Sunday, June 21, 2009

Desperate Housewives - Seasons 1-5


Season 1 Overview

Debut seasons are usually regarded by some viewers as probably their best, especially in more recent times and this was certainly a first season that made a huge splash. A delightful mash up of Sex And The City and Six Feet Under (with its own uniqueness thrown in there as well), I really didn’t think that I would fall for this series so hard. Out of the shows I review, it’s certainly one of the strangest but it’s engaging no less. This was the season that introduced viewers to Susan, Bree, Gabrielle, Lynette and Edie, following the death of Mary Alice and it certainly raised the bar for television as well.

Episode Ratings

1x01: Pilot =9/10, 1x02: Ah But Underneath =8/10,
1x03: Pretty Little Picture = 9/10, 1x04: Who’s That Woman? = 7/10,
1x05: Come In Stranger = 7/10, 1x06: Running To Stand Still =8/10,
1x07: Anything You Can Do = 9/10, 1x08: Guilty =10/10,
1x09: Suspicious Minds = 8/10, 1x10: Come Back To Me =7/10,
1x11: Move On = 7/10, 1x12: Every Day A Little Death = 8/10,
1x13: Your Fault =8/10, 1x14: Love Is In The Air =9/10,
1x15: Impossible =10/10, 1x16: The Ladies Who Lunch =8/10,
1x17: There Won’t Be Trumpets =6/10, 1x18: Children Who Listen = 8/10,
1x19: Live Alone And Like It =7/10, 1x20: Fear No More =9/10,
1x21: Sunday In The Park With George =8/10, 1x22: Goodbye For Now = 8/10,
1x23: One Wonderful Day =9/10.

Season 2 Overview

Like a certain show I restrict for DVD reviews, the second season wasn’t the show at it’s best for a variety of reasons. The Applewhite mystery was by far the weakest of the bunch and having it largely disconnected from the housewives for a good chunk of the season didn’t help. It also didn’t help that we really didn’t have the housewives interact a lot but we did have Bree vs. Andrew, Orson’s introduction, Edie burning Susan’s house to the ground and Gabby and Carlos splitting up while Lynette discovered that Tom fathered another child and Mike was ran over, so not totally boring then.

Episode Ratings

2x01: Next = 8/10, 2x02: You Could Drive A Person Crazy =6/10,
2x03: You’ll Never Get Away From Me =8/10,
2x04: My Heart Belongs To Daddy = 8/10,
2x05: They Ask Me Why I Believe In You = 9/10,
2x06: I Wish I Could Forget You = 9/10,
2x07: Colour And Light = 10/10, 2x08: The Sun Won’t Set =6/10,
2x09: That’s Good, That’s Bad =9/10, 2x10: Coming Home =7/10,
2x11: One More Kiss = 10/10, 2x12: We’re Gonna Be All Right = 7/10,
2x13: There’s Something About A War =8/10, 2x14: Silly People = 6/10,
2x15: Thank You So Much =9/10, 2x16: There Is No Other Way =9/10,
2x17: Could I Leave You? =7/10, 2x18: Everybody Says Don’t =8/10,
2x19: Don’t Look At Me =10/10, 2x20: It Wasn’t Meant To Happen = 8/10,
2x21: I Know Things Now = 9/10, 2x22: No One Is Alone = 7/10,
2x23: Remember Part 1 = 8/10, 2x24: Remember Part 2 =9/10.

Season 3 Overview

By far, this is my favourite season of the series. I just felt the writing was a lot stronger and Bree/Orson during this time in the show was the strongest and most interesting pairing as well. Orson’s mystery definitely had a lot of interesting twists and turns and while it was wrapped up earlier than usual to accommodate Marcia Cross’s real life pregnancy, the rest of the season worked well, though I did hate the Edie became too clingy with Carlos, even if the writers did end the season on the wonderful cliff hanger of her faking suicide. Other stuff I liked – Gabby was alright on her own, Kayla caused tension with Tom and Lynette, the Mike/Susan/Ian triangle wasn’t all bad and the hostage episode is still the best episode the show has done.

