Another entertaining and fun season of “Desperate Housewives”! Although the main dark plot of the Bolen family or “the strangler” didn’t end up as more shocking than I would have hoped, I did feel the writing was consistent with last season’s awesome writing sans the yearly shocking finale. The latest DVD release doesn’t have any audio commentary but you do get a few entertaining special features to make this release quite entertaining. If you are a fan of “Desperate Housewives”, “Desperate Housewives: The Complete Sixth Season – The All Mighty Edition” is definitely recommended!
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TITLE: Desperate Housewives: The Complete Sixth Edition – The All Mighty Edition
DURATION: (23 episodes) 989 minutes
DVD INFORMATION: NTSC, Region 1, Widescreen (1:78:1), NTSC, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, English SDH, Spanish and French subtitles
RATED: TV 14 DLSV
COMPANY: abc studios
RELEASE DATE: September 21, 2010
Created by Marc Cherry
Directed by Larry Shaw, David Grossman, David Warren, Bathany Rooney
Written by Marc Cherry, Alexandra Cunningham, Joey Murphy, John Pardee, Bob Daily, Joe Keenan, Matt Berry, Jamie Gorenberg, Jason Ganzel, David Schladweiler
Executive Produced by Marc Cherry, Geroge W. Perkins, John Pardee, Joey Murphy, Larry Shaw, David Grossman, Sabrina Wind, Bob Daily, Michael Edelstein, Tom Spezialy
Co-Executive Produced by David Flebotte, Marco Pennette
Produced by Charlas Skouras II, Stephanie Hagen
Associate Produced by Dana N. Wilson
Consulting Producer: Jeff Greenstein. Joe Keenan
Music by Steve Jablonsky
Cinematography by Lowell Peterson, David J. Miller
Editing by Andrew Doerfer, Jonathan Posell
Casting by Scott Genkinger, Junie Lowry-Johnson
Production Design by Erik Carlson
Series Art Direction by Brian Jewell
Series Set Decoration by Eric Rogalia
Series Costume Design by Catherine Adair
Series Casting by Scott Genkinger, Junie Lowry-Johnson
Production Design by Erik Carlson
Art Design by Brian Jewell, Erik Carlson
Set Decoration by Erica Rogalla
Costume Design by Catherine Adair
Starring:
Terri Hatcher as Susan Mayer
Felicity Huffman as Lynette Scavo
Marcia Cross as Bree Hodge
Eva Longoria Parker as Gabrielle Solis
Dana Delany as Katherine Mayfair
Ricardo Chavira as Carlos Solis
Brenda Strong as Mary Alice Young
Doug Savant as Tom Scavo
James Denton as Mike Delfino
Shawn Pyfrom as Andrew Van De Kamp
Andrea Bowen as Julie Mayer
Kyle MacLachlan as Orson Hodge
Kathryn Joosen as Karen McCluskey
Richard Burgi as Karl Mayer
Drea de Matteo as Angie Bolen
Maiara Walsh as Ana Solis
Jeffrey Nordling as Nick Bolen
Beau Mirchoff as Danny Bolen
Julie Benz as Robin
On the surface, the residents of Wisteria lane appear to be the picture of suburban America. But underneath lay bigger mysteries – infidelity, deceit, blackmail and even murder. And with not-so-honest husbands, complicated relationships, family drama and meddling neighbors adding to the turmoil (and humor), it’s no wonder things aren’t always as they seem in the lives of the housewives. The women of Wisteria Lane have been through a lot, yet through it all, they stand united together.
“Desperate Housewives”, the popular ABC drama series (created by Marc Cherry, “The Golden Girls”, “The Golden Palace”, “Amas de casa despesperadas”) which started back in 2004 definitely has gone through some major ups and downs with its dark comedy storylines to its complex marriage or relationship problems but if there is one thing definite about the series… its that the the fans love it and to keep the fans interested, the series went through a significant change for its fifth season.
“Desperate Housewives” is a series that had so many complex storylines that to even explain what has happened in the last four seasons would be difficult but if there is one thing that remains the same, it’s our housewives.
