Strong Mediums and Increasingly Desperate Housewives

Sigh, sigh. Doom, doom. I am in the process of voluntarily withdrawing from the world. I shall close my shutters; seal up my doors and windows; no dust from the street shall enter my home; no sunlight shall penetrate the darkness of my inner sanctum. My eight years of mourning will rival Bernada Alba's, or indeed any poetic misery that Lorca could have dreamt up. For five years and six seasons, I have faithfully followed my Housewives through good times and bad; great episodes and good episodes; some, even bad episodes. I held on tight as the good ship steered through stormy seas, always knowing that it would eventually reach calmer waters and deliver us back to the land of top quality. Alas, I fear this show has navigated into the wrong ocean altogether, never to return.

It's no secret that season five was particularly uneven and, by the finale, uninvolving. I would say the two standout episodes were 5.5, Mirror, Mirror, in which the housewives each had a flashback to what had been going on in the 5 years since season four, to great effect. The episode culminated in a party at Susan's where Mrs McCluskey tried to attack Dave Williams with a baseball bat. This was the first time we had seen the truly evil side of Dave and we were set up for an exciting villain for the season. The other episode was 5.8, City On Fire, where Dave killed his therapist and set fire to the nightclub. Gripping stuff in time for sweeps week, of course. However, the season soon fell apart after that. The Eli Scruggs episode, ironically entitled The Best Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, was a bizarre flashback episode revolving around someone we had never met, and Edie's death five episodes later resembled some sort of DVD extra 'souvenir' featurette, where each housewife remembered pivotal moments in their lives with Edie.

Now, upon second viewing, these episodes as standalones were excellent. But in the course of a season where we had an excellent villain and a plotline hurtling towards something catastrophic, it made no sense to suddenly interrupt the action twice in the second half of the season to bring us a pair of, contextually at least, truly strange episodes. By the time we got to the finale, we were all so bored by the season being dragged out, and so painfully aware of the predictable way it would conclude, that once it was over and done with we looked forward to a robust season six.

Well we're seven episodes in and I couldn't be more unimpressed. The Bolen mystery will, of course, probably become much more involving and dramatic as the season progresses, but I'm not sure anyone will really care. The plotlines themselves are being recycled, too! Does anyone else remember in season four, when Bree and Katherine had a rivalry over their cooking and clashing personality types, only for them to realise that they actually had a lot in common and would both benefit greatly if they combined their culinary knowledge and came to understand each other better? And then last night Bree and Angie had a rivalry over their cooking and clashing personality types, only for them to realise that they actually had a lot in common and would both benefit greatly if they combined their culinary knowledge and came to understand each other better. Even some of the dialogue was identical! Which makes me wonder if the writers are really trying anymore.

Case in point: Eva Longoria. Granted, it took a couple of seasons for her to really blossom into a great comic actress. But that is what she is. So why do they keep handing her storylines about children's parties, monkeys attacking clowns and housework? The comedy this season is rarely laugh-out-loud hilarious, and feels extremely contrived in the 'what sort of harebrained scheme will the housewives come up with this week?' vein. On the other end of the scale, the moving drama that the show is famous for seems to have boiled down to a musical cue. At the end of each episode someone will make a 'moving' speech like 'I worry about how to get that spot out of the upholstery...' accompanied by some violins. And I think we're meant to cry there. What ever happened to genuinely moving moments, like Lynette getting cured of cancer in season four? Bree breaking down over Rex's death in the season one finale? Susan crying through the door to Jackson in season five? I'm sorry, it just isn't the same.

I was told by a friend that in the past couple of seasons, Desperate Housewives seems to be following a one week on-one week off pattern. So a robust episode is followed by a meandering one, and so on. But why should it be so? What happened to each episode being a finely crafted piece of art, instead of a dull stepping stone to the next interesting plot? Don't get me wrong, it must be extremely difficult to keep working to the same standard after 130 episodes. So why then sign on to make a further 58?!

