Monday, October 22, 2007

Prostitutes, Divorced Floozy's and Gays! Love the new ABC!

Men In Trees - Chemical Reactions
Brothers & Sisters - States of the Union
Desperate Housewives - If There's Anything I Can't Stand

And to think, these aren't even the shows with transgendered characters. When did Disney become the most progressive of networks?

3 good episodes. Brothers & Sisters continues to excel at putting our favorite Walkers in odd situations and letting them run with it. Men In Trees has a nice cozy (if unlikely) ending to another episode (when is ABC finally going to learn to pair this up with some suitable companion shows?), and the gays are FINALLY on Wisteria Lane (I won't count Jesse Metcalfe but I hear he's coming back next week).

Sarah's ex continues his case against her for full custody of their child, and GASP... has no problem bringing up Sarah's previous career against her (if you didn't watch Men In Trees season 1, that would be a little thing called Prostitution, which strangely worked in this cotton candy show) but the town rallies behind her, including Celia, who lies under oath, which offends Richard. Nicholas Lea (WOO WOO!!! The X-Files, Whistler) turns up as Eric and befriends Sarah... wink wink wink!!! Just as she disposes of her ex.

Lynn notices Jack never says "I love you" so when Jack bumps into Marin in the woods (I know. Seriously, but this IS called Men In Trees for a reason) and they end up spending the night together watching Otters after Marin is poisoned by a plant (again. In. the. Woods). Lynn notices Jack's glee when he returns and they break off the marriage (about time. Like THAT was ever going to happen).

Meanwhile, Patrick realises his name Bachelor really doesn't describe him anymore (in both family, and the origins of the word), so decides to become a hybrid of Annie, Buzz's and mother Celia's names (well, not her maiden name because that was Hisbut and he would have become Pat Hisbut! ha!) and becomes Patrick O'Bachelorton. As grating as Celia is (and wonderfully played by Cynthia Stevenson), I find she really belongs on the show and ads some spice into the sweetness of the show. Though I like that Richard (the reliable Currie Graham) is there to balance her off.

My only question is. What happened to Plow Guy (Ty Olsson) and Jane (Seeana Kofoed)? I hope they return to Elmo soon.

The gays are here, the gays are here on Wisteria Lane and it's about time. Desperate Housewives gets life partners Bob and Lee when they move into the neighbourhood and Lee acts all bitchy to an annoying Susan who HAS to become their friend (because she has cable and GETS IT! (What a great line reading from Teri Hatcher there though!)). Edie has crabs, and in one of those cringe inducing that are so wrong and yet actually funny scenes, Edie discovers that Gabrielle and Carlos have been having an affair when Edie smells Victor and his new "cologne" from Gaby smells extremely similar to her medicinal cream. We watch when Edie, Carlos, Gaby and Victor each takes an hors d'oeuvres of crab salad which is played out so low that I laughed (hey, I never said I was above cheap jokes).

Andrew throws a baby shower for Bree (yes. Andrew. In an attempt to get back at his mother when she forces them to donate the scooter Daniele gets as a gift, though not before Orson rides it across the street with a hilarious WHEE!!! Dale Cooper or Trey MacDougal this is not) much to her shock and grandma Phyllis shows up and discovers the truth. Phyllis of course, heads to Daniele in the convent with her own plan.

Then there's some creepy old woman with a secret she needs to reveal before her death, though Katherine will have nothing of it. Old creepy leaves a note beyond the grave though, to be discovered in future episodes. Lynette and Tom play dress up to get Tom in the mood, while Susan continues to screw up the relationship with the new gay neighbours, damaging Bob's $2000 Dolce suit, stealing their dog and almost killing Lee with an allergic reaction. Just your typical Susan day. So so far, not much to the gays yet except their reactions to Susan but I'm waiting for when Edie or Gaby gets their fab hands on them and we will see how happy Wisteria Lane really is!

All we need on Brothers & Sisters is to put the three fab ladies together (Sally Field, Rachel Griffiths and Calista Flockhart), send them off to a spa, and watch the sparks fly. They get kicked out of the silent room, crash a wedding, and Sarah gets "lock-blocked" as she tries to make out with the grooms grown son!

Scotty (YAY! STILL AROUND!) bumps into Saul at a gay man's party and accidentally outs him to Kevin. Kevin questions Saul about this, but Saul leaves it all very ambiguous. It's a nice way to bring Saul back into the Walker loop after having been relegated a black sheep for being with Holly last year. Holly and Tommy meanwhile do not see eye to eye when it comes to business operations of their winery and finally gives Patricia Wettig some decent lines again. The set up of Tommy and the new girl Lena is a little too convenient though. Seems like they really didn't know what to do with the non-Walkers and are slowly ushering Joe and Julia out.

At least Scotty's back!

Finally, Rebecca takes care of Justin while Nora's at the spa (and tracking down Tommy), and accuses him of sneaking extra pain pills, which he denies vehemently (but we eventually see him sneak an extra). They have nice chemistry together though and it's hilarious and surprisingly non-creepy when someone assumes they are going out, before Justin re corrects him that Rebecca is his sister. "So she has to love you".

We love you too but we LOVE Brothers & Sisters when it balances the lightish tone, only throwing in the heavy stuff once in a while.

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