Desperate Housewives (2004)
Desperate Housewives is a 2004 mystery series created by Marc Cherry. It stars Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman and Marcia Cross.
Wisteria Lane looks immaculate. Behind the trimmed lawns, four women juggle affairs, debts, bad marriages and the occasional buried secret, all narrated by their neighbor Mary Alice, who is dead. Marc Cherry's soap folds suburban comedy into a slow-burn mystery, letting Susan, Lynette, Bree and Gabrielle trade barbs over casseroles while something darker moves through the cul-de-sac. Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Eva Longoria lead the ensemble across eight seasons. The tone swings from farce to menace, often inside the same scene.
Quick answers
What is Desperate Housewives about?
Wisteria Lane looks immaculate. Behind the trimmed lawns, four women juggle affairs, debts, bad marriages and the occasional buried secret, all narrated by their neighbor Mary Alice, who is dead. Marc Cherry's soap folds suburban comedy into a slow-burn mystery, letting Susan, Lynette, Bree and Gabrielle trade barbs over casseroles while something darker moves through the cul-de-sac. Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Eva Longoria lead the ensemble across eight seasons. The tone swings from farce to menace, often inside the same scene.
When was Desperate Housewives released?
Desperate Housewives was released on 3 October 2004.
How many episodes does Desperate Housewives have?
Desperate Housewives has 179 episodes across 8 seasons.
Who made Desperate Housewives?
Desperate Housewives was created by Marc Cherry.
Where can I watch Desperate Housewives?
Desperate Housewives is available on Hulu, Prime Video, Google Play, Amazon, AppleTV and Fandango at Home.
Where to watch Desperate Housewives
Stream: Hulu, Prime Video
Rent: Google Play
Buy: Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango at Home, Google Play
Cast
- Teri Hatcher as Susan Mayer
- Felicity Huffman as Lynette Scavo
- Marcia Cross as Bree Van de Kamp
- Eva Longoria as Gabrielle Solis
- Ricardo Chavira as Carlos Solis
- James Denton as Mike Delfino
- Brenda Strong as Mary Alice Young
- Doug Savant as Tom Scavo
- Nicollette Sheridan as Edie Britt
- Shawn Pyfrom as Andrew Van de Kamp
- Andrea Bowen as Julie Mayer
- Kyle MacLachlan as Orson Hodge
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A few thoughts on Desperate Housewives
Suburbs hiding worse things pair well with Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, where a marriage curdles into a mystery behind a polished front. For the same dead narrator watching the living, Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones works the trick with grief instead of camp. Both keep the surface pretty and the underside ugly.
Suburban comedies where a perfect house hides something criminal
Wisteria Lane looks immaculate while its residents juggle affairs, debts and buried secrets behind trimmed lawns. These use that same contrast between tidy exteriors and messy truths. Weeds hides a widowed mom's drug business behind a soccer-mom smile, Santa Clarita Diet and Dead to Me both bury a literal body under suburban routine, and Why Women Kill, from the same creator, spreads the same formula across three eras of wives.
Ensemble shows about women juggling friendship, image and secrets
Desperate Housewives builds its comedy from a tight circle of women who trade barbs over casseroles while keeping their own images intact. These follow ensembles doing the same balancing act: Sex and the City over cocktails, Ginny & Georgia across a mother and daughter both hiding things, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman as a direct satire of the suburban housewife serial, and Togetherness among a tangle of couples and friends.
Mystery novels where the ideal family turns out to be the crime scene
Desperate Housewives treats a picture-perfect street as the place where the real story is buried. These novels use that same premise. Crooked House puts the murder inside a wealthy family's own home, Murder in Three Acts gathers its suspects at a series of respectable dinner parties, and One of Us Is Next and Thirteen Reasons Why both find secrets rotting a tight-knit community from within.