Desperate Housewives shared the same Sunday at 9PM time slot as both Seth MacFarlane shows: Family Guy and American Dad!. I was happy when Seth was back on TV with not only his main show, but a second show, but even then, I still felt that everyone was out to pick on Family Guy and its creator, to the point where I was against anything that was in conflict with show. Don't get me wrong, I still think some people are just out to pick on Family Guy, but there's extent there now. Back then, I unfairly put a lot of blame on Desperate Housewives.

Then back in 2016, I binged on Devious Maids, which was Marc Cherry's other show (Cherry created Desperate Housewives). After a while, I started to have a desire to watch Cherry's flagship series, but I never had a push to do it. The push finally came a few months ago. Unsurprisingly, I grew to enjoy the show as the months few by, and I'll be honest, I found myself actually in tears while watching the Season 6 finale. There were emotional scenes, but the emotion was coming from all of the regret I had. I could have been enjoying this show on ABC all this time. I think I would have loved it had I actually watched it during the show's 2004-2012 (most likely on demand), but my stubbornness kept me away from a very deliciously amazing show. As the saying goes, better 20 years late than never.

As we all know, Desperate Housewives centered on the lives of five women in the suburban setting known as Wisteria Lane, and all of the secrets they shared and found out about. The central stars were Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria, Marcia Cross, Felicity Huffman, and Nicolette Sheridan, with the opening and closing narration provided by Brenda Strong, who portrayed the deceased Mary Alice Young, who committed suicide right before the events of the series. It's right after Mary Alice's death that all of the secrets start to spill out big time, making Wisteria Lane very, very interesting.

Many characters moved in and out during the show's run, but the centerpiece, for the most part were those five central women. I learned so much about each of the main characters on the show, and there were a lot of surprises. Here's a look at each one:

Susan Mayer

The only one who turned out just like I figured was Susan Mayer, played by Teri Hatcher. Susan was basically the moral compass of the group; basically she's everything Bree considers herself to be (more on Bree later). Even without watching this for so many years, I figured that Susan and Mike Delfino would be quite the item, and they really were--twice. Susan remained quite consistent throughout the series, for the most part, though if there was a change in her, it's that she became more confident and bold as the series progressed. Susan was an easily likeable character from beginning to end, and Teri Hatcher's performance was amazing.

Desperate Housewives was Hatcher's second hit show; of course, she was several years removed from playing Lois Lane on Lois & Clark. She's one of three actresses from this show to have appeared on Seinfeld, doing so as the memorable Sidra Holland, who left Jerry with her famous parting line regarding her breasts: "They're real and they're spectacular." Hatcher also appeared during the second season of Supergirl as recurring villainess Rhea, and recently, she reunited with former DH co-star James Denton in an episode of the Fantasy Island reboot.

Gabrielle Solis

Oh, Gabrielle. What a delicious character! I had only seen the promos, but they told me a lot about Gabrielle Solis; very salacious and scandalous. I was already a fan of Eva Longoria before the show even debuted. I still remember seeing her on the short-lived L.A. Dragnet series (which also aired on ABC). I didn't know she did soaps; she played the deranged Isabella Braña on The Young and the Restless. From what I saw from Gabi, she was the closest thing to a villainess, but was not one, just crafty, greedy, and quite self-serving.

Regarding Gabrielle and Carlos Solis as a couple, part of me entered this binge watch thinking Carlos was possibly arrogant or prickish. He wasn't. From what I saw, Carlos was pretty much a gentleman, give or take a few difficult moments. They were oil and water at times, but they did love each other. That love was definitely there, no matter how much they screwed up. I definitely wasn't expecting growth from Gabrielle. I didn't think she was a lost cause, but I didn't think she'd be doing things that she never thought she would have to do. Yet, lo and behold, there she was, a proud mother of two children (though as we recall, one of them was switched at birth), and she was enjoying motherhood; really drinking it all in.

Eva Longoria was pretty established entering this show, but DH served as the ultimate breakout for her. I would see Longoria on the big screen in The Sentinel (alongside Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland), a cameo appearance in The Heartbreak Kid, and in the underrated comedy, Over Her Dead Body (alongside Paul Rudd). More recently, Longoria was in the Overboard reboot that starred Anna Faris and Eugenio Derbez, and she was the EP of ABC's short-lived series, Grand Hotel.

Lynette Scavo

OK, let's get this out of the way first. We know what happened with Felicity Huffman a few years ago. I'm not going to talk about that, mainly because I feel Lori Loughlin should be dragged much more for that. Lynette Scavo was...interesting. I can't say most of it was in a good way. From what I've seen on the show, Lynette can't seem to go five minutes without browbeating and belittling her husband, Tom Scavo, who just takes it--for the most part. In addition, Lynette shoots down any of Tom's ambitions (unless they benefit her), yet expects him to go along with hers without question.

The biggest problematic trait of Lynette's is her hyprocrisy. The ambitions thing is part of it, but the worst part was that she had the nerve to be pissy at Tom after learning that he had briefly been seeing Lynette's BFF, Renee Perry, decades prior while Tom and Lynette were separated, yet prior to this, Lynette actually locked lips with an employee at her and Tom's pizza place. Yet she didn't want Tom blowing up about that. Amazing. I found myself actually pulling for Tom and Lynette to split up, and they actually did separate after Season Seven. However, after seeing that Tom's GF, Jane Carlson, was actually worse than Lynette, I actually was happy that Tom and Lynette got back together in the end.

