Overdone in more ways than one

Watching Desperate Housewives usually puts me at ease, allowing me to forget about the stresses and worries in my life and float down Wisteria Lane without much to think about. But after last nights show, (I know, I am very late in writing this blog, please forgive me,) I was just plain annoyed. I’m not going to stop watching though, there are two episodes left this season and I feel they will redeem themselves.

It seemed as though the characters were just a bit too into themselves, and overacted their personalities, playing directly to the stereotypes most characters usually try to gracefully break free and evolve from.

Teri Hatcher’s character Susan always annoys me, but last night really left me wanting her to duct tape her to a tree, as her hiking instructor, Toni advised her to shut up and relax. Toni really was the saving grace for me last night, telling the “dippy brunette from the suburbs” that she was the real reason behind her love troubles with Mike and Ian. Because she loves drama, Toni so eloquently put it, Susan cannot just be happy. Susan becomes insulted by Toni’s dose of reality, and decides to hike up the mountain by herself to find Mike—not a dramatic gesture, whatsoever (insert sarcasm here). And then, like we all didn’t already know it was going to happen, Mike rescues a sprained-Susan and they get back together.

In another all too much like her stereotype storyline, Gaby obnoxiously proclaims herself “First Lady of Fairview” after her fiancé, Victor (John Slattery) is elected mayor. She tears up parking tickets and kicks a cop in the knee. A little heavy on the spiciness there, Gaby. Finally Victor warns Gaby that her behavior is unacceptable and inappropriate—another fine helping of a reality-check.

And finally, usually my favorite housewife, Lynette was much too desperate for me to handle. After becoming mutually attracted to Rick, her restaurant chef, Rick decided to let Lynette know how he feels, prompting her to fire him and dramatically weep over her emotional infidelity to her husband and her family. Each character in the Tom-Lynette-Rick love triangle sub-plot overacted, which is a shame because the Scavo’s are usually the most realistic family on Wisteria Lane, and last night they were more soap opera than sincere.
However, Edie’s situation with Carlos and her son Travers was done just right. Nicolette Sherian’s character is usually so outrageous that she provides the fun on an otherwise scandalously average street.

All of this leaves me begging for the return of Marcia Cross’ Bree. We were reminded last week that Bree was finally taking her honeymoon with Orson (who is the other Sex and the City alum along with Slattery, this show just keeps proving so many critics’ points). Bree is so overly neurotic and obsessive, and the absence of her comedic antics and perfect portrayal of the porcelain housewife are leaving a gaping hole in my love of Desperate Housewives.

Thinking about my dissatisfaction with last night’s episode, I am wondering what I am getting so upset about. This is a dramedy, not reality TV or the lives of actual people, yet I still expect a connection with reality in its episodes—which is probably why I think sci-fi television is a joke, soap operas are boring and The OC was one of the more worse depictions of teenagers in entertainment. It seems as though so many (good) television shows, scripted or not, are showing us something that is real and relatable, and those that aren’t seem no more important than childish cartoons.

Susan and Mike’s love saga has been done countless times before. Gaby is always causing a ruckus to shoot out from her teeny-tiny stature. A married woman falling for a handsome co-worker has been seen. Even though the housewives may not be the most exciting bunch of women in the world, we would at least like to see something that makes us want to reconnect and relate again to the housewives that normally intrigue, not annoy.