13 Years After Its Finale, This 8-Season Mystery Drama Is All the Talk on Reddit
The mid-aughts were a triumphant time for network television, especially ABC. Along with the puzzlebox mystery, Lost, and the romantic drama, Grey’s Anatomy, the network also had another show that was lightning in a bottle. In 2004, Desperate Housewives changed how viewers looked at middle age. The show’s zingy title communicated just what kind of project this would be. Desperate Housewives starred actors who had gained fame in their past, such as Teri Hatcher and Marcia Cross, but weren’t going to let themselves be forgotten. The series started quite literally with a bang, with the show’s narrator, Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong), shooting herself with a revolver. Though deceased, Mary Alice would go on to narrate the lives of her best friends who discovered something was amiss after her funeral. Susan Mayer (Hatcher) was the ringleader of the group, post-divorce, and was struggling with raising her teenage daughter as a single mother. The rest of the group was rounded out by Bree (Cross), a repressed housewife, Lynette (Felicity Huffman), a former career woman turned housewife, and Gabby (Eva Longoria), a trophy wife with secrets of her own. When they discover their best friend has died, likely because she was being blackmailed, they realize how seedy the underbelly of suburbia really is. The series had all the hallmarks of a soap opera, with genuinely comedic moments and a killer cast.
Desperate Housewives has long been off the air, but there is no question why it still stirs up debate on Reddit. The plotlines were ridiculous, which was perfect for the tone of the series. There was never anything on television quite like it that had the heart and shocking moments of the ABC series. The women of Wysteria Lane tied it all together with genuinely moving performances. The first season revolves around the identity of Mary Alice’s blackmailer, which led her to suicide. In death, the character not only narrates the series but is an omniscient figure who can see all the lies and secrets her friends are keeping as well. As her friends strive to find out the truth of Mary Alice’s secrets, they also deal with their own. Their friend’s suicide was the catalyst for their drama, but it didn’t stop there. Desperate Housewives would go on to have some of the most heightened and laughable moments on television, comparable in modern terms to Eric Kripke’s The Boys universe. Mary Alice’s mystery concluded at the end of Season 1, leaving the series open to more in the coming years. Even without Mary Alice’s influence, the neighborhood is a hotbed of activity, from arson to vehicle manslaughter to sex work. Anything that could possibly happen would, as virtually every one of the main characters was responsible for murder at some point or another. Riverdale seemed to be the swan song of amazing shows that are popular based on their escapism. Desperate Housewives, however, is an easy series to turn back to and amazing fodder for online discourse. Viewers can catch all eight seasons of the series streaming on Hulu.
Release Date
2004 - 2012-00-00
Showrunner
Marc Cherry
