The Games People (on ABC) Play

Men In Trees - A Tree Goes in Elmo
Desperate Housewives - The Game
Brothers & Sisters - History Repeating

Yey! Men In Trees is back! On Friday nights but whatever, I'll take it however I can get it. Though really, it's a perfect fit to the Sunday night ABC lineup so maybe I can start watching it taped just before Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters get started.

Even better, Scotty (Luke MacFarlane) is back on Brothers & Sisters! Oh yey! But I'll get back to that in a minute.

Even better than THAT, quality is back on Desperate Housewives this season! Plus the hint of Jesse Metcalf's return to Wisteria Lane. Bring it.

So where were we on Men In Trees? No really? Where were we? As smart as ABC has made on some programming moves, they sure have screwed up things in scheduling, essentially giving Men In Trees' timeslot to October Road (where DID that go?) and delaying the remaining 5 episodes until Season 2.

So, Marin and Cash are still flirting, Jack is still with Justine Batemen's Lynn, Celia was still with guest star Currie Graham (is there an ABC show he hasn't guest starred on yet?) as Dick, Patrick and Annie are still getting married, while Mai finds out that Buzz was originally intending to marry someone else. This was apparently a brand new episode written in to bridge the remaining 5 shows with the unintended Season 1 finale and to help get us caught up, which is what it felt like. I missed Patrick, Sarah (whose ex-husband was suing for sole custody of their son), and co. but nothing REALLY happened so far in this "first" episode (then again, does anything REALLY ever happen on this show? And what happened to Plow Guy? I want Plow Guy back).

Over on Desperate Housewives, Susan has her charades games night again, and just as everyone are about to make other plans, the realisation that some alcohol could pry some of those secrets out of the mysterious Mayfair's (Dana Delaney and Nathan Fillion) brings all the girls (and boys) into the game. Meanwhile, Lynette's mom, with the good intention of easing Lynette's cancer pain, buys some weed off Andrew and bakes them into brownie goods, bringing a swinging good-time Lynette to the party.

Edie purposely "inadvertently" spills the beans about her engagement to Carlos, which makes Gaby jealous. Gaby, whose normal flirty demeanor, this time towards Adam, makes Katherine jealous. Katherine then thus blurts out about Gaby's fling with the teenage gardener, which Victor learns for the first time. All this while, Bree continues to keep her (and Danielle's) secret to herself, while sending Susan to an OB/GYN on the wrong side of town. And Lynette is still high as a kite. Let the hijinks's continue!

Finally, Marc Cherry learns why Brothers & Sisters caught on so fast. Bring all our favorites together into a party of some sort, add alcohol, let the secrets fly! Let the mindgames begin! Let the cast interact with each other, mix and toss a little, and let us viewers enjoy!

Meanwhile, Brothers & Sisters have a bit of a downer episode, mostly dealing with Justin's pain (and our pain of watching), and Julia's pain (and our pain of watching), and Tommy dealing with Julia's pain-in-the-ass in-laws (and our pain of watching), but it's all forgiven when Scotty returns, requesting Kevin's legal help in a case, and repays Kevin back with an ad-hoc dinner. Only, confusion ensues, and Scotty thinks more could happen until Kevin reveals his relationship status but his desire to remain "friends" with Scotty. Whatever Kev, just as long as we see more of Scotty on Brothers & Sisters.

Robert's ex-wife is also about to reveal her side of the story to the press, or at least, the version she wants them to know, so in comes Kitty to defend her stolen man and in what could have been played as a nasty soap opera catfight (not necessarily a bad thing), it's played with quiet restrain and some nice dramatic tension. Possibly because the ex is played by Marin Hinkle of the amazing Once and Again (and I'll forgive her for Two and a Half Men cause I assume she needed the money or something).

Anyways, Scotty's back! Let's hope for more than one episode.


Some more pictures from Desperate Housewives below: