What I’m Watching: Desperate Housewives

Desperate Housewives: Season 7, Episode 2 “You Must Meet My Wife” (B)

As usual, I find myself feeling a bit splintered by the various plotlines (and housewives) on this show. This episode isn’t nearly as invigorating or promising as last week’s, and part of that is due to the fact that all of the storylines are pretty much continuations from last week that will keep being addressed in the next episode, rather than any self-contained episode plot points. I’ll start with the least compelling one, which seemed to find the Scavos in typical, cyclical plot ration and ultimately ended up alluding to some big secret not known by Lynette. I have multiple problems with this, the first being that Lynette never seems to be too fair to Tom, though he doesn’t do a terribly smooth job of presenting his issues. Renee trying to steal Tom is a complete waste of Vanessa Williams’ talents, and the fact that something may have occurred between them isn’t all that interesting. Worse still, remember what happened last time Tom had a not-quite-adulterous secret? That would be evil stepdaughter Kayla, who ranks as the worst character ever to appear on this show. On to better things, Susan’s dusting duties and newfound passion with Mike are fairly silly but not terribly distracting since she never has anything all that serious to do anyway. Mike’s also not very bright, and he never has been. Bree’s romance is still in the development stages, and she needs to stop running people over with her car or someone’s really going to get hurt. Eva Longoria is a much better actress than she gets credit for, although her plotlines aren’t always as great. In this case, it’s a funny one that will surely lead to a devastating series of events in the coming weeks. Now, to end on a more positive (though somewhat frightening note), we have the addition of the clumsy and soft-spoken new Mrs. Paul Young, played by Emily Bergl, who was one of the bright spots on “Men in Trees.” Her presence, though not yet entirely relevant, underlines the fact that there’s something shady going on, and Paul is still creepy even if he’s not saying or doing anything creepy.