The premise of the first season was based around the death of fellow housewife Mary Alice Young (played by Brenda Strong, “Everwood”, “The Help”, “A Plumm Summer”). Mary Alice Young is the narrator of the series and every episode, she has setup the sequences of what is going on in the life of her friends. And its the housewives of Wisteria Lane who have lived complex lives full of love, betrayal, pain and sadness.
For the sixth season of “Desperate Housewives”, the housewives have new problems this time around. Susan has married her second husband Mike, once again, but Katherine is not taking it quite well. Bree is having an affair with Susan’s first ex-husband behind her current husband, Orson’s back. Lynette is doing fantastic at her new career working for Carlos but as she is making her career dreams come true, now she and Tom face a new challenge as she is pregnant with twins. As for Gabrielle, life as a mother is difficult, especially now that she has to watch over Carlos’ teenage niece Ana but to make things even more complicated, a former flame comes back and she also has to deal with the pressures of being a parent. We are also introduced to a new family who has moved into the neighborhood and a new housewife named Angie who has a major secret. Meanwhile, a serial killer is on the loose and his victims hit the housewives of Wisteria Lane pretty hard.
The main characters of “Desperate Housewives” Season 6 are:
- Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher, “Seinfeld”, “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”) – One of the lead characters who was married to Karl and had a daughter named Julie. They divorced and Susan married Mike Delfino who she ended up divorcing. But in season 5, they manage to patch things up despite Mike having a relationship with Katherine.
- Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman, “Frasier”, “Sports Night”, “Raising Helen”) – Lynnette was a former advertising executive who is married to Tom Scavo (Doug Savant, “Melrose Place) and has four children: her teenage twins (and often in trouble) Preston and Porter, Parker is the youngest son and the well-behaved youngest daughter Penny. She is now working in an executive position for Carlos but finds out that she is pregnant.
- Bree Van de Kamp (Marcia Cross, “Everwood”, “Melrose Place”) – Bree is a woman who tries to have the perfect family but unfortunately, her family is quite dysfunctional. She has two children Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) and Danielle (Joy Lauren) with her now deceased husband Dr. Rex Van de Kamp.  Bree is now a successful publisher (and a Martha Stewart type of person) and her husband Orson (played by Kyle MachLachlan, “Twin Peaks”, “Sex and the City”) are not in great terms and thus is having an affair with Karl.
- Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria Parker, “Dragnet”, “The Hearbreak Kid”, “Young and the Restless”) – The youngest housewife who enjoys money. She is married to Carlos Solis (Ricardo Chavira, “Six Feet Under”) and has a daughter named Juanita (Madison De La Garza) who is a bit overweight and has issues because of that. Also, the neighborhood bully. Also a young daughter Celia (Daniella Baltodano) and now having to watch over Carlos’ niece Ana (who likes to go out and have fun).
- Katherine Mayfair (Dana Delany, “China Beach”) – A business partner of Bree and now dating Mike and not knowing that he is together with Susan again. Thus igniting a rivalry between her and Susan.
- Mike Delfino (James Denton, “Threat Matrix”) – The husband of Susan who works as a plumber. He used to have a relationship with Katherine after his first marriage with Susan ended in divorce.
- Tom Scavo (Doug Savant, “24”, “Melrose Place”) – The husband of Lynette who is a former advertising employee and has had his ups and downs in the marriage.
- Orson Hodge (Kyle MacLachlan, “In Justice”, “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2”) – The husband of Bree who is a former thief and con man who has been feeling unimportant in his marriage.
- Carlos Solis (Ricardo Chavira, “Prinha”, “Days of Wrath”) – The husband of Gabrielle and a successful business and Lynnette’s boss who has had his moments of problems the past.
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS:
- Angie Bolen (Drea de Matteo, “Joey”, “Sons of Anarchy”) – The new housewife on the block who has a major secret and has moved her family to escape the law and someone else for some reason.
- Karen McCluskey (Kathryn Joosten, “Scrubs”, “Joan of Arcadia”) – An older widowed housewife and is seen as one of the nosiest neighbors on the block. She is now dating Roy.
- Ana Solis (Maiara Walsh, “Cory in the House”) – A niece of Carlos who has moved in with the family but unfortunately she is often at odds with Gabrielle. She takes an interest in Danny.
