CRIT-O-MATIC TV REVIEWS.Byline: David Kronke ``Desperate Housewives'' (ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. Channel 7; 9 tonight) Logline: Perfection isn't all it's cracked up to be: In a sumptuous suburban neighborhood, Mary Alice Young Mary Alice Young (formerly Angela Forrest) is a fictional character on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. The character is played by actress Brenda Strong who narrates the series from beyond the grave. (Brenda Strong) opens this hermetically sealed satire with a bang: a single bullet to her brain. She then narrates the travails of her friends and neighbors: Lynette (Felicity Huffman), so frazzled by her four brazen brats that she punches her husband when he suggests unprotected sex; Gabrielle (Eva Longoria), whose piggish pig·gish adj. 1. Greedy: a piggish appetite. 2. Stubborn; pigheaded. pig husband justifies her fling with her gardener; sad divorcee di·vor·cée n. A divorced woman. [French, feminine past participle of divorcer, to divorce, from Old French, from divorce, divorce; see divorce. Susan (Teri Hatcher), who may have found the perfect man in new neighbor Mike (James Denton), if the predatory Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) doesn't seduce him first; and Bree (Marcia Cross), whose control-freak nature suffocates her family. But of course, a mysterious secret skulks in the neighborhood - what does Mary Alice's widower (Mark Moses) know? Pros: Unceasingly droll and teasingly sexy, this tony melodrama mines affluent anomie anomie, a social condition characterized by instability, the breakdown of social norms, institutional disorganization, and a divorce between socially valid goals and available means for achieving them. for chipper chipper Drug slang An occasional user of illicit drugs. See Recreational drug use Tobacco A popular term for a person who smokes < 5 cigarettes/day, who may be resistant to nicotine dependence or addiction, and often born to non-smoking parents. if brittle laughs, and manages a little intrigue along the way. Cons: Does anyone really know any people like these? Though their woes and frustrations are certainly universal, they play like such Hieronymus- Bosch-meets-Sharper-Image caricatures that viewers may have a little difficulty relating. In a nutshell: If misery loves company, ``Desperate Housewives'' may appeal to those who enjoy laughing at their despair. Or who just like watching attractive actresses misbehave mis·be·have v. mis·be·haved, mis·be·hav·ing, mis·be·haves v.intr. To behave badly. v.tr. . Our rating: - Three stars ``Boston Legal'' (ABC Channel 7; 10 tonight) Logline: Spinoff of ``The Practice'' finds ethically bereft Alan Shore (Emmy winner James Spader) joining the law firm of equally eccentric Denny Crane (Emmy winner William Shatner), much to the consternation of ramrod-upright Brad Chase (Mark Valley, who charmed as the rebel bad-boy in ``Keen Eddie''). Pros: Spader brings the same droll sensibility that revivified ``The Practice'' nicely last season, and the way in which Shatner has reinvented his career, evolving from self-important hambone to genuinely funny hambone, should be taught in acting school. Cons: As one might reasonably expect, after writing something just short of a gazillion ga·zil·lion n. Informal An indefinitely large number: "The crowd cheered wildly . . . as gazillions of balloons poured down from the rafters" Tom Shales. episodes of legal shows (``L.A. Law,'' ``Ally McBeal'' ``girls club'' and, naturally, ``The Practice'') creator David E. Kelley seems to be straining to eke out new scripts. Some of the dialogue is funny, but elsewhere it's flat and rushed, and he seems to have run out of fresh ideas for court cases: Tonight's, about a black girl wanting to star in the musical ``Annie,'' works thanks only to the young actress' impishness imp·ish adj. Of or befitting an imp; mischievous. imp  ish·ly adv.imp . In a nutshell: Here's hoping the writing improves (perhaps workaholic Kelley could learn the concept of delegating scripts to other writers), because the cast could take this show places. Besides around Boston, that is. Our rating: - Three stars CAPTION(S): photo Photo: SPADER, left, and SHATNER |
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