As the first series I watched in its entirety—and the only one that has genuinely made me cry at its conclusion—Desperate Housewives holds a unique place in my heart. Having ended it back in 2014, over the summer I had the opportunity to re-watch parts of the show, and even though it has been years since I last saw them, the charisma that the show-runners and actors injected into each of the characters instantly reminded me of what made the show great.
Centering around the lives of four housewives living in suburbia, Desperate Housewives presents Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher), Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman), Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria), and Bree Van de Kamp (Marcia Cross) as they confront the struggles of maintaining their households, all while facing the mysteries that continuously arrive to the neighborhood of Wisteria Lane.
From left to right: Bree Van de Kamp (Cross), Susan Mayer (Hatcher), Lynette Scavo (Huffman), and Gabrielle Solis (Longoria).
The thing that stood out most to me upon my re-watch was how each of the characters consistently evolved throughout the show while still remaining true to their original selves; they didn’t become copies of each other (I’m looking at you, Pretty Little Liars), nor did they became flanderized versions of themselves (now I’m looking at you, Scream Queens). Quite the contrary, each character progressed as the show went on. Susan became more mature and sure of herself while keeping her original quirks; Lynette learned to let others take control while still being the sarcastic “supermom”, Gabrielle kept her glamour but became more empathic, and Bree leaned towards the liberal while still keeping her conservative beliefs that often brought comedic value to the show.
I made note of this quality of the show because in current TV shows, more often than not, I find myself searching for what makes the characters different from each other only to find that their distinctive characteristics are superficial or seem like unnatural tropes at best. Desperate Housewives’ show-runners’ capacity to maintain the characters true to themselves while still making them progress as the episodes went by made the show always seem fresh and kept viewers interested in what the characters were going to go through next.
Even though Desperate Housewives premiered in 2004 and concluded in 2012, it has stood well against the influx of TV programs. With its clever dialogue and well-crafted characters, it did something that very few shows are capable of doing: it kept my attention throughout the entirety of the episodes. Even when the characters were purposefully aggravating to watch (I could barely tolerate season five’s antagonist), I didn’t find myself reaching for my phone in order to entertain myself elsewhere. Desperate Housewives created a story that in no moment felt like a stretch.
I find that other shows should take inspiration from Desperate Housewives and work to create stories that are able to keep viewers engaged and characters that can share characteristics, but stand out amongst each other. Desperate Housewives remains one of my favorite TV shows—maybe even my all-time favorite—and you can be sure that I will find myself coming back to it for years to come.