- Robin Gallagher (Julie Benz, “Dexter”, “Rambo”, “Angel”) – A former stripper who is given a chance to start a new life by Susan.
- John Rowland (Jesse Metcalfe, “Passions”) – A former gardener who had an affair with Gabrielle. He now owns a restaurant and hires Ana (who takes a liking to him) and makes Gabrielle jealous.
- Danny Bolen (Beau Mirchoff, “Heartland”) – The son of Angie who carries on her secret. Because of his mysteriousness, the housewives on Wisteria Lane feel weird about him and think he is the strangler.
- Lee McDermott and Bob Hunter (Kevin Rham, Tuc Watkins) – Two gay men who live in Wisteria Lane. A loving couple who love to argue in public.
“Desperate Housewives: The Complete Sixth Season” on DVD features the following episodes 112-134 (the following are spoiler-less summaries):
DISC 1:
- EPISODE 112 – Nice is Different Than Good – The bride of Mike Delfino is revealed, Susan must deal with Katherine’s wrath, a new housewife named Angie Bolen moves to the neighborhood and something bad happens to Julie.
- EPISODE 113 – Being Alive – The aftermath and the attention of Julie’s attacker points to Angie’s son. Meanwhile, Gabrielle has to deal with her niece Ana.
- EPISODE 114 – Never Judge a Lady By Her Lover – Susan believes that Nick is the person responsible for the attack on Julie, meanwhile Gabrielle must deal with John’s (Jesse Metcalfe’s) return and is jealous when he hires Ana. Meanwhile, Bree is jealous of Karl’s date. Carlos offers Lynette a job at VP but she is worried that her pregnancy will hurt her career.
- EPISODE 115 – The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love Me Blues – Gabrielle’s jealousy continues to grow as she sees John around Ana. Lynette is worried that her body changes may make people know that she is pregnant.
DISC 2:
- EPISODE 116 – Everybody Ought To Have a Maid – Bree is upset when a motel maid knows she has an affair with Karl. Meanwhile, another housewive doesn’t tells Gabrielle she is not a good mother, thus Gabrielle tries to prove that she is a good mother.
- EPISODE 117 – Don’t Walk On the Grass – Bree begins to fall for Karl and tries to stop it before it gets too serious but Karl is not going to let her off that easily.  Meanwhile, after Gabrielle’s daughter says the F word during a school play and after being told off by the school principal, Gabrielle ends up home schooling her daughter.
- EPISODE 118 – Careful the Things You Say – Susan wants to know if Katherine is responsible for strangling Julie. Lynnete finds out who the father of Julie’s baby is and suspects that he may be the strangler.
- EPISODE 119 – The Coffee Cup – Susan and Katherine have to serve community service and Katherine brags about her past sexual relationship with Mike which makes Susan jealous. Orson suspects Bree is cheating on him.
- EPISODE 120 – Would I Think of Suicide? – Another strangler murder leads the Bolen’s in deciding that perhaps they should move away from Wisteria Lane. Meanwhile, Katherine’s scheming starts to anger Mike and situations at work continue to worsen between Lynnette and Carlos.
DISC 3:
- EPISODE 121 – Boom Crunch – Gabrille and Lynette’s friendship is starting to deteriorate. Â Orson finds out who the man Bree was having an affair with. Meanwhile, disaster strikes Wisteria Lane when a plane crashes in the neighborhood.
- EPISODE 122 – If… – The aftermath of the plane crash and each of the housewives ponder about their life of “what if”?
- EPISODE 123 – You Gotta Get a Gimmick – With things now better between Lynette and Gabrielle (and both families), Carlos gives Tom a chance to take on her position. Meanwhile, Juanita finds out that she’s of Mexican descent and Gabrielle deals with feelings that she has about her heritage.
- EPISODE 124 – How About a Friendly Shrink? – Lynette doesn’t want to see a couple’s therapist, meanwhile Orson makes life harder for Bree.
- EPISODE 125 – The Glamorous Life – Gabrielle and Carlos are concerned with Ana and Danny’s relationship, meanwhile Tom and Lynette disagree about their new therapist. Meanwhile, Bree fears that Orson may attempt suicide and Gabrielle and Carlos know that the Bolen’s have a secret.
