Desperate Housewives: Difference between revisions

Notable for its combination [[Narrator]]/NearDeathClairvoyance trope, in which the entire series is narrated by the dulcet tones of an apparently omnipresent dead woman - the friend who committed suicide.

Owing to creator Marc Cherry's penchant for comedy, the series pokes fun at itself and its characters about as often as it takes them seriously, probably the number one thing that attracted most of its initial viewership, aside from the fact that it throws vicious, subversive holes in the ideas of suburban paradise and maternal bliss. In fact, ratings dropped after [[Executive Meddling]] caused the second season to be more "dramatic" (read: melodramatic) leading to the panicked execs basically saying "OK, OK we'll go back to doing more comedy again, Marc. You win." Ratings apparently improved again after that point.

You get all that?

** In season 4, Carlos sinks their savings in an embezzlement scam, and then loses the papers for the off-shore account and goes blind for 5 years, in that time having two kids. Then he gets his sight back and almost immediately gets a high-paying job.

* [[Ivy League for Everyone]]: Every one of the families seem to be able to sneak their kids into the same incredibly exclusive and expensive private school. Though Lynette every now and then mentions the financial troubles with it, and Susan manages to get MJ in by getting employed as a teacher's assistant.

* [[Literary Allusion Title]]: Most episodes have a title taken from a line of, or the title of, a song from a [[Stephen Sondheim]] musical.

* [[Little Miss Snarker]]: Julie in the earlier seasons

* [[Nosy Neighbor]]: Martha Huber. And to a lesser extent, virtually everyone else on the block. Don't worry, she gets her comeuppance.

* [[Pair the Spares]]: Carlos and Edie, Mike and Katherine and since the season five finale Bree and Karl are taking this direction.

* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: Eddie's sudden death in Season 5 was orcehstrated to write the character out of the show due to Nicolette Sheridan being on increasingly bad terms with producer Mark Cherry.

* [[Rich Bitch]]: Gabrielle, who also gets her comeuppance.

* [[Aesop Amnesia]]: In season five, Tom and Lynette kept going through the same loop--Tom wants to do something wild, Lynette disapproves, Tom whines about how he never gets a chance to do anything, Lynette tries to put a stop to what he is doing, the two reach a compromise, and resolve to be more understanding of each other's wishes...only to go through the ''exact same situation'' yet ''again'' a few episodes later.

* [[All Psychology Is Freudian]]

* [[Amoral Attorney]]: What Karl is revealed to be.

** Subverted with Bob who legitimately cares about his clients.

* [[Dead Man's Chest]]

* [[Death of the Hypotenuse]] / [[Murder the Hypotenuse]]: Often.

* [[Family Relationship Switcheroo]]: Bree sent her pregnant daughter to a convent and pretended to be pregnant herself. She actually managed to get away with it... for a while. Eventually everyone who mattered found out by the end of the season and {{spoiler|Danielle took the baby back between seasons}}. Note that the use of this trope was a deliberate anachronism; the show is a comedy, after all.

* [[Finger-Twitching Revival]]: Subverted. {{spoiler|Edie}} is accidentally electrocuted, falls down, then we get a close up of the Twitching Hand right before the credits. The following episode starts with the character already cremated.

* [[Gosh Hornet]]: In Season 2 when Edie winds up disturbing a yellow jackets' nest and is stung pretty badly. Its left up to the audience whether this is dramatic or hilarious.

* [[Here We Go Again]]: {{spoiler|The ending of the very last episode features a woman moving into Susan's house after she leaves, taking out a box that she looks at with worry before hiding it, clearly implying it containing a secret. And that's where it ends.}}

* [[Incest Is Relative]]: In season 5, Lynette pretends to be a teenage girl online to get her son to open up and find out what's going on in his life. ... then she sort of accidentally became his online girlfriend. Much to her shock.

* [[Jerkass Has a Point]]: Mrs. Huber's sister spent season two trying to turn the neighbors against Paul and have him arrested for murder, and repeatedly attempted to kill him. We seem to be intended to feel sorry for him, but it's sort of hard considering he actually ''is'' a murderer who had been getting away with everything he did in the past.

* [[Verbal Tic]]: Mary Alice has a fondness of constantly beginning a narration with "Yes...".

* [[Victim Falls For Rapist]]/[[Black Comedy Rape]]: If you want to have a baby with your ex-husband (and thereby force him back into marriage with you), just drug him and rape him! And make sure you do the reveal with the wife realizing what was done to her husband by his ex by having her use the "R" word in an over the top fashion.

* {{spoiler|[[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]]: The very last episode ends like this.}}

* [[Whole Costume Reference]]: One episode opens with Gabrielle wearing [[The Sims|Bella Goth's dress]].

* [[Wounded Gazelle Gambit]]: Kayla attempted this in the last few episodes of season four... {{spoiler|and ultimately backfired on her}}.

* [[Yandere]]: {{spoiler|Orson's ex-wife, who was believed to be dead}} in season three. And of course, George Williams from the first two seasons.

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=== Show wide tropes include: ===

* [[Ephebophile]]: Gabrielle had an on-again-off-again tryst with her gardener since he was about 17 years old. Thanks to being played by a visibly grown man, it's easy to forget he's supposed to be a teenager.

* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Most of the guys, but [[Handsome Lech|Karl]], [[Hot Dad|Carlos]], [[Badass|Mike]] and Danny (for the younger girls) stand out the most.

* [[Family Business]]: The Scavo pizzeria which {{spoiler|may finally be dead}}.

* [[Fan Service]]: There is a very large amount of male-oriented fanservice for a show aimed at women. Eva Longoria Parker, anyone?

* [[Out of Focus]]: Bree spends virtually half of season3 on a freakishly long honeymoon.

* [[Out-of-Genre Experience]]: The [[Disaster Movie|disaster]] episodes are often quite of a different tone from the rest of the show.

** Season 4 has the episode ''Something's Coming'' has a storm coming to Wisteria Lane. This episode provides an example of [[Necro Non Sequitur]]

** Season 5 has ''City of Fire'', where a tragic fire occurs in a club.

** In Season 5, it is explicitly stated from the start that {{spoiler|Dave is planning to kill Mike}}, so the tension of this Season comes from [[Dramatic Irony]], we watch as he gets close to the main characters, always knowing his motive.

* [[The Unfair Sex]]: The females get away with crap that would get them put to death if they were males. {{spoiler|Like throwing your spouse out a upstairs window because they caught you trying to con them out of all their money. And no, it never gets mentioned again}}.

* [[Writers Cannot Do Math]]: Trust us, it does not always take very long for the [[Fridge Logic]] to set in when you realize how much time has supposedly passed in between episodes, especially with the children's birthdays and ages. For example, Juanita is a year older than MJ, even though the episode where he was born happened before Gabby knew she was pregnant. Then there's Eddie, who seems to be the same age as the Scavo twins yet went to high school with Danielle, who was a teenager when the twins were little kids.

** The Scavo twins were explicitly stated as being 8 in the season 3 finale. This would mean that they would be 9 at the end of season 4, then 14 at the beginning of season 5, due to the five-year jump. However, Lynette says in the season 5 premiere that they're 16.