DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Desperate Housewives – The Complete Third Season

By Patrick Luce Sep 6, 2007, 13:15 GMT

The women of Wisteria Lane are back, and it’s time to air some dirty laundry. In the Emmy Award®-winning show’s sensational third season, the gossip is juicier, the secrets are more scandalous and the revenge is even sweeter. "Desperate Housewives is back," raves The New York Daily News. Experience all 23 tantalizing episodes of Season Three, and get the dish on Susan’s new love, Bree’s unsettling marriage to Orson (Kyle ...more

The housewives of Wisteria Lane are back for a third season, and this time the show has cranked up the body count and the comedy. Season three is a big improvement over the second season, and manages to capture some of the elements that made the show such a hit when it premiered.

The third season once again focuses on the dysfunctional lives of the show’s main characters Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher), Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman), Bree Van De Kamp (Marcia Cross), Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan), and Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria). This season also expands some of the side characters a bit with more involvement from the husbands (new and old), neighbors (who have bodies pop up in freezers), and various love interests (such as a quasi-psycho mayor towards the end of the season). The show’s writers continue to blend what you would expect from a suburban drama with some darker elements that seem more in touch with Twin Peaks.

With people dropping like flies, the third season seems to have a higher body count than The Sopranos. Viewers shouldn’t get too attached to new characters because chances are they are going to get killed off before the season ends – some rather gruesomely.

The third season sees Mike Delfino (James Denton) in a coma and Susan waiting for him to wake up so they can get married. While Susan is waiting, she accidentally falls in love with Ian Hainsworth (Dougray Scott) – who has a wife in a coma in the next room. Just as things start to get hot and heavy for the two, Mike wakes up. It is just too bad that he has no memory and thinks Susan is a stalker. Once again, Hatcher provides most of the show’s physical comedy and gut-busting laughs. The woman just has a knack for getting herself in the worse situations or saying the absolute wrong thing at the wrong time.

Season Three finds Bree also planning to get hitched to Orson Hodge (Kyle MacLachlan) – who has a few secrets himself not to mention he is the one that hit Mike with his car to send him into a coma. The Orson and Bree relationship sets up the big mystery for the first part of the season. It seems Orson’s wife disappeared and he could have possibly killed her – not to mention he might have killed the girlfriend he was seeing on the side. Throw into the mix a very nutty mother (who makes Norman Bates’ mother look like the mom of the year), and Bree has a rough season ahead of her.

It looks like Gabrielle and Carlos (Ricardo Chavira) will be getting a divorce – which provides some heavy comedy for the season even if the storyline is straight out of War of the Roses. The two have some great funny moments as they battle over the house, the belongings and whether or not they are still in love with each other. Towards the end of the season, Gabrielle decides to get married to the new mayor (who may or may not be a psycho). Carlos decides that he needs a baby, and for some reason Edie is the right candidate to make the perfect mom.

Lynette (my personal favorite character) has to deal with the consequences of telling Tom (Doug Savant) to follow his dream. It is just too bad she didn’t know that Tom’s dream was to make pizza for a living. She also has to deal with Tom’s “love child” and the nutty mom that comes along with the child. Somehow, Lynette also has to find time to hold down her career; deal with the decision to follow Tom into the pizza business; and has a potentially marriage-threatening fling of her own.

The six disc set comes loaded with special features that fans of the show will love. Once again, the show’s producers and creators have stepped up to the plate to load the set with enough features to make it worth the purchase price.

Features include:

“Here Comes the Bride” – which is a behind the scenes look at the season’s finale.

“Amas de Casa Desesperadas” - which takes a look at the lovely Latinas of Wisteria Lane.

“Cherry Picked” – Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry discusses his favorite scenes from the season.

The set also features deleted scenes from the entire season and a hilarious blooper reel – which shows how much fun the cast has working on the set.

Although Season Two was a bit of a letdown for me, Desperate Housewives – The Complete Third Season returns the show to what made it such a hit. The season is filled with dark comedy elements, a little mystery, and high body count. If you are a fan of the show or just want something a bit different than you might expect, I HIGHLY recommend Desperate Housewives.

Desperate Housewives – The Complete Third Season is now available at Amazon. It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a Nov. 5th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.