DISC 4:
- EPISODE 126 – Lovely – The housewives are not so happy that Susan has a stripper named Robin living at their home. But somehow Robin helps each housewife in their own way. But Susan gets a bit jealous when she starts to help Mike with personal massages.
- EPISODE 127 – The Chase – Gabrielle stays with Bob and Lee because Celia has the chicken pox (and she has never had it) and now enjoying the party life, she doesn’t want to go back. Tom and Lynette forget about Penny’s birthday and now Penny’s gone missing.
- EPISODE 128 – Chromolume #7 – Gabrielle and Angie head to New York to find Ana and Danny. Meanwhile, Preston returns back from Europe with a new girlfriend and Lynnete and Tom think he is being used. Meanwhile, Katherine tries to figure out if she is lesbian or not. (Special guests Heidi Klum and Paulina PoÅ™Ãzková). Bree meanwhile hires her new VP but is shocked to find out his true identity.
- EPISODE 129 – My Two Young Men – Susan and Gabrielle continue to compete of which children are the best. This time in a chocolate selling contest. The housewives throw a party for Mrs. McCluskey and Katherine makes a big decision. Meanwhile, Angie’s ex-husband finds out about her location and Bree’s son Andrew is jealous of his new half brother.
- EPISODE 130 – We All Deserve to Die – Lynette tries to stop Preston from marrying Irina and she discovers the truth about Irina. Gabrielle wants to donate her eggs to Lee and Bob, Mike is having financial problems. Meanwhile, Angie’s ex-husband has tracked her down and the strangler has been revealed.
DISC 5:
- EPISODE 131 – Epiphany – We learn a little about the Fairview strangler and how the Housewives of Wisteria Lane may have affected him in the worst way possible. The episode also shows us how Mary Alice Young came in contact with the boy who would grow up to be the strangler.
- EPISODE 132 – A Little Night Music – Angie has been on the run from her ex-husband for years but what happens when she comes face to face with her ex, Patrick Logan.
- EPISODE 133 – The Ballad of Booth – With Susan and Mike suffering from financial problems, they must make a major decision. Angie goes to Gabrielle for help when Patrick threatens Angie that he will hurt her son. Lynette finds out the identity of the strangler. Sam blackmails Bree with a dark secret from the past that involves Andrew.
- EPISODE 134 – I Guess This is Goodbye – Bree decides to hand over the company to Sam in order to protect her secret. Susan and Mike are planning to move out of Wisteria Lane and Lynette is held hostage by the Fairview strangler and is about to give birth. Meanwhile, a former nurse confesses to something bad that she did in the maternity ward.
VIDEO:
“Desperate Housewives: The Complete Sixth Season – The All Mighty Edition” is featured in Widescreen (1:78:1), enhanced for 16×9 televisions. “Desperate Housewives” looks very good on DVD. Outdoor scenes are nice and vibrant, blacks and low-light scenes do not have the excessive noise problems that some series tend to exhibit on a DVD release.
For the most part, cinematography for “Desperate Housewives” has been excellent and the editing top notch. The series looks great and I can only imagine how beautiful this series would look on High Definition (via Blu-ray).
AUDIO:
“Desperate Housewives: The Complete Sixth Season – The All Mighty Edition” is featured in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and pretty much, “Desperate Housewives” has always been a dialogue-driven television show and is primarily front and center channel driven. For the most part, dialogue is clear and understandable. The show uses minimal music and nor is it the kind of series that utilizes a lot of sound effects (the final episode has a little). For the most part, the setting I preferred to watch the series was to set my receiver setting and have stereo on all channels.
The series includes subtitles in English SDH, Spanish and in French.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Desperate Housewives: The Complete Sixth Season” comes with the following special features:
DISC 1:
- ABC Starter Kit – If you hit play all on disc 1, you will get the ABC Starter Kit which briefly explains about what happened in the previous seasons of “Desperate Housewives”.
DISC 5:
- Miss Piggy Gets Desperate – (10:40) Miss Piggy arrives on the set of “Desperate Housewives” and wants to be part of the cast of “Desperate Housewives”.
