DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES: Kids Ain’t Like Everybody Else

Before I hand it over to Tricia, I must apologize for hijacking the end of her review of last night’s episode.  There has been something this season that has really been bothering me and I had to get your take on it. Ok, that’s enough from me….on to Tricia!

Hey guys, its Tricia back for another episode of Desperate Housewives. I wasn’t as impressed with this episode as I was with the first two. I thought the storylines, with the exception of Bree’s, were boring and didn’t move the overarching plot along enough. There were still some good moments and lines however; Susan in particular had a couple of laugh out loud moments.

The episode started with Danielle coming to visit Orson and Bree for the first time in three years. It appears that the last time Bree and Orson saw Benjamin was when Danielle took him back. Danielle and her new husband are vegetarian, home schooling, Jewish liberals- in other words, the complete opposite of Bree. Surprisingly, the thing Bree was most upset about was the fact that Benjamin is being raised a vegetarian. She even goes so far as to go behind Danielle’s back and give him meat. To me, this seemed like an odd thing to get so worked up about. I would have thought that Bree would have been the most upset about Benjamin being home schooled. Either way, her interfering cost her her already fragile relationship with Danielle and, by extension, Benjamin.

As a side note, I thought that Bree’s choice of guests at Danielle’s welcome home party was a little odd. It made sense for Katherine to be there, as she is Bree’s business partner, but Karen McCluskey, Edie, and Dave seemed to be just random choices. I know that Edie is technically Benjamin’s great aunt, but she’s never had a relationship with him and didn’t seem particularly interested in him now. It would have seemed more natural for Susan, Gabby, and Lynette to be there.

A main focus of this episode was Dave and Tom’s budding friendship. They initially bond over the fact that Lynette, in her usual controlling manner, is forcing Tom to get rid of some of the things that he keeps in the garage. Dave sees Tom’s old bass and suggests they get together to play. Lynette discourages the idea but they go ahead and do it anyway. After they’ve been at it for a few hours, Lynette not so subtly tells Tom that he has better things to do. When Tom actually stands up for himself Lynette resorts to one of her typical passive aggressive schemes. She somehow manages to get Penny to ‘accidentally’ damage Tom’s bass. Dave intervenes and buys a new bass for Lynette to give Tom; saying that Tom is going through a midlife crisis and that there are much worse things he could be doing. I’m not a fan of Tom or Lynette’s but Lynette was clearly out of line this episode. She needs to accept that her husband can have friends and hobbies other then her. It wouldn’t hurt for her to pick up a hobby either. Maybe then she’d have less time to scheme.

Gabby and Susan were both having trouble with their children. MJ was being bullied and Susan couldn’t get him to tell her who the bully was. She finally discovered that it was none other then Juanita Solis, Gabby’s overweight eldest daughter. Susan tries to talk to Gabby about it but it ends with them insulting the others’ child. In a laugh out loud exchange between the two ladies’ Gabby asks Susan if she’s insinuating that Juanita is fat for her age. “She’s fat for your age” Susan replies. The next time Juanita bullies MJ, Susan goes way out of line and pushes Juanita back herself. This escalates into a physical fight between Gabby and Susan. I understand that Susan wants to protect her child, but what she did was borderline child abuse. She should know better. She and Gabby later make up over a bottle of wine, and Susan gives Gabby the motivation she needs to stand up for herself to Andrew who sold her a ‘lemon’ after Gabby was forced to sell her beloved sports car. I was sad to see the sports car go, personally, as it was such a part of who Gabby was. I miss the old Gabby and hope she gets back to old self soon.

Karen and Katherine haven’t been able to dig up anything on Dave yet and Katherine is still not convinced that he’s not just a nice guy. They go about trying to casually find out more about him, which backfires when Edie inadvertently reveals what they’re doing to Dave. If I were Karen I’d watch out. The story about his grandma was a little ominous.

That’s it for this week. I’m still looking into the issue of Parker’s age from last week. I know there’s an episode that specifically references the birth order of Lynette’s children . I believe it was in the second season, but I still haven’t been able to find it. Anyways, I’ll see you all back here again next week!

GMMR here jumping in with a question that has been killing me this season.  Ok, is anyone else worried for the mental health and self esteem of the little girl playing Juanita?  Did we learn nothing from Carole Seaver/Tracey Gold?  I can only hope that her parents don’t let her watch the show..then again they let her act on it so I don’t know.  Am I overreacting here?  Is it just another job?  I’m so bothered by it.  Maybe I should let it go.

— posted by Tricia

Tricia is your Desperate Housewives girl this year. She’s from upstate New York and is currently a freshman in college. She’s also a hardcore TV fan; check out her homemade TV schedule: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27093551@N08/2782207387/