Episode Ratings

3x01: Listen To The Rain On The Roof =9/10, 3x02: It Takes Two =7/10,
3x03: A Weekend In The Country = 8/10, 3x04: Like It Was =8/10,
3x05: Nice She Ain’t =9/10, 3x06: Sweetheart I Have To Confess =8/10,
3x07: Bang = 10/10, 3x08: Children And Art = 7/10,
3x09: Beautiful Girls =7/10, 3x10: The Miracle Song =9/10,
3x11: No Fits, No Fights, No Feuds =9/10, 3x12: Not While I’m Around =7/10,
3x13: Come Play Wiz Me =8/10, 3x14: I Remember That =9/10,
3x15: The Little Things You Do Together =10/10, 3x16: My Husband The Pig =8/10,
3x17: Dress Big =6/10, 3x18: Liaisons =8/10,
3x19: God That’s Good =9/10, 3x20: Gossip =9/10,
3x21: Into The Woods = 8/10, 3x22: What Would We Do Without You? = 8/10,
3x23: Getting Married Today =9/10.

Season 4 Overview

Maybe it was me but if there a series that actually benefited from the writers strike during the 2007-2008 TV season, it might have been this one. We didn’t have to go through several episodes where nothing happened and Katherine (though sort of annoying) had a mystery that was able to sustain itself throughout the year. It was nice to see Gabby and Carlos get back together and whether the latter’s blindness as well as Tom and Lynette beating the latter’s cancer and Kayla’s wrath. Susan and Mike were decidedly less drama filled (well, in spite of the drug relapse) and their pregnancy plot was fine with me. However I didn’t like Edie being booted out of town but the five year jump was delightful, even though a lot of shows are pulling that one now.

Episode Ratings

4x01: Now You Know =9/10, 4x02: Smiles Of A Summer Night =9/10,
4x03: The Game = 8/10, 4x04: If There’s Anything I Can’t Stand =7/10,
4x05: Art Isn’t Easy =8/10, 4x06: Now I Know, Don’t Be Scared = 9/10,
4x07: You Can’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover = 8/10,
4x08: A Distant Past = 8/10,
4x09: Something’s Coming = 10/10, 410: Welcome To Kanagawa =9/10,
4x11: Sunday =7/10, 4x12: In Buddy’s Eyes =9/10,
4x13: Hello Little Girl = 8/10, 4x14: Opening Doors = 9/10,
4x15: Mother Said = 9/10, 4x16: The Gun Song = 8/10, 4x17: Free = 9/10.


Season 5 Overview

Five years into the future and so much can change and stay the same. This season started off fairly well but it petered as well. Edie’s death should’ve far more irrevocable than it actually was, Dave’s mystery had no twists whatsoever (everyone knew Susan was behind the wheel during the first episode), the Susan/Mike/Katherine triangle was frustrating and it was kind of heartbreaking to see Bree and Orson’s marriage go from bad to worse. We also didn’t need to have Lynette and Tom wind up pregnant by the finale and does anyone actually care who Mike’s mystery bride is? More interesting was Gabby and Carlos becoming parents, rich again, the latter getting his sight back and his niece, which could be a good mystery for next season. And Jackson was nice to gawk at.

Episode Ratings

5x01: You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow = 8/10,
5x02: We’re So Happy, You’re So Happy = 8/10,
5x03: Kids Ain’t Like Everybody Else = 7/10, 5x04: Back In Business = 8/10,
5x05: Mirror, Mirror = 10/10, 5x06: There’s Always A Woman = 9/10,
5x07: What More Do I Need? = 7/10, 5x08: City On Fire = 10/10,
5x09: Me And My Town = 8/10, 5x10: A Vision’s Just A Vision = 8/10,
5x11: Home Is The Place = 8/10, 5x12: Connect, Connect =9/10,
5x13: The Best Thing Ever That Could Have Happened = 10/10,
5x14: Mama Spent Money When She Had None = 7/10,
5x15: In A World Where The Employers Are Kings = 6/10,
5x16: Crime Doesn’t Pay = 7/10,
5x17: The Story Of Lucy And Jessie = 8/10,
5x18: A Spark To Pierce The Dark = 9/10,
5x19: Look Into Their Eyes And You See What They Know =9/10,
5x20: Rose’s Turn = 8/10, 5x21: Bargaining =8/10,
5x22: Marry Me A Little = 7/10, 5x23: Everybody Says Don’t = 8/10,
5x24: If It’s Only In Your Head =7/10.

All episode reviews can be found on both my TV TOME page and SHAWNLUNN2002TVHITS, both of which are linked on this blog.

2 comments:

Nat said...

Good review, very enjoyable, I'd agree with a lot of what you said.

Its been weird watching season 2 again on e4, its actually reminded me that this season wasn't that bad, it probably betters s5 in retrospect.
I think s1 is still my favourite though.

shawnlunn2002 said...

Thanks. I thought instead of putting up over a hundred plus reviews that one big concise one for the first five seasons might do the trick.

Both Seasons 2 and 5 are equally all over the place. Season 3, I just loved that season.