Desperate Housewives

Reviewed by:
Patrick Richardson

Just the title of this one had us spot-revamping our TiVo lineup. But while Desperate Housewives boasts more hot suburban moms than your weekly book-club meeting, you'd have to be on an aggressive schedule of Xanax and progesterone to enjoy the rest of this prime-time soap opera modeled after American Beauty. Former Radio Shack mouthpiece Terri Hatcher (a woman who clearly knows desperation) joins a host of other hotties—Marcia Cross, Eva Longoria, Felicity Huffman—as troubled housewives with shady skeletons filling up their walk-in closets. The paint begins to flake on their white picket fences when a friend suddenly blows her brains out, leaving the ladies to wonder what would make her do something so un-housewife-like. The rest of this tame, dark comedy uses the newly deceased's point of view to expose each woman's secrets, and we get to judge them all like a bitter mother-in-law. Too bad the dirt isn't interesting. We'd rather just spy on them through the blinds without worrying about all the extra baggage.

Share