When “Desperate Housewives” first began in 2004 it was a unique little primetime soap opera that didn’t feel quite so soapy. Credit that to the cast that included a few names we had heard of, the snappy writing and the overall quality of the production. The second season was a drastic decline and the third season was so-so. The fourth season could have possibly broken the show’s audience and caused them to give-up if it didn’t show any real potential of getting back to what made the first season so great and while it doesn’t necessarily live up to what the first season started, it at least gives it a shot and makes each episode worth a little something.
The fourth season begins as Lynette (Felicity Huffman) has cancer, Gabriel (Eva Longoria Parker) just got married to the mayor but is ready to run-off with her ex-husband Carlos (Ricardo Chavira), Bree (Marcia Cross) is faking a pregnancy so she can ultimately claim motherly rights to her daughter’s illegitimate child, Susan (Teri Hatcher) just got married to Mike and will soon have to deal with his addiction to pain pills and Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) is presumed to have hung herself in an effort to keep Carlos around. Enough for yah? Well, that’s just where we left off.
New to the neighborhood are a gay couple named Bob and Lee (Tuc Watkins and Kevin Rahm), which is an interesting if not harmless addition, as well as Adam and Katherine Mayfair (Nathan Fillion and Dana Delany) and their daughter Dylan (Lyndsy Fonseca). The Mayfairs are the major addition as they come with a whole new slew of secrets allowing for a guest appearance by Gary Cole. The only other notable guest appearance would be that of Justine Bateman playing a house guest with Gabriel and Carlos with a secret of her own. However, the addition of Fillion and Delany was enough to add new life into the fourth season where Alfre Woodard and Dougray Scott were not able to in the second and third seasons respectively.
Fillion is a fantastic actor with excellent comedic timing that was best exampled in last year’s romantic-comedy Waitress and he is a perfect fit for this show. Meanwhile, seeing Delany was rather nostalgic since throughout the entire first episode I couldn’t stop thinking back to her performance as Josephine in Tombstone. She was a great addition to this show, and strangely enough was originally offered the role of Bree, but turned it down only to come back and play what could almost be considered Bree’s sister they are so much alike.
My only real problems with this season has to be the writers’ insistence to go back to the well when it comes to Edie and their determination to paint her as a bitch over and over again, along with Lynette’s role as a woman that preys on the sympathy of her friends using the “friend card”. As for Edie, I wish they would just write her out of the show and if the season finale is any indication that may have happened, but I doubt it. As for Lynette, the writers need to figure out what they are trying to tell the audience when it comes to her character. Is she an unsympathetic mother that doesn’t care about anyone but herself or is she one of the nicer women on the block? I can pretty much paint the majority of the other characters into a specific category but there is absolutely no faith to Lynette’s character and it is a bit distracting.
“Desperate Housewives” was able to get off 17 episodes prior to the writers’ strike and this DVD comes equipped with several audio commentaries and a handful of special features. The idea to present the audio commentaries as “Couples Commentaries” was fantastic as the actors that have relationships on the show are brought on to comment on specific episodes. I only listened to the Fillion and Delany commentary, but fans of the show should like the clever way of putting these together. It’s simple and the actors involved have something in common to use as a commentary thread.
The other features include a feature looking at the massive tornado episode in which Wisteria Lane is hit by a massive funnel cloud killing at least 3 people and putting key characters in jeopardy. The episode was a good episode for sweeps and just one example that ABC hasn’t given up on the show, but as far as caring about how it was made, I wasn’t. You also get a short featurette featuring interviews with the men of the show, deleted scenes, a gag reel and the traditional look at the favorite scenes from season presented by show creator Marc Cherry.
If you have stuck with this show for this long and are still interested, the fourth season is a definite step in the right direction and worth a watch. I am slowly tiring of the primetime soap opera, but at least, unlike “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Desperate Housewives” knows what it is and has managed to get back to what made it a success by equaling out the soapy mess with the intriguing mystery. It’s a dumb show to be sure, but it is just the right amount of dumb when you need it.
