Stars: Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, Nicolette Sheridan, Brenda Strong, James Denton, Jesse Metcalfe

Director: John David Coles

Summary: All is not as it seems on Wisteria Lane, the pristinely manicured suburban setting of television's hottest prime-time soap. We learn this within the first few minutes of the DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES pilot episode, when seemingly sane and happy housewife Mary Alice Young removes a revolver from a drawer and shoots herself in the head. In the process of trying to make sense of her sudden and inexplicable suicide, Mary Alice's friends end up revealing just as many secrets about themselves and their neighbours as they do about her past. Narrated by the spirit of Mary Alice, each episode follows the ups and downs in the lives of bored trophy wife Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria), klutzy-yet-charming Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher), frustrated stay-at-home-mom Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman), and anal-retentive homemaker Bree Van de Kamp (Marcia Cross). As love-struck Susan competes for the attention of new neighbour Mike Delfino (James Denton) with neighbourhood seductress Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan), Gabrielle takes a liking to her hunky 17-year-old gardener. Meanwhile, Bree attempts to fix her life's problems through obsessive housecleaning, and Lynette struggles to control her children while at the same time keeping her sanity. Throughout the course of the show's wildly popular debut season, each woman faces her fair share of drama and does her part in helping to uncover a mystery that goes deeper than anyone can imagine.

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Audiences were captivated by the women of Wisteria Lane in the first season of Desperate Housewives, the breakout hit from ABC that almost single-handedly lifted the network from its ratings doldrums and brought back the classic TV soap, remixed now with satire, comedy, and mystery. An affectionate yet darkly tinged send-up of suburbia that skirted Twin Peaks territory as much as that of Knots Landing, Desperate Housewives opened with a bang--literally--as perfect-seeming housewife Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) went through her picture-perfect day before putting a handgun to her temple and pulling the trigger. Mary Alice's sudden suicide leaves her four closest friends, all housewives of a sort, with a surfeit of grief, a re-examination of their own lives, and a mystery to solve. It also proves to be a catalyst for a seamy study of what goes on inside the finely appointed homes of Wisteria Lane--the tales of which Mary Alice narrates from beyond the grave with a sardonic tone dipped in both honey and arsenic.

There's Martha Stewart-perfect Bree (Marcia Cross), who rules her household with an iron fist in a tailor-made garden glove and seems to have it all, until she finds out her husband (Steven Culp) is cheating on her-–and has a serious fetish habit to boot. Sultry Gaby (Eva Longoria), the youngest of the set, is a bored trophy wife whose predilection for shopping and clothes are the perfect decoy for her affair with the hunky teenage gardener (Jesse Metcalfe). Former career woman Lynette (Felicity Huffman) is the most stereotypical housewife, raising four (or was it five?) kids and frustrated at using her cutthroat business skills for suburban politics. And daffy Susan (Teri Hatcher), the divorcee looking for love, sees her prospects brighten with the arrival of hunky plumber Mike (James Denton), who has some desperate secrets of his own. And did we mention the neighborhood hussy (Nicollette Sheridan), the snotty busybody (Christine Estabrook), and Mary Alice's increasingly agitated son (Cody Kasch)?

It was a fast and wild mix of plot and characters that gave Desperate Housewives the zing that made it a number one hit, as it never got too bogged down in any dilemma before moving on to the next. And though it was neither as hard-hitting nor salacious as it was trumpeted to be, the show nevertheless breathed fresh, funny air into comedy television, for even though it hewed to the hour-long soap format, the content was far more dark comedy than sudsy drama. There were fun bright spots to be had, but the story behind Mary Alice's death--which included drugs, murder, blackmail, secret identities, and vengeance in equal amounts--hovered over all the characters, tingeing the farce with the specter of danger. The show's other source of strength is in its peerless ensemble cast, headed by four perfect leading ladies, all Emmy-worthy. Hatcher received the (deserved) lion's share of praise (and a Golden Globe), but her co-stars–-especially the underrated Longoria-–matched her scene for scene. And though the mystery of Mary Alice's death was ultimately solved (no Twin Peaks teasing here), it was just the beginning of the troubles on Wisteria Lane, where no life went unexamined for too long. --Mark Englehart, Amazon.com

Aspect Ratio:	1.78 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Deleted Scenes With Optional Marc Cherry Commentary, A Stroll Down Wisteria Lane Featurette, Marc Cherrys Favourite Episodes, Desperate Housewives Around The World, Deleted Scenes, Marc Cherry Audio Commentaries, Dressing Wisteria Lane Featurette, The Ladies Fav
Subtitles:	English, Norwegian
Release Date:	October 10, 2005
Runtime:	997 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	B U A 0007801
Keywords:	Six, Comedy, Box, General, Desperate, Set, Tv, Drama, Housewives, Discs
Genre:	Drama