by Debbie Mandel
The popular ABC comedy-drama with a hint of the Twilight Zone, Desperate Housewives, takes the viewer on a weekly tour of an affluent neighborhood inhabited by women living lives of quiet desperation, and their men don’t look too happy either! Its popularity can mean only one thing: Many of us identify with the theme.
Desperate Housewives presents some obvious reasons for all the unhappiness and we all met them in Stepford Wives. Affluence and love affairs do not appear to offer any solutions. Tidy, organized homes don’t. Raising high spirited children doesn’t seem appealing. While either laughing at some of the absurd antics that have a dark undertone, or feeling sad that the narrative perspective is given by a likable and intelligent woman who shot herself in the head, Desperate Housewives triggers a personal reckoning: “Is this all there is?”