I mentioned in previous blogs my belief that season length should be cut down to around 13 episodes. This would allow for twice as many programmes with twice the quality. Make sense? I don't want to watch a show for six months of the year if it is going to bore me. I want it for three or four months and leave me wanting more. It's called longevity. Well, Desperate Housewives has proved it certainly has that. Fingers crossed for better quality.

And so to Medium, which has also entered it's sixth season and keeps getting better. We haven't had an episode so violent for a very long time. The body count was high and pretty grisly -- there were no shootings or stabbings -- instead each victim was beaten to death. Literally punched and kicked in the face until they were lifeless piles of bloody pulp. Nice! Rape was also pretty prevelant, too. What fun!

Scanlon's brother turned up and we find out he is a convicted rapist. In terms of narrative, Medium has reminded me of early ER in the way that it's character's backgrounds are slowly revealed instead of being heaped upon us all at once. I don't think that when David Cubitt first signed on as a one episode homicide detective he could have anticipated the layers that would be added to his character. From that beginning we have found out about his murdered sister, abusive Father, drug addiction, and finally we saw his marriage to Lynn and birth of their daughter. The appearence of his brother added another dimension to an already extremely complicated character. Great to see a return to the real dark, chilling, brutal themes that elevate the show above the lighter Ghost Whisperer style plot lines. One of the strongest episodes of the season.

Peace

xx

Monday

Some quick updates on a couple of shows for you this fair Monday.

Firstly to The Thick Of It, where we welcome the return of the opposition party who, I think, we haven't seen since the release of the specials. Nicola Murray gets to do some breaking down over the fact that her family life is hanging by a thread, and this serves to demonstrate how government policy actually affects real people. This is something we haven't really explored in any real depth on the show before -- and what made it particularly powerful was seeing how a government minister can be bought down by their own over-zealous policy making. Brilliant.

True Blood. I didn't want to believe what happened at the end of Sparks Fly Out. Grandma was everyone's favourite character! The warmth and sympathy of the woman provided a good emotional touchstone for an audience who could perhaps become somewhat bewildered by the show's overarching, and largely theoretical, themes. What baffled me at first was Sookie's lack of emotion. However, the rest of the episode played out beautifully and the funeral was a great cathartic centre piece. Tara and Lafayette, once again, stole the show both as characters and as performers, taking the situation in hand and making sure Sookie was protected.
And, not for the fusty among us, Lemon Mej, Sookie and Bill finally got down to business. Good for them. So, is she now a vampire? Series continues...

On to Medium. Now, after Bite Me turned out to be a little bit too uninvolving compared to the rest of the season, I had high hopes for its successor, New Terrain. Unfortunately, this episode too was rather dull and I began to believe that perhaps season 6 may not quite deliver what it had initially promised.

Luckily, Once In A Lifetime restored my faith once again. Directed by David Arquette, who has helmed several episodes before, this was a real family affair -- behind the scenes and in the narrative. The writers have played to the show's strengths and centered the episode's crime story around Allison and her family, while intertwining the subplots taking place within the home. It worked marvellously as we saw how Allison's work, her gift, and her family life occassionally collide for reasons beyond anyone's control. Patricia Arquette has said she likes it when Allison's visions don't quite work out as intended, therefore making her more human, more vulnerable. Having to juggle Joe, Scanlon and Ariel was a great central conflict for the episode.

What really stood out to me was the confrontation scene between Allison and the boy's Mother. Now, episodes of Medium tend to fall down at this point. We have an interesting build up often followed by a clunky and unsatisfactory denouement. But we got to see Allison act like a real detective here. She teased information out of the suspect while simultaneously wrapping up how the crime was commited for the audience. Patricia Arquette gives good sassy detective. More of this please! And what a final scene. Allison vaguely wondering about how the boy could have known all about his dead father followed by a rather tender scene where the Father's ghost visits his baby son. This season definitely has a lot more heart than previous years. Great fun.

However, where the feck is Devalos? He has barely been in this season and most of the detective work has been left to Scanlon. He wasn't even in this episode! Hmm...

Peace xx