- Desperate Housewives Master Class – (13:04) The crew talks about challenges that the cast of “Desperate Housewives” have to face. The cast talks about working on the series and how they became interested in acting.
- Cherry Picked: Marc Cherry’s Favorite Scenes – Featuring optional commentary, series creator Marc Cherry talks about his favorite scenes of the sixth season: An Indomitable Will (5:02), Niffit (3:45), Guess Again Big Boy (4:09) and Blanking Off (1:40).
- Bloopers – (4:34) “Desperate Housewives” season six outtakes.
- Deleted Scenes – A total of seven deleted scenes.
EXTRAS:
“Desperate Housewives – The Complete Sixth Season” comes with a slip cover case.
Last season, I felt that the “Desperate Housewives” reboot was necessary in establishing a new beginning for the Housewives. As each housewife deals with becoming parents and the story now benefiting from the five year advance, I felt that creator Marc Cherry did what he can to help jumpstart the series.
Season four had the housewives dealing with a tornado, season five dealt with a new beginning for the housewives and now season six continues that storyline of the housewives learning about parenthood, others dealing with new loves, lost love and this time, with a new mysterious family moving to the neighborhood. To make things even more crazy, there is a strangler on the loose and people are now ending up dead.
I felt with the reboot last season, “Desperate Housewives” has a new fresh start and I liked how they had the storyline of Susan and Mike together (these two deserve each other and I can’t see them with anyone else) but we also got that creepy feeling with Katherine going a bit crazy when she loses Mike and is unable to cope with the loss that well.
Last season, the relationship between both Gabrielle and her daughters were hilarious to watch. To watch Gabrielle and her daughters together is just fun to watch because she’s not exactly sure how to be a good mother and her kids, especially little Juanita is also fun to watch as she has Gabrielle’s attitude. And the addition of Ana proves to be quite interesting as Gabrielle kind of sees herself in the teenager. And as the rambunctious children of Lynette were always focused on in the first two seasons, it was great to see Gabrielle and Susan have these parenting contests against each other.
As for Tom and Lynette, we tend to see how the couple has faced various challenges throughout the years and we have seen how Lynette had wanted to get back into a career and now she is very successful until she gets pregnant again and now scared to find out what would happen if Carlos finds out. Especially since Carlos depends on her daily presence and even moreso as he promotes her to VP.
And as for Bree, less focus on the actual business and more is focus on her infidelity with Karl, her relationship with Orson and finding out that her dead husband Rex has another child.
Throw in another housewife who has her own set of skeletons in her closet and you have yourself an enjoyable sixth season of “Desperate Houswives”.
Saying anything more will spoil the series but I feel that those who were attracted to the dark but yet enjoyable and fun storyline of the first season, can find enjoyment with the sixth season. For the most part, I enjoyed the sixth season but I have to admit that I was expecting a little more from the strangler storyline (since the first episode kicked off with it) and something a bit more dark and sinister but for what it’s worth, the way they ended things was OK.
Especially with the Bolen storyline, at first it seemed that there was something rather significant and I liked how the storyline went, but somehow the urgency started to dissipate and I felt that the way the series ended with the family was fine.
Usually, for “Desperate Housewives”, I’m used to seeing a finale that is quite explosive or shocking but this year, it was an average season finale but for the whole season, I actually enjoyed this season. The storylines were highly entertaining, I liked how the writers utilized the supporting characters such as Mrs. McClusky, Roy, Lee, Bob, Julie, Ana, Robin, Lynette’s kids, etc. and incorporated them to the episodes and once again, I enjoyed each episode a lot. It’s just that if people were expecting something shocking and something that would have them in awe, the shock factor wasn’t tremendous but it was good. If anything, I felt that the buildup to the plane crash episode was more surprising but it will be interesting to see what the writers have in store for season seven.
As for “Desperate Housewives: The Complete Sixth Season – The All Mighty Edition”, the DVD set is a pretty solid release. I wish there was audio commentary for certain episodes like last year but there are none with this latest season DVD box set. But for the most part, you do get a few entertaining special features included and overall, it’s another solid “Desperate Housewives” DVD release.
If you are a fan of “Desperate Housewives”, then “Desperate Housewives: The Complete Sixth Season – The All Mighty Edition” is definitely recommended!
