Alison McMeans

Kathmandu:

In the far reaches of the American imagination lies Wisteria Lane - the perfect manifestation of the American dream and home of the Desperate Housewives. However, in the midst of the perfectly manicured lawns and new cars lies the sinister side of the American dream. The series starts with an unexplained suicide. The victim is Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong). This mystery will carry the series through the first season and into the second with Mary Alice’s ghost narrating the escapades of her friends to the viewers. Why did she kill herself? Her four friends are determined to discover the answer because her life was no different from their lives. The most glamorous housewife is Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria). This beautiful Latina was a fashion model before her husband proposed on their third date. Now she lives in the biggest house in the neighbourhood and wears $15,000 diamond necklaces but isn’t happy. She laments that her husband, “gave me everything I wanted… Turns out I wanted all the wrong things.” She is having an affair with their teenage gardener.

Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman) was a beautiful blonde career woman until she got pregnant and decided to stay home to raise her children. Now she can’t take one step without a child on her hip and pureed peaches on her clothes. She has no time for anything anymore and even takes fast food to a funeral reception because she has no time to cook. Whenever anyone asks, “Don’t you just love being a Mom,” she grits her teeth and lies. Everyone in the neighbourhood thinks Bree Van De Kamp (Marcia Cross) is the perfect wife and mother, except her husband and children. She cooks gourmet meals that take three hours and her house is immaculate, but her husband still wants a divorce. He can’t stand the detergent commercial that they live in and wants back the woman he married, the one who used to burn toast.

Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher) has no problem burning toast or anything she cooks. She is a single mom and is raising her teenage daughter on her own. Her husband had an affair and ran off with his secretary. A year since the divorce she has begun to look for love, and has her eye on a new neighbour, Mike Delfino (James Denton). Her problem is that the local divorcee, Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan), also has her eye on Mike. She is a friend to no woman but her male “conquests are numerous, varied and legendary.” Martha Huber (Christine Estabrook), the neighbourhood busybody, also causes no end of trouble for the women of Wisteria Lane. Through these women, Desperate Housewives explores issues all women must address. They are the archetypes of the female condition — the sex kitten, the mother, the trophy wife and the victim. And they must decide what would have led Mary Alice to kill herself.

Of course, along with the sex and violence there is a lot of comedy. This series is, above all, entertaining. At the funeral reception Lynette strides into the swimming pool fully clothed to drag her misbehaving children out. Even more hilarious is Gabrielle, wearing a ball gown and diamonds, mowing her lawn in the middle of the night because she doesn’t want her husband to discover why the gardener didn’t do it that afternoon. This series reflects the dark side of the American dream and the tragic comedy of human life. These beautiful women lead perfect lives, so why aren’t they happy? ‘Desperate Housewives’ explores the quiet desperation in everyone’s life that comes when we finally get what we thought we wanted.