‘Desperate Housewives’ back with a vengence
“Desperate Housewives” creator Marc Cherry promised he’d straighten out the once-red-hot series for its third season.
Based on a preview episode sent out to critics, Cherry has kept his word.
By the middle of last season, even the most ardent fans of the ABC dramedy – a huge hit the first time around – were complaining about convoluted story lines and characters left out in the cold. Some wondered if “Desperate Housewives” would rebound.
Well, without giving away too much, Cherry kept up his part of the bargain.
The streamlined show returns with an apparent murder (viewers won’t know for sure), new mysteries, new relationships and seemingly happy moments sunk by newly disclosed relationships.
“Every storm brings with it hope that somehow by morning everything will be made clean again and even the most troubling stains might be cleared,” Brenda Strong says at the end of tonight’s season-opening episode, back as the voice of Mary Alice Young, who was killed in the first season.
Rain and washing away the past is the theme of this episode, and in some ways that’s what Cherry did this time around.
Young’s death is no longer the mystery thread holding this show together, as it did during the first two seasons.
Instead, it’s the suspected murder set up in tonight’s episode. The victim also brings into play a new nosy neighbor, played by Laurie Metcalf (“Roseanne”), who ends up raining on the joy felt by Bree over her new fiance, Orson (Kyle MacLachlan), in more ways than one.
Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) gets just a bit of airtime in this first episode, though the arrival of her troubled nephew next week sets up a new subplot.
Gone are the Applewhites, the African American family poorly shoehorned into last season.
Picking up on the other storylines, Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) continues to tangle with her pregnant maid- turned-surrogate mother, Xiao-Mei.
“Doctor say I only get out of bed to pee,” says Xiao-Mei (played by Gwendoline Yeo), who then asks Gabrielle to rub her feet.
“Cut it out, Xiao-Mei,” Gabrielle says. “The doctor didn’t say anything about rubbing your chubby stumps.”
Xiao-Mei snaps back that she’s being treated poorly.
“I can’t wait for you to pop out that baby, because when you do I am putting you on the first plane back to Shanghai and you’re going to be on all fours in a rice paddy before the epidural wears off,” Gabrielle shoots back.
Elsewhere, Susan (Teri Hatcher) wrestles with her love for Mike – seen last season being mowed down by a car – and being wooed by a new hunk. And Lynette (Felicity Huffman) must deal with her expanded family due to her husband’s illegitimate daughter.
“So we wait for the storm to pass, hoping for the best,” Young says at the end. “Even though we know in our hearts some stains are so indelible nothing can wash them away.”
And so it goes on Wisteria Lane, stains and all.