# Desperate Housewives 10/16 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 17, 2005, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567 "2005-10-17T06:10:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567/21 "2005-10-17T20:17:45Z")
::sigh:: The problem with shows that rely on “quirky” characters (e.g. Northern Exposure, Ally McBeal) is that they have a very short shelf life. What starts out as charming can quickly turn into annoying. I agree with those who have said that they are done with the show. Count me as a former viewer. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567/22 "2005-10-17T21:00:52Z")
Otto, thanks for spelling out in such detail why you feel the way you do. I’m not sure I understand all of it, like why X is funnier than Y to you, but you definitely made me sympathetic to your point of view. I just wonder whether it couldn’t be looked at the complete opposite way. Suppose someone said it wasn’t funny when Bree covered up her son’s hit and run, but it’s funny when the little jerk gets his comeuppance for trying to manipulate his mom’s love life. Or it wasn’t funny when all the women had to do was sit around and gossip all the time about the past, but it’s funny when they’re all too embroilled in their own scandals to mock the scandals of others. I suspect that the story arch is headed in the direction of all of them coming together again for a whole show of mostly discussion, and discovering that the accumulated shock from each other’s stories could kick start Hoover Dam. And I suspect that after they do, the new stuff that doesn’t involve them, like Betty Applewhite, will spin off whole new scandals and the process can start all over again. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567/23 "2005-10-17T21:01:54Z")
Damn, sorry. That post was meant for Shayna, not Otto. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567/24 "2005-10-17T21:43:00Z")
Are any of the folks doing this show the same as the ones who did _Lois and Clark_? It occured to me recently that they both have a similar look and feel about them, besides the Teri Hatcher connection. Also, TH just got nominated worst looking actress in HiDef. I thought they were making her face look all splotchy and tired on purpose, but maybe not… Here are two interesting articles, although registratoin is required: > [@](#): > > [Like Teri’s veins, HDTV sales pop](http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/12922899.htm) > > Poor Teri Hatcher. The ``Desperate Housewives’’ star’s veins are popping out, and there’s nothing she can do about it, at least when her show plays on a high-definition TV set. > > Hatcher figures prominently in TV industry analyst Phillip Swann’s second annual Best and Worst HDTV list, released this month. The list rates which stars look even better on HDTV sets, which display in extremely high detail, and which stars look much, much worse. > > [WARTS AND ALL](http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/12922897.htm) > > ``HDTV Horribles’’ > > 1. Teri Hatcher: ``Hatcher’s forehead is covered with bulging veins.’’ > > ``HDTV Honeys’’ > > 1. Jessica Alba: ``Her skin is luscious and her lips are full and fleshy.’’ > > 2. Eva Longoria: ``Longoria’s skin was creamy; her eyes a rich deep chocolate.’’ ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567/25 "2005-10-17T21:57:07Z")
\*\*John Mace \*\* I think I said in the last Housewives thread: Hatcher is getting hard to look at. She’s so thin and her face is so gaunt and…well over botoxed. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567/26 "2005-10-17T22:11:06Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > \*\*John Mace \*\* > I think I said in the last Housewives thread: Hatcher is getting hard to look at. She’s so thin and her face is so gaunt and…well over botoxed. They may still be real, but they’re not particularly spectacular. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567/27 "2005-10-17T23:38:18Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Then you came to the wrong show. Let’s look at Andrew…last season, he hated Bree for breaking up their marriage; toked up in his room; got kicked off the swim team; committed vehicular manslaughter; and was gay. All forgotten, now. I can see how the death of his father would put some of that on the back burner. The gay thing was sort of explained away with a speech to the family pastor. Something about how Andrew is primarily straight with the incidental hankering for some man-meat (“vanilla kind of guy who gets the occasional craving for chocolate” is roughly how I think Andrew put it) but he’s fine with Bree’s thinking he’s gay because of the pain that Bree’s homophobia will cause her at the thought of having a gay son. As I said before, I think the swim meet from last night was at the country club rather than at Andrew’s school. Since Andrew knows George and Bree dated while Bree and Rex were separated, I expect his anger at George is pretty intense too. As for running ovr Mama Solis, my non-lawyer guess would be that the hospital’s admitted liability in her death would mitigate against a manslaughter charge but it’s still hit and run (and Bree’s as much on the hook for hindering prosecution). He could still be a pot-smoker, though. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567/28 "2005-10-18T00:02:40Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > It was funny when Susan accidentally burned down Edie’s house. It was hilarious when Bree accidentally almost killed Rex with onions in his salad. It was funny the first time Lynnette’s kids were monster brats in the swimming pool at the funeral. It was funny when Edie tossed Mrs. Huber’s ashes in Susan’s face. > > It’s not funny when a grown man manipulates a young boy into a violent act in order to get him sent away to an institution that his mother has described as brutal. It’s not funny when a grown woman sends a minor child off on his own to a different state, not having any real idea where he would end up or how he would survive on the streets. It’s not funny watching Lynnette be a bad mother and seeing her children suffer for it. Agreed. Last season had some deliciously funny hijinks, but this season they seem too forced. Bree’s son getting that upset during his swim meet? I don’t buy it. George should have slipped Andrew some drugs or something. Susan is a complete moron. Either she wants Zach around, or not. Why spend all her apparently free time (does she even have a job?) searching for Zach when she already knows he’s got the hots for his daughter, he’s dangerous, and she doesn’t want him around? Lynette I’ve always hated, but now I’m supposed to feel the tiniest shred of sympathy for her after lying right to her kid’s face then engineering his imaginary friend’s death? Tom needs to have her committed and raise those kids himself. I do like Gabby’s new lawyer. Hopefully he’ll survive at least a little while. I like Edie. She seems to have the most sense of all of them. They missed a great opportunity at the end there, going over the virtues of fathers, and leaving out Betty Applewhite’s bo. I really hope this show tightens up a bit. It’s mindless brain popcorn, but it still has to make some sense. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567/29 "2005-10-18T00:27:38Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > \*\*John Mace \*\* > I think I said in the last Housewives thread: Hatcher is getting hard to look at. She’s so thin and her face is so gaunt and…well over botoxed. Yeah, maybe she thinks she’s actually on Aly McBeal. Put a bit more meat on them bones, Teri. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567/30 "2005-10-18T02:10:47Z")
I think this season the writers tossed out last year’s bible and wrote a new one. AGree with what Shayna said, but to go further: last year Lynnette was cast as desperately unhappy being a stay-at-home mom, and lying about it; Bree was running for Mayor of Stepford; Susan couldn’t do anything right but her mistakes were all honest mistakes. This year Susan is lying and manipulating–I too wondered why she didn’t just tell Mike she’d tried to run Zach down instead of that lame lie. Lynette is back in her element, back on a turf she can win on, so why is she bursting into tears about the effect on her kids? (However many she has in a given episode.) What would be interesting would be seeing Tom doing the desperate househusband bit. I was hoping for something on the leve of the French toast scene from _Kramer vs. Kramer_ --of course he should end up much more competent at it all than Lynnette (which wouldn’t be that difficult, let’s face it), but with some difficulty getting there. What would be funny would be Gabby getting jealous because she thinks Carlos fell for another man while he was in prison. I did think the George/Andrew conflict had an edge–anyway it was the most interesting thing in last night’s episode.Unfortunately I had no idea who to root for since I’m not sympathetic to either of those characters. Which is why that was very likely the last episode I’m gonna watch. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567/31 "2005-10-18T14:16:28Z")
Mildly amusing episode, but it was forced. Andrew the sinister manipulator leaping out of the pool _during_ a race? George getting _that_ flustered over the orgasm talk? Puh-leese. If it doesn’t improve next week, it’ll join the ‘things I watch because my wife is in the room watching TV’ list. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567/32 "2005-10-18T14:17:33Z")
Mildly amusing episode, but it was forced. Andrew the sinister manipulator leaping out of the pool _during_ a race? George getting _that_ flustered over the orgasm talk? Puh-leese. Granted, the whole Gabrielle/lawyer/assault-by-broom thing was funny, but that was all before the credits rolled… If it doesn’t improve next week, it’ll join the ‘things I watch because my wife is in the room watching TV’ list. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567/33 "2005-10-18T23:09:49Z")
Well, I’m going to give it a few more episodes. It takes a good whack upside the head before I completely give up on a show, _cough West Wing cough_ ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567/34 "2005-10-18T23:48:43Z")
Well, we aren’t the only ones who seem to think it’s slipped. TV critics are saying the same things about the show. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-housewives-10-16/326567.md?page=1)