"When you have good neighbors, nobody really cares what happens behind closed doors." So says Susan (Teri Hatcher) in this season's premier episode of "Desperate Housewives." However, in the case of Wisteria Lane, she could not be further from the truth.
Since its series debut in 2004, "Desperate Housewives" has become television's hottest new primetime drama. Created by Marc Cherry, the show is a dark comedy about the lives of four "housewives" and what really happens behind closed doors in suburbia, resulting in a cross between "The Stepford Wives" and "Sex and the City."
As for the cast, there's Susan, the single mom dating Mike, the hunky neighbor. Lynnette (Felicity Huffman) is the typical housewife: a mom with four kids and a husband that's always working. Bree (Marcia Cross) is comparable to a psychotic Carol Brady. She cooks, she cleans, she decorates and all with a fake smile, perfect hair and pearl necklace. Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) completes the foursome as the former model who is married to a filthy rich husband and having an affair with her 17-year old gardener.
Having won two Golden Globe Awards and six Emmys in its first season, the highly anticipated season premiere did not disappoint. Last season's finale left the show's loyal viewers (mainly any female over the age of 16) wanting more when Bree's husband Rex died suddenly, Susan was taken at gunpoint by her neighbor's teenage son Zach and Gabrielle found out she was pregnant with what we assume to be John the gardener's baby.
This season starts off with a bang. Literally. Drunken neighbor Ida Greenberg, an insignificant character vital to the episode, gets her bottle of whiskey shot to pieces by Susan, who accidentally fires a shot from the gun she wrestles away from Zach, in a successful effort to save Mike's life. Zach is actually Mike's son. This fact is unbeknownst to Susan until Mike declines to press charges and is only one of many shockers in this drama-filled premiere.
Bree deals with the death of her husband in her own twisted way. The clock strikes nine and she matter-of-factly informs the residents of Wisteria Lane about the tragic news. It seems she has a harder time dealing with Rex's mother Phyllis showing up than she does his actual death. Phyllis and Bree share a mother-daughter-in-law rivalry that results in Bree taking Phyllis' hideous tie off of her dead husband's body and replacing it with her own in the middle of his funeral.
A change from the previous season, Lynnette and her husband Tom switch places as she goes back to work while Tom takes care of their three obnoxious sons plus a baby girl. Of course this poses a problem for both parents when Tom throws out his back and Lynnette is forced to bring the kids to work. Her interview results in having to change the baby's diaper mid-meeting, an act that did not go over well, to say the least.
Then, of course, there is Gabrielle. Her husband Carlos is in jail after nearly attacking John (the underage gardener) in a courtroom. Not only that, but John unexpectedly shows up at her house with luggage, expecting them to live together while Carlos is behind bars. The plot still thickens: Gabrielle is pregnant, obviously unsure of the baby's father. When Carlos demands a paternity test, she steals the results from a woman in the middle of an emotional breakdown, posing as a shoulder to cry on.
As if that's not confusing enough, Mary Alice, another former resident of Wisteria Lane who committed suicide a year ago, narrates the show. And the episode's cliffhanger? The new neighbors, a seemingly normal, friendly mother and son have a dirty secret just like the rest of the suburban street. The episode ends as mother and son bring a dinner tray to a faceless someone handcuffed in the basement.
To new viewers just tuning in, all this may seem like a drawn out soap opera, but the smart writing and great acting makes "Housewives" a one-of-a-kind drama that will have you laughing and crying in the same scene. Its characters all offer something to relate to, especially in the land of suburbia where "everyone has a little dirty laundry." Its dark comedy is what drew in viewers and kept them hooked last season, and this season's premiere is so packed with spectacle that it's hard not to ditch your Sunday night homework to find out what happens each week.