Bree Van de Kamp

Oh, where oh where do I start with Bree Van de Kamp? I entered this series thinking that Bree was the all-together typical housewife. Boy, was I off! Bree was absolutely nuts through most of the series' run. She tried to control everything around her, including and especially her family, and her favorite target was her son, Andrew. We saw this first hand during the opening season, but it became worse during the early seasons. Andrew came out as a gay man, and that's when Bree showed her hideous colors as a homophobic RWNJ (Right Wing Nut Job). And yes, she's one of those idiots who believes in "conversion." She also tried to hide her own daughter's pregnancy by sending her to a convent and attempting to pretend to be pregnant herself, even planning to pass her grandchild as her own child. Oh boy.

Bree thinks she knows everything, yet it took her forever and a day to figure out that her so-called friendly pharmacist dream man, George Williams, actually killed Bree's husband, Rex. When George committed suicide (successful because Bree could have saved him but didn't), Andrew used this to really torment and blackmail Bree, and boy did I love seeing Andrew flat out fuck with Bree. As the series progressed, Bree did finally mellow out, and as I watched the final seasons, I definitely noticed how far Bree had come. She always thought she was perfect, but her obsession with perfection brought her nothing but unhappiness. It wasn't until she realized and embraced the flaws she had that Bree found true happiness.

Marcia Cross was well established entering DH; she appeared on Melrose Place as the deliciously evil Kimberly Shaw, with the show's cast also including Tom Scavo himself, Doug Savant. Cross also appeared on Seinfeld as Dr. Sara Sitarides, Jerry's dermatologist girlfriend in Season Nine's "The Slicer."

Edie Britt

I loved Edie Britt, mainly because she was unapologetically herself, even at the expense of her friendship with the other housewives. I did find her "frenemy" relationship with Susan quite interesting; in actuality, Edie had a "frenemy" relationship with pretty much all of them. They merely tolerated Edie's many antics, which included relationships/hookups with the men in their lives. I still can't believe Edie was involved with Karl (Susan's ex), and I was even surprised to see Edie and Carlos become a bit of a thing. Her involvement with Mike didn't shock me; she was clearly trying to fuck with Susan.

I was not expecting Edie to be revealed as a mother; I did love that revelation because it brought some good depth to the character. I did know entering this that Edie was killed off, but I didn't know how. I had known about Neal McDonough's appearance as Dave Williams (who married Edie), and knowing that he was a recurring baddie (albeit a tragic one), I thought that Edie's death was at his hands. I was actually close. She had learned about Dave's vendetta against Mike, leading to Dave wrapping his hands around Edie's throat. Edie fought him off and survived. She would later drive off, but crash. This would lead to the actual cause of her demise; a frayed wire electrocuting Edie while she was standing in a puddle.

Nicolette Sheridan had been known for playing on Knots Landing for years entering this series. I had also seen her as the leading lady in Beverly Hills Ninja, which starred the late, great Chris Farley, and she also played main villainess Alexandra Elston in the telefilm, Dead Husbands, which starred the late, great John Ritter. Of course, we all remember the famous Monday Night Football skit that featured Sheridan (in character) with then-Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens. Very recently, Sheridan appeared in Ladies of the 80s: A Divas' Christmas, a Lifetime holiday film that aired on December 2, 2023 and also starred Donna Mills, Linda Gray, Loni Anderson, and Morgan Fairchild.

Mary Alice Young

I have to mention Mary Alice Young, because while the series centered mainly on the aforementioned quintet, Mary Alice was the main constant for every episode of the series. The only thing I knew about Mary Alice was that she was the narrator, and she tragically took her life entering the series' events. We would see Mary Alice in flashbacks in the series, though Season One would give us an in-depth look at Mary Alice's life and her secrets. As it turned out, Mary Alice was a bit of a villainess, as Season One's finale revealed that she was involved in some borderline criminal acts.

Mary Alice originally worked as a nurse at a rehab center under her real name, Angela Forrest, and during her time there, she formed a bond with recovering addict Deirdre Taylor. However, one night Deirdre visited Angela's home asking for money, with Angela quickly realizing that Deirdre was using again. Deirdre even resorted to selling her infant son, Dana, to Angela, knowing that Angela couldn't have children. Angela took the offer, and after learning about Deirdre's overdose and the police looking into the matter, Angela, her husband Todd, and Dana, moved away to avoid any questioning. This led the family to Wisteria Lane, where Angela and Todd Forrest became Mary Alice and Paul Young, while Dana became Zach.

Three years later, however, Deirdre tracked the Youngs to Wisteria Lane and demanded her son, and it was followed by a violent confrontation that ended with Mary Alice actually stabbing Deirdre to death. Everything would catch up with her when Martha Huber found out the truth and started blackmailing her, doing so via a note sent to Mary Alice, which eventually led to Mary Alice's suicide.

I'm still surprised that Mary Alice had a bit of a villainous side to her, though I really shouldn't be shocked. After all, Mary Alice Young was played by Brenda Strong, and she has played a lot of heel roles in her career. This even includes Seinfeld; we fans of that sitcom know Brenda Strong as Sue Ellen Mischke, Elaine Benes' "frenemy" of sorts. Similar to Teri Hatcher, Strong also played a recurring villainess on the Supergirl series, appearing as the evil Lillian Luthor, the mother of Lex and Lena Luthor.

So yeah, after so many years of unfairly ignoring this show, I finally gave this a watch, and it was absolutely amazing! The show was also quite humorous, I did sense a comedic vibe even in the promos. All of the leading actresses really kicked ass doing this show, and I loved the many cameos and guest stars in this. Overall, Desperate Housewives is quite an awesome show, and I am very grateful that I was pushed in the right direction towards this show.