Catching Up: Desperate Housewives

This show hasn’t gotten much better since I last checked in with it. The fire in the club was decent because of the insight into Dave’s character it provided, and Porter’s subsequent arrest is a nice twist, though what’s happened recently with Parker taking his place in court doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Steven Weber, and for that matter, Andrea Bowen, were unfortunately wasted in their brief guest spots when Julie returned to Fairview for an episode. I remember Andrea Bowen being one of the highlights of season one, and for her to have been so abruptly cut out of this season along with Lyndsy Fonseca’s Dylan seems unwise. Focusing in on the Scavo twins as the default children (along with the fairly useless Solis kids and puny MJ) is hardly interesting, and plotlines would come a whole lot easier if Julie and Dylan were once again the supporting stars of the show. The return of Carlos’ sight doesn’t have as much of an impact since he only really lost it a handful of episodes back. This five-year jump has its advantages and its disadvantages, but after all is said and done, Gabrielle is still going to be the same selfish spoiled brat who occasionally happens to do nice things for her family. She’s not exactly a multi-layered character. The only real high point of this stretch was the Hodge family introduction to Andrew’s fiancée, which came out of nowhere but resulted in the a respectable comedy-to-drama shift with Andrew’s realization that Bree actually cares about him and wants the best for him. Back to Dave, the only real reason I’m still watching: I suspected that Mike was a hitman who was hired to take out Dave’s brother in his earlier life, but it would appear instead that Dave’s wife and child may have been collateral damage. I sort of wish it had been someone other than Mike who had so irked Dave since he always seems to be the only one with any good mysterious drama. It was intriguing to see Dave save Mike from the fire only to ensure that he could gain his revenge at a later point, but at the same time it’s a bit much to believe that he wouldn’t just let him die in the fire. I keep asking myself now what’s keeping me attached to this show, and I’m considering it dropping it in January when it returns since I’ll be out of the country next semester and TV watching may be more difficult. It’s still a decently entertaining story that might keep me interested, but I wish it could return to its old positive quality.

Desperate Housewives returns on January 4th.