Desperate Housewives - Is It Officially Back?

I watched Desperate Housewives faithfully the first season and was excited about the second. Then of course, the second season started, and it was so inferior to its first season, I got bored with watching it about 10 episodes or so into the season and like so many others I just stopped watching. I didn't go back to watching even though I am aware that the quality of the show picked up towards the end of last year, but it still wasn't of the same caliber as the first year.

Well, this week after watching a favorite of mine, Grey's Anatomy, a repeat of Desperate Housewives aired in place of the pre-empted Six Degrees. Well, imagine my surprise when I watched the entire episode and it was excellent! It was over the top, it was funny, quirky, it was like old times. I know I am not the only one who took notice, since I saw critics and several different week-in-review shows mentioning Desperate Housewives, which use to happen often and hasn't so much in the last year.

The episode had Jackie Conner (yes, as in actress Laurie Metcalf best known as Roseanne's sister) as a woman who just found out her husband was cheating on her. She takes her gun and goes down to where he works, a supermarket, so that she can talk to him. She takes everyone in the store hostage, which included several of the main characters, and those who didn't listen to her when she said to stay put, well, she was quick to pull the trigger. It may not sound funny, but if you're at all familiar with Desperate Housewives, you know it was with the way it was executed.

While the ratings for this show have never waned all that much, critical acclaim has for a very good reason, the show was not deserving of it. Plain and simple, they lost their way last year. I think people stayed around more out of habit than thinking the show was as good as it was in the first year.

Let's hope this episode signals a permanent change in the tide.