This week’s episode of Desperate Housewives was all about the money — the damage it can cause to friendships and the crazy things it makes desperate people do. I’m sure money is on a lot of our minds lately, and I identify with the housewives in various ways:

Susan showed her goofiness by first trying to steal the pearls that Mike gave Katherine (which turned out to be fake), then pleading her case with the school director to take MJ on as a student. She’s such a whack-job, but underneath it all, she’s really a sweetheart. I’m sure moms everywhere can see where Susan is coming from: she’s just trying to offer her son the good things, and will do whatever it takes to get them.

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Scripted primetime programming: it’s why I watch TV. Sure, I enjoy Conan occasionally and I catch up on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report over the weekend, but they don’t warrant the same level of devotion I give to my favorite scripted shows.

That said, devotion does not always equal satisfaction. The first half of the season left me pretty pretty underwhelmed with Desperate Housewives, despite the five-year jump into the future, which seemed a little gimmicky to me. Ditto for Grey’s Anatomy. I liked Fringe, but still hadn’t warmed up to the main character, which is kind of important. However, instead of inspiring me to do something constructive with my time, the subpar quality of (some of) the shows I was watching really only served to plunge me further into a state of withdrawal during the weeks-long hiatus over the holidays.

Now (finally!) the shows we’ve been missing are starting to trickle back into our lives, and I don’t know if it’s just the rush of having new episodes to watch, but everything has been much more entertaining!

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(Season 5, Episode 13 – “The Best Thing That Ever Could Have Happened” )

We really don’t see enough of Beau Bridges. He needs a regular gig somewhere — more than Earl’s dad — and that was made clearly evident in tonight’s episode of Desperate Housewives, in which he played a handyman who keels over from a heart attack while fixing Susan’s roof.

Like most unsung heroes of neighborhoods across the country, Beau’s character, Eli Scruggs, is an important guy on Wisteria Lane. And he’s connected to everyone on the street in one way or another. It was a flashback episode….

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We’re well into the Desperate Housewives saga this season, and the show really hasn’t grabbed me like it did at the beginning of the series. There have been some interesting moments, but they’ve mostly been little ones, like Bree and Alex making a connection in last week’s episode, and the little adventures that Mrs. McCluskey and her sister go on in pursuit of the truth about Dave. Even the storyline about Porter hasn’t seemed that huge, for some reason.

But the major mystery-storyline — Dave seeking revenge on Mike for the death of his family — doesn’t really grab me at all. In fact, I couldn’t care less! So I’ve been trying to figure out why that is, and I’ve hit on a few points:

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(Season 5, Episode 12 – “Connect! Connect!” )

“Oh man, I wanna say something helpful, but all I’ve got is ‘that sucks’.” – Mike to Dave, upon hearing how Edie threw him out of the house.

Revenge is a bitter thing to carry around, isn’t it? So we finally get to learn a little more about Dave’s backstory — losing his wife and child, getting hauled into a psych ward, calculatingly marrying Edie so he can live close to Mike and exact revenge. Of course, we knew all that.

I guess Dave will probably go after Katherine, but Mike doesn’t seem any too hyped about having Katherine stay on Wisteria Lane, when she brings up the idea of moving away. Or does he? He sends her flowers, after all. But I still think he and Susan are headed for a reconciliation.

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(Season 5, Episode 11 – “Home is the Place”)

Great acting in this episode! They really brought the “desperate” back to Desperate Housewives, as each of the Wisteria Lane women had their own issues to deal with. Let’s break it down….

Bree is desperate because … an annoying new woman has entered her life: Alex’s mom, Melina, played by Joanna Cassidy. Melina is everything Bree is not – a crude, beer-drinking gal with no sense of tact whatsoever. But two can play at that game, as evidenced when Bree bought the neighbor’s house in order to keep Andrew and Alex in the neighborhood instead of moving near Melina. Wow, Bree’s catering business must be doing pretty well!

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(Week of Dec. 13, 2008)

“I may be a ho, but I’m not a crack ho.” – Cops

“Falalalala-lala-ka-ching.” – Dwight, on his his plan to buy all the unicorn dolls from local stores and sell them to desperate parents at a huge profit, The Office

Desperate Housewives:
“You are my rock Lynette.” – Tom
“Tom, your rock is trying to get fingerprints off a weapon, do you mind?” – Lynette

“Two of my friends involved in a nasty catfight? I live for that stuff!” – Edie

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