Search - Desperate Housewives: The Complete Fifth Season on DVD

I'M IN LOVE WITH THIS SERIES

Wendy A. Bowers | 87124 | 04/02/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Prior to purchasing the first four seasons of Desperate Housewives I had never watched any of the episodes on TV. By the commercials I had seen though I had a feeling it would be something I'd like. Recently I've taken the time to watch all four seasons and I'm chomping at the bit now waiting for Season five. I don't know how I'll make it all the way to September!!!



This show is different than most, at least to me. I thought it was going to be more of a "Soap Opera" type but it's more of a drama with comic undertones. It'll make you laugh mostly, make you cry sometimes and make you sit there with your mouth hanging open thinking "I can't believe she did that!".



I find this series thoroughly enjoyable and addictive!!"

How is this season so low-rated?

Housewives Connoisseur | Coolville, Ohio 45723 | 06/30/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm having a difficult time understanding why this season is rated so much lower than all the rest. First of all, Desperate Housewives is one of the most consistently good shows on TV and every season is solid. However, season five is special in that it revamped and refreshed the series by beginning five years ahead of where season four left off. This technique provides the viewer with a slew of new storylines:



Susan: In season five, we find Susan and Mike divorced after a terrible incident tears them apart. Connected through their five year old son, Susan and Mike struggle with old feelings while beginning new relationships, Susan with her much younger house painter and Mike with Katherine Mayfair.



Lynette: Tom and Lynette continue to struggle raising their four children, specifically their teenaged twins Porter and Preston. On top of that, Tom finds himself in a midlife crisis and Lynette discovers the woes of returning to the world of advertising at age 50.



Bree: No longer a mere housewife, Bree is now an established cookbook author and businesswoman, owning her own catering company with Andrew and Katherine by her side. However, success comes with a price as she struggles to maintain her marriage to Orson, now a former convict.



Gabby: The beginning of season five finds Gabby as a harried mother of two young girls; now a house frow, she is far from the glamorous fashion model she once was. When Carlos regains his sight, Gabby and Carlos find themselves at a crossroads as they begin to simultaneously adopt and question their former lifestyle.



Edie: After being banished from Wisteria Lane five years prior, Edie returns with a new husband in tow. This husband is at the center of season five's mystery, as he has manipulated Edie into moving back to the lane so he can exact revenge on several main characters.



In all honesty, the only critique I have of this season is the mystery. In fact, I didn't find it to be all that mysterious, as I figured pretty much the entire thing out the night the premiere aired. It still remains, however, an interesting storyline to watch unfold.



There you have it. If you enjoyed seasons 1-4 of Housewives, you should definitely enjoy this. It's my second favorite season after season two, which interestingly enough was also unpopular among many fans. Negative reviews aside, this is an extremely solid season with captivating storylines and the same mix of comedy and drama we have come to expect from the show. To avoid spoilers for those of you who haven't seen the season yet, I'll just say that the finale gives us many things to look forward to in the fall, as each housewife's life takes an interesting turn.



Hope this helps,



Justin M. Green







"

Desperate Housewives - Season Five

Joseph Haggard Jr. | 08/23/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In my opinion, in its first four years on the air, "Desperate Housewives" has had three out of four really good seasons. The first, third, and fourth seasons were excellent. Only the second season wasn't quite as good. So going into the fifth season of this hit show I wondered if it was going to match the greatness of its best years. Sad to say it didn't. The fifth season of "Desperate Housewives" was its weakest season yet. I still liked the fifth season of the show, and I'm giving it 4 stars out of 5 (it falls more under 3 1/2 stars than 4). But I've got a feeling that it might be running out of gas down the road in its later years to come.



