What I’m Watching: Desperate Housewives

Desperate Housewives: Season 7, Episode 18 “Moments in the Woods” (B)

There’s some good stuff in here for sure, and I’m happy to see at least a few of the plotlines head in a positive, or rather, compellingly dramatic, direction. It’s a real blast from the past to think of Andrew having run over Juanita Solis, and having him try to apologize to Carlos was definitely a bad idea for the Van De Kamp-Solis relationship. Gaby saying that Andrew being gay would make his murder into a hate crime and the whole setup of Bree and Gaby suspecting that Carlos had killed Andrew was clever, even if them confessing Andrew’s sin to Carlos was a bit forced. A vengeful Carlos forcing Andrew to break his sobriety and drink with him and then cutting Bree off completely were strong instances of the kind of drama this show used to incorporate regularly. The same quality was evident in the Paul-Felicia dynamic. The way Paul says “Whoever’s in here, I own this house, and I want you out now” is just so terrific, and Felicia’s nuttiness works very well. I do worry that she’s a bit too crazy for her own good, since it would be nice for the hatchet to be truly buried after all this time. It’s also nice for Susan to get a good therapeutic pep talk from Roy after losing her friend. What doesn’t impress me anywhere near as much is Lynette’s storyline. Her not knowing what to do with $10,000 was funny, and it managed to give Renee a bunch of good one-liners, but her disappointment and surprise with Tom actually being busy at work and enjoying what he’s doing is a predictable plotline we’ve already seen once or twice over.