Sunday night just got a whole lot steamier: juicy, satirical nighttime soap sensation "Desperate Housewives" is back. Season Two premiered this past Sunday, answering questions from the season finale and offering new ones.
In case you haven't been following the drama on Wisteria Lane, here's an overview of Season One. Susan (Teri Hatcher) is dating Mike the plumber, whose investigation into his former girlfriend Deirdre's murder has led him to suspect Paul and wife Mary Alice, who mysteriously committed suicide at the show's beginning. Meanwhile, Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) is pregnant by either her wealthy, criminal husband or by her lover, the teenage gardener.
Bree's (Marcia Cross) husband Rex died from heart failure because the jealous pharmacist had been secretly tampering with his heart medication. Lynette (Felicity Huffman) is trying to re-enter the workforce after growing jealous of her husband's new co-worker/ex-girlfriend and accidentally
getting him fired.
On Sunday's season premiere, a number of plotlines from the previous season remained unresolved. Gabrielle brought a falsified paternity test to appease her husband when she went to go visit him in jail, typical controlling Bree clashed with her mother-in-law over funeral arrangements for Rex, and Lynette was forced to bring her baby to her interview at an ad agency, but she was hired anyway. The show concluded with an eerie look at the street's new family bringing food to a mysterious prisoner in their basement.
Bewildered and confused by all these twisted storylines? Part of the show's unique charm is its comically exaggerated premise, reassuring us that it never takes itself too seriously.
The show pokes fun at the decadent, materialistic culture of America. Bree is so Martha Stewart that her son asks her if she is running for "Mayor of Stepford;" Lynette is a typical soccer mom who juggles her endless to-do list with her four boys and social gatherings with the girls; and everyone on Wisteria Lane has perfectly manicured lawns and gorgeous house exteriors. However, these seemingly perfect beings all have skeletons in their closets - or, as the show likes to put it, dirty laundry. As narrator Mary Alice remarked at the end of the season premiere, no one knows or cares what goes on behind closed doors.
Clearly this ironic, racy style works; together with castaway drama "Lost," "Desperate Housewives" revived ABC's long-declining ratings. This year, the soap opera won six Emmys and two Golden Globe Awards.
Teri Hatcher was among the recipients, receiving a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, and was nominated for an Emmy in the same category. Long considered a stale actress past her prime, Hatcher has benefited the most from the show's success with a huge career comeback.
Whereas Hatcher and Longoria make up the flashy, glamorous side of "Desperate Housewives," Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman are the ones who really carry the show. Cross, with her characteristic hair flip and distant demeanor, has really flourished in her role; she was nominated for both the Emmy and Golden Globe Award in the Best Leading Actress in a Comedy Series category.
Huffman plays the opposite sort of character. Once a high-powered working woman who left her career behind, she has become a perennially stressed out stay-at-home mom who takes her kids' ADD medication in order to have enough energy to get everything done (and she recently returned to work).
Huffman is brilliantly convincing in this role, and her talent landed her a nomination for a Golden Globe in the category of Best Actress in a Television Series - Comedy and a Screen Actors' Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series. She also beat out co-stars Hatcher and Cross for her first Emmy in 2005.
With all this talent, "Desperate Housewives" is not just a stylish fad or women's soap opera. This show has brains, beauty, genius and wit, a provocative, entertaining satire of our society's own dirty laundry.
