It's no coincidence that "Desperate Housewives" is moving to conquer the global culture market at the same moment that the heroic nanny is: they are, after all, flip sides of the same woman. If the housewives weren't desperate, the nannies couldn't save them. Both are, of course, ridiculously simplistic fantasies. But that's why we love them.
Last week 4.8 million British viewers tuned in for the premiere of "Desperate Housewives," the racy American hit soap opera that follows the intertwined lives of a group of outrageously hot suburban women. (Lucky German audiences were the first outside America to see it, beginning Oct. 14.) And the momentum is sure to build; already the show has been sold to more than 70 territories. Says Tom Toumazis, senior vice president of Buena Vista International Television: "I suspect by the end of this year we will have sold the show in nearly every territory outside the U.S.A."
The program's reputation precedes it. Campy and biting, the incisive suburban satire is set on picture-perfect Wisteria Lane. But the women at its core are far from perfect: Susan (Teri Hatcher) is a divorced children's book author and major klutz--she once locked herself out in the nude, only to be discovered by the hunky neighbor she has a crush on. Lynette (Felicity Huffman) gave up her career to become a mother of four and is so overwhelmed she becomes addicted to their ADD medicine. (When she finally hires Clare as her nanny and plants a hidden camera to check up on her, she discovers--to her dismay--that Clare is unfailingly patient and the boys adore her.) Bree (Marcia Cross) is the local Martha Stewart, a woman who brings homemade potpourri to the marriage counselor even though it's her perfectionism that's driving her husband away. Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) is nouveau riche, miserable and having an affair with the teenage stud who cuts her lawn. But don't confuse her with Edie (Nicollette Sheridan): she's just the neighborhood slut. And mean, to boot.
Long before it aired last week, British papers began dissecting "Desperate Housewives." Feminist author Germaine Greer declared the show "prudish," while a columnist for The Observer waxed lyrical over the traditional household duties it celebrates, like the "mournful, almost Shakespearean dragging of the vacuum cleaner around, as if waltzing with a dead body." But can viewers from Copenhagen to Christchurch truly relate to life in a far-from-sleepy upper-middle-class American neighborhood? Toumazis certainly thinks so, because everyone can relate to leading imperfect lives--and to longing for a nanny to arrive to make everything right. "When you think of the character of the successful executive who decides to stay home and bring up her kids, that dilemma of coping is an international phenomenon, and [what] appeals is the way the show touches on some challenging issues." The adultery helps, too.
