TV Eye

This is the last of this year's new prime-time network series reviews. There are more important things to consider, like, um, there's a presidential election coming soon. Do you know where your vote is going?

Suburban angst is the subject of ABC's newest series, Desperate Housewives. Four actresses familiar to prime-time watchers – Marcia Cross (Everwood), Teri Hatcher (Lois & Clark), Felicity Huffman (Frasier, Sports Night) and Corpus Christi native and The Young and the Restless alum Eva Longoria – star, along with Nicollette Sheridan (the resident hoochie mama who isn't really part of the fold but whose presence is very strong). They all live in the immaculately manicured Wisteria Lane, where, to the untrained eye, all is grand. But the aforementioned women of Wisteria Lane know better, and it's from their harried, jaded perspectives that the series gets its drive. It's also unexpectedly funny.

While not as zany as, say, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, there are elements of that Almodóvar classic present, though with a North American twist. As contemporary June Cleavers, each woman shows deep fissures in that plastic veneer, some more publicly than others. In fact, the series opens with one member of the fold, Mary Alice (Brenda Strong, who narrates from beyond the grave), ruining her living room carpet in a big, big way. She blows her brains out. Discovering what drove Mary Alice to this unexpected act brings the women closer. It also opens a window to the mysterious underbelly of Wisteria Lane as new faces arrive in the neighborhood, Mary Alice's husband mourns in a most peculiar way, and nothing – just like the women themselves – is as stable as it appears.

Borrowing from Twin Peaks, with a nod to Leave It to Beaver on acid, Desperate Housewives is one of the most original dramedies to premiere this fall. That's truly good news for the alphabet network, which has been in need of a hit after several years of lackluster seasons, and especially after losing its once-solid drama The Practice.

Speaking of The Practice, its spin-off, Boston Legal, appears perfectly able to hold its own. The series stars the inimitable James Spader (who single-handedly saved The Practice's final season, scooping up an Emmy in a surprise, though not unearned, win at the awards ceremony three weeks ago) as Alan Shore. Joining Spader are The Practice alum Rhona Mitra and William Shatner, reprising his role as the nutty and kind of creepy Denny Crane (also an Emmy Award-winning performance, as guest actor during The Practice's final season). Don't expect legal twists and turns to drive this show as much as the twisted perspective of Shore, Crane, and the assortment of off-center clients and employees they're sure to attract.

Although Desperate Housewives is a domestic dramedy and Boston Legal is set in a law firm, both share a nihilistic view of the world. There is no hope for a better world. Life is absurd and then you die. It's a sobering world-view, but worlds that leave themselves open to near fantastic (and highly entertaining) flights of hyper reality – as when Al Sharpton makes a surprise appearance in Boston Legal, or Desperate Housewives' Hatcher accidentally sets her nemesis' house on fire. Both are great places to visit and leave behind when their hour is over.

Desperate Housewives airs Sundays at 8pm, followed by Boston Legal at 9pm, both on ABC.

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What Else Is On?

Tanner on Tanner: The sequel to the unnervingly prescient miniseries Tanner '88 premiered on the Sundance Channel last Tuesday. (see original Tanner '88 review, "Anyone Else for President")

Written by Garry Trudeau and directed by Robert Altman, Tanner on Tanner reunites cast members from the original series, including Cynthia Nixon as Alex Tanner, daughter of (fictional) one-time presidential candidate Jack Tanner (Michael Murphy), and Pamela Reed as former Tanner campaign manager T.J. Cavanaugh. Partially filmed at the Democratic National Convention earlier this year and blending fact with fiction, Alex has evolved from a devoted candidate's daughter to a determined filmmaker who dares to ask: Does the modern politician have a soul? The result is part political satire, part portrait of an independent filmmaker whose passions and delusions are sometimes indistinguishable from one another

Tanner on Tanner airs Tuesdays at 8pm on the Sundance Channel. Encores air throughout October. A daylong marathon of all four episodes will air on Oct. 31. Check local listings.