For the most part, "Desperate Housewives" season five is still pretty good. There are plenty of moments that are funny, sexy, and suspenseful. There was nothing wrong with the acting. The regular cast is back and the acting is fine as usual. There was nothing wrong with the presence of Teri Hatcher (Susan), Marcia Cross (Bree), Felicity Huffman (Lynette), Eva Longoria Parker (Gabrielle), Nicolette Sheridan (Edie), and season four newcomer Dana Delany (Katherine) on the screen. Same goes for the other cast members as well. Along the way in season five there were some newcomers. The most notable newcomer to season five was Neal McDonough, who plays Edie's new husband Dave. This character provides most of the story arc to season five which means that this character has a deep dark secret that plays out during the season (quite similar to Dana Delany's character in season four). McDonough is very good here and there's no fault in his character's storyline.



There were other newcomers to season five, and many of the new faces were provided thanks to the five year jump that this show took at the end of season four. There are now older actors who are playing the Scavo kids (Lynette's three sons and one daughter). Susan and Mike's son, born at the end of season four, is now five. And Gaby and Carlos have two daughters (also shown at the end of season four). The storyline with the five year jump into the future I think might have hurt the show a little. I think I liked it better with the way it was. It's obvious that "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry wanted to make some changes so that way the show can stay fresh. Not a bad idea, but for me changes don't always cut it.



As for which episodes were the best, I'd have to say the very best episode of season five was the show's 100th episode, titled "The Best Thing That Could Have Ever Happened" (in the show's fifth season, it's episode #13). Here's an episode that takes a total departure from its regular storyline to focus on Wisteria Lane's local handyman, wonderfully played by Beau Bridges. The handyman dies of a heart attack at the beginning of the episode, and the ladies flashback on how this man affected their lives over the years. Bridges' guest appearence provided "Desperate Housewives" with one of its only two Emmy nominations that it received this year. Another good episode was #8: "City on Fire". This was supposed to be the big episode of the season, following on the heals of the tornado episode from season four and the supermarket hostage crisis episode from season three, which rank as the two best episodes of the show so far. In this episode, a nightclub fire puts the housewives and their husbands in danger. However this episode (even though its a good one) isn't quite up to the tornado and hostage crisis episodes from the previous seasons.



Besides Bridges, other familiar guest stars from season five include: Gale Harold ("Queer as Folk") as Susan's new boyfriend Jackson (the mystery man Susan was kissing just as season four ended); Lily Tomlin as Mrs. McCluskey's sister Roberta; Gail O'Grady ("NYPD Blue") as a promoter who Lynette thinks her husband Tom is having an affair with, but it turns out she's having the affair with one of the Scavo twins; Frances Conroy ("Six Feet Under") as one of Carlos' massage clients who integrates herself into the lives of the Solis family which in the process upsets Gaby; Steven Weber ("Wings") as Julie Mayer's much older new beau (Andrea Bowen, who played Julie in the first four seasons but is not a regular in season five reprised her role for this one episode); and Swoosie Kurtz ("Sisters") as a worker at a school that Susan goes to work at who turns out to be a closeted lesbian. Besides Bowen, other regular "Desperate Housewives" actors from the past turn up, including Richard Burgi as Susan's ex-husband Karl; Steven Culp in a flashback scene as Bree's late husband Rex; and Christine Estabrook (also in a flashback) as season one neighbor Mrs. Huber.



Season five of "Desperate Housewives" has some problems. First of all the storyline, even though it's good, isn't as good as past storylines. This lead to a couple of episodes that were just downright dull. Plus a couple of minor storylines were kind of ridiculous. The most absurd was Bree's current husband Orson becoming a kleptomaniac, where he was breaking into houses on Wisteria Lane and stealing items from each house. Another problem was Gaby's selfish behavior, which was funny in earlier seasons but in season five was starting to get tiresome. One of the dumbest scenes of all time on this show comes in season five's first episode, where Gaby plays a game with one of her chubby daughters. It's where Gaby wants her daughter to lose weight by having her chase Gaby's car while Gaby drives a little bit away just as her daughter reaches up to the car. Then the daughter, very tired from all the chasing that her mom is making her do, gets on a bus and takes the bus home much to the chargin of Gaby. This is not "Desperate Housewives" at its best. Plus, Lily Tomlin isn't hardly given anything to do as Mrs. McCluskey's sister Roberta. Tomlin is one of our finest comediennes. Couldn't the writers given her something more to do?



