“Desperate Housewives” Review: Ummm…

I said in my Pick of the Week post that the five-year jump in time was a risky strategy for “Desperate Housewives” and that after the season premiere, we’d have a better idea about whether the risk would pay off.

Well?

Umm…

The episode got off to a strong start as we started to get an idea of what happened with Susan (Teri Hatcher) and Mike (James Denton). The flashback showed a car accident which seemed to leave Mike seriously injured.

And then after a shortened title sequence, we zoomed right back to the present as Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) returned with her motivational speaker husband, Dave (Neal McDonough). Lynette (Felicity Huffman) had to break up her sons’ casino. Gaby (Eva Longoria Parker) was dealing with her overweight daughter and Susan (Teri Hatcher) was having no-strings-attached sex with her house painter (Gale Harold) and sporting a much more sophisticated wardrobe. Bree (Marcia Cross) was a tough catering executive with Katherine (Dana Delany) as her unhappy business partner and Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) as her right-hand man.

But as the show unfolded, everything fell into its familiar pattern. Lynette and Tom (Doug Savant) clashed over how to deal with their sons, Bree and Katherine clashed over Bree taking credit for her work and Gaby was up to her selfish tricks when she made her daughter run behind her car.

It was like we had entered bizarro Wisteria Lane, where everything was the same yet somehow different. And a boring different at that…

Which begged the question, why make the jump? If the show was going to follow its usual character patterns, why not leave it where it was?

Fortunately, the show got a little more interesting in the last 15 minutes as we learned some more information. Mike survived the accident, but Susan couldn’t deal with the death of the mother and child in the car that hit them. Danielle reclaimed her child from Bree, pushing Bree into her business so she would have something else in her life. And Edie’s husband, Dave, apparently spent time in a mental facility for his rage, and now it appears he’s on Wisteria Lane to unleash that rage on someone.

My guess, by the way, is that he’s the husband of the woman who died in Susan’s car accident. But that’s just a guess…

My biggest concern going into this season was that everything would change too radically. But now I’m afraid that everything hasn’t changed enough. However, I’m willing to give it another episode before I get too critical…

What did you think? Are you liking the new season or would you rather they didn’t travel in time?...