Oldie but Goodie: Desperate Housewives (plus a few notes on the abc roster)

It just occurred to me that out of the current shows I watch, Desperate Housewives is the longest running one for which I had loyally followed from the beginning.  Yes, remember that one glorious season when ABC launched its holy trinity (Lost-Desperate Housewives-Grey's Anatomy) which revived the alphabet network's status and shook up the preexisting hierarchy where CBS' procedurals, NBC's comedies and Fox's American Idol reigned supreme? (okay so maybe CBS's procedurals and American Idol still retain their crowns, but losing Friends and Frasier in the same season sure sent NBC on a nosedive from which it still has not fully, if at all, recovered)

In an age where society's average attention span is probably the shortest in history (guilty), it may be easy to draw a crowd with the flashy, but it's actually pretty darn difficult for a show (especially one that is not strictly episodic) to retain an audience year after year after year.  Major props to Desperate Housewives on accomplishing this feat!  Sure, its ratings are not what they used to be, but with all the alternative viewing options these days, what show's ratings are?  Relatively speaking, DHW still trumps most and is stubbornly holding off any signs of weakness.

Substantively, I have been quite satisfied with this season.  It's amazing looking back now to season 1 and realizing how much each character (and Susan's face) has changed, how far they've come (particularly Gaby - love her!).  Yet, the changes were gradual and organic - I'm buying it at least.  Shake up this season is the return of Paul Young (and if you saw last night's episode, you know his story ain't over yet).  I kind of feel bad for the guy (never liked Martha Huber much anyway), and I like his new wife (poor girl, all the twisted people in her life!) - hope they stick around the whole season and bring the theatrics.  In any case, Paul's return sort of brings the show back full circle for me, in a good way : )

I'm pretty meh about the other returners on the ABC lineup (except Modern Family):

-  Gave up on Grey's a couple of seasons ago (now I just get random updates from my mother which ends up confusing me more)

-  Never caught on to Private Practice even though I always loved Addison when she was at Seattle Grace (I think she had great chemistry with Taye Diggs thought)

-  Bristol Palin's turn on Dancing made me not even want to catch clips on Youtube (thankfully she didn't win - right? I can't be sure of anything anymore these days)

-  I'm more interested in the potential behind the scenes drama on Cougartown (i.e. what happened to Courtney Cox's marriage to the man-child?) than the actual show itself, but I wish it well because I want to see more of her friends visit

-  I still like Brothers & Sisters, but as my DVR is incapable of properly recording it (same with "V"! is this an abc thing?), I've been coping surprisingly well

-  High hopes for V, but more on that later ... once I figure out how to watch the season premiere ... (why are you not posting this online ABC?  WHY!?  *pooooosssttttt nowwww!*)