Let's hope that season six of "Desperate Housewives" will be an improvement, but I'm not all that enthusiastic. Nicolette Sheridan is now gone, thanks to her late season departure. That's a shame because Edie was one of the very best characters on the show. But at least a familiar face has joined the cast for season six: Drea de Matteo, best known for her brilliant Emmy winning role as Adriana on the superb HBO series "The Sopranos", will be coming to Wisteria Lane. I'm looking forward to seeing if she can give this once great show a much needed boost.



"

Some good additions to a tiring premise

Alexander M. Walker | Chicago, IL USA | 09/15/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The women of Wisteria have come a long way since their first season. Each has had their share of tragedies, affairs and crimes committed and each has their own stash of secrets they don't tell the other four matriarchs. The fifth season of Desperate Housewives sees the return of Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan) and a new sordid batch of dirty tricks and loathsome dealings in the murky waters America affectionately calls suburbia. The drama matches the series' par but never has one of those crowning moments that set past seasons apart.



Susan Meyer (Teri Hatcher) has a new and younger man in her life (Gale Harold), but she finds her relationship with him tainted by the ease with which he and Susan's ex-husband Mike (James Denton) get along. The two men seem to bond right from the start, though some friction remains as Mike vies for the affection of his son who seems equally content with him as with Susan's new beau. Gabrielle (Eva Longoria Parker) has no such hang-ups with the men in her life, as Carlos (Ricardo Shavira) makes do as a blind masseur only to find his finely skilled hands gaining the attention of the rich widow Virginia Hildebrand (Frances Conroy), who offers them exorbitant sums of money in exchange for a deciding interest in the future of their family. Bree (Marcia Cross) has a booming career with a marriage that just keeps improving thanks to Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) becoming a partner of her company and the two finding the relationship quite rewarding. Lynette (Felicity Huffman) on the other hand finds her personal life spiraling out of control when her son begins having an affair with an older woman and her husband Tom (Doug Savant) goes into full-fledged mid-life crisis mode and starts a band.



All that is secondary to the season's real plot, though. With Edie's return a new face arrives in Wisteria: her new husband Dave Williams (Neal McDonough). Dave's past isn't what he claims. Dave receives calls from a doctor at a mental institute and enacts intricate plots to drive the couples of Wisteria apart from one another. His actions take increasingly sinister turns until the season's big reveal - but even then the season never lives up to past seasons' pay offs. Neal McDonough was an excellent addition to the cast and really proved a new and exciting catalyst for the show's main players.



With four seasons down the women of Desperate Housewives still manage to keep their characters filled with life, even if the writing at times takes a dive. Of them all Felicity Huffman and Marcia Cross seem to stand out. Eva Longoria's charm has long worn out and Teri Hatcher's role has become so resigned to a supporting player that her inclusion at all seems unnecessary. Huffman and Cross however seem to inject pure energy into their stories and consequently the show remains 60% decent (the additional 20% coming from the Edie and Dave end of the cast). What hasn't changed? The narration by long-dead Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) is as annoying as ever. Why they've kept this device going for so long boggles my mind. It's unnecessary and obnoxious each and every time.



DVD Extra Features:



Two of the episodes have audio commentaries, so that's not much to brag about. However there is a decent blooper reel and four interesting featurettes. "So Very Teri" takes a look at Teri Hatcher's presence on the show, which is ironic as now the other women are easily more interesting than her, so this particular featurette is a few seasons late. Marc Cherry gives fans a look at his favorite scenes from the show while another takes a behind-the-scenes look at how an episode gets from the typewriter to the television. The last featurette is a Happy Birthday celebration of sorts and looks back at 100 episodes of Desperate Housewives. What is it really saying? Hello cable network syndication for the next 10 years."