Hey! Desperate Housewives! Blow Me!

See this guy on the right? He's a big reason why Desperate Housewives has descended into self-parody. Since it's debut, it's been the most overrated show on TV; ABC's attempt to come up with an "edgy" show to compete with Sunday night's great HBO offerings falls far short of the wit and grit displayed by Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, Deadwood and even Rome (speaking of which - did you see last week's ep? Where Pullo got tossed into the gladiator ring? Ho-lee shit. That was some chop-socky, folks.) Even those critics who heaped praise upon the show last year are saying that Fonzie is strapping on the waterskis.

But back to this guy. Since Desperate Housewives is such a cutting edge show, we'd never see creator Marc Cherry (who is not married, has no kids, and consequently knows shit-all about his subject. The key to good satire is having firsthand experience with the topic that you are satirizing. Marc Cherry, you are no Tom Perrota!) stoop to the level of 99.9% of sitcoms and haul out the Husband Who Lost His Job And Now Is An Incompetant, Passive-Aggressive, Resentful, Disheveled SAHD cliche. We'd never see Tom stop doing housework, lose the baby, and let his hellion kids ransack the house - indeed, the whole of Wisteria Lane. Nooooo! That would be too easy!

Feh. Daring? Daring would have been for Cherry and Co. to write Tom as a capable, caring dad who does just fine with the kids, thank you. Instead, we get another stock character that we've seen a dozen times over. Daring? Daring is Tony Soprano, Seth Bullock, Nathaniel Fisher (Sr. and Jr.), and Lucius Vorenus - characters who all try, in their own ways, to be good fathers.