I am now finally all but 2 episodes from the end of season 2 of Desperate Housewives. And I've got to concur with what I take to be the general opinion - it's not nearly as good as season 1. I mean, multiple characters deciding that the best way to get over their problems is murder? Susan cooking up two kooky insurance fraud schemes within about a half dozen episodes of each other? Susan endlessly engaging in every funny, nice-girl tv/movie cliche imagineable (writing a letter that cotains a deep dark secret, then putting it in the US mail - though it was going down the block - and then conspiring to get it back from the postman ...)? Bree, so often weak? I could go on ... and on and on and on ... but I'll spare you. The season's not been a total loss - Gabby's had some good moments and the Bree vs. Andrew battles have been fun, but all in all it's definitely lacked the spirit of Season 1.
And of course the most irritating thing about the show remains alive and well - Ms. Huffman's character Lynette Scavo. Look up harridan in the dictionary and you'll see Lynette. She's petty. Judgemental. Controling. EVERYTHING must always be her way, including what anyone else may do or thing - all the time. She's smug, manipulative (in appalling and boring ways), and all and all despicable, really. But she's continually written like she's some sort of put upon, misunderstood, unappreciated victim when she's really not remotely likeable or admirable in any way. And in the last episode I watched the writers have had the nerve to make her the victim of a cheating spouse. They have to stoop low - really low at this point - to make me even start to have any sympathy for her. And writers, fyi, that's not nearly low enough. Gotta say, I think Mike could do vastly better so I hope they stay split up (though with him on the show - he's one of the better things about season 2). And I'd love to see her have to squirm through life as a single. No one would ever meet her preposterous and tiresome personal standards. And seeing her go through disappointment after disappointment week after week - well that might actually be a little fun to watch. But personally, I think I'm too tired of her to even enjoy that (much), so I really wish she'd be hit by a speeding bus or maybe some toliet seat flying in from space at a deadly speed.
Posted by armand at September 21, 2006 09:12 PM | TrackBack | Posted to CultureAnd it just gets worse and worse ...
I'm about halfway through the finale. Lynette gets it in her ugly thick skull that her husband is cheating on her. So instead of actually talking to the man she married years ago and has raised 4 children with, she decides to fly off clandestinely, follow him around on a business trip (hides in the bushes even!), jumps to negative conclusions (and false conclusions - she tends to be about as judgmental and wrong as George Bush at times), and then, STILL without saying one word to the husband, packs up the kids and runs away with them without leaving the husband any way to get in touch or know their whereabouts. When one of the kids breaks his arm and Tom finally gets a chance to explain what's actually going on to her (oh, yeah, I have yet to mention that this supposedly noble mother is raising rude, wild monsters) - she STILL refuses to talk to him, and when he finally does get to tell her she simply adjusts herself and HE'S not mad at her at all? What the fuck is that about? Now I want him hit by a bus as well. Or at least think he deserves to be married to such an asshole if he's not willing to stand-up for himself any more.
Not much else is new except for the delightful prospect that Danielle will be killed (she's dumb and exists for no reason aside from moving along improbable plots occasionally - so here's hoping it happens, though I doubt it). And Mrs. Tillman has lost all her wit ...
I swear if they did hold out hope for an Evil Zack and the return of Andrew Van De Kamp I might give up on this show entirely.
Posted by: Armand at September 22, 2006 03:35 PM | PERMALINKNot that I've ever had much of a desire to watch this show, but you have completely obliterated the slight chance that remained.
Posted by: binky at September 22, 2006 06:30 PM | PERMALINKWell see this is the thing - it wasn't this bad during season 1. I loved that. And some of the characters (in terms of the leads, Eva Longoria's Gabby) are even better in season 2. And there is fun to be had, generally, in season 2 (particularly where the Solis family and Andrew Van De Kamp are concerned - oh, and for a bit, George & Bree). But every single episode is weighed down with some of this Lynette crap. And quite frankly, and I'm not entirely joking here, I wonder if her popularity isn't as much of a stain on the US populace as celebrations of Bush and company's supposed moral rectitude. Something seems more than a little wrong to me with people who would like, or hell, maybe even admire, this character.
Posted by: Armand at September 22, 2006 07:27 PM | PERMALINK