History Series / DesperateHousewives

''Desperate Housewives'' is not a porn mag, but a US TV drama, about bored wives living in Wisteria Lane, a {{suburbia}} in the fictional city of Fairview, Eagle State that all experience endless drama in their lives after the suicide of their friend. The entire series is [[{{Narrator}} narrated]] by the dulcet tones of [[NearDeathClairvoyance the aforementioned late friend]].

''Desperate Housewives'' is not a porn mag, but a US TV drama, about bored wives living in Wisteria Lane, a {{suburbia}} in the fictional city of Fairview, Eagle State. They all experience unrealistic and endless drama in their lives after the suicide of their friend.

Notable for its combination of {{Narrator}} and NearDeathClairvoyance trope, in which the entire series is narrated by the dulcet tones of an apparently omnipresent dead woman -- the friend who committed suicide.

Basically a comedic [[SoapOpera soap]], which means that unlike a regular soap, this program is funny and has interesting plotlines. However, the situations are often just as ridiculous and the relationships and plots just as hopelessly tangled-up and interwoven as any old-fashioned soap (though ''unlike'' daytime soaps, the fast pace tends to leave many confused if they miss a couple of episodes -- probably why the [[ClipShow clip show]] specials still proved relatively popular).

Think ''Series/SexAndTheCity'' meets ''Series/TwinPeaks'', meets daytime soap, meets parody of daytime soaps, set in the suburbs instead of the city, with housewives instead of single women, and narrated by a dead woman. You get all that?

* IncestIsRelative: In season 5, Lynette pretends to be a teenage girl online to get her son to open up and find out what's going on in his life. ... then she sort of accidentally became his online girlfriend. Much to her shock.

-->'''Bree:''' Give. Me. The. Tie!
-->'''Lynette''': Give it to her! Give it to her!

* NaughtyNurseOutfit and Sexual Roleplay in general.

* SeasonFinale / WhamEpisode: Usually involving a death and/or disaster.

* VisitByDivorcedDad

** Katherine in Season 6, too. While Katherine had been liked for being a badass, mysterious housewife in Season 4, Season 5 mostly saw her take on the role of Mike's passive, adoring love interest but still an excellent cook and schemer. When he inevitably broke up with her in Season 6 to go back to Susan, she went insane, framed him for attacking her, and became a hysterical stalker.

** In the first season, Tom tells his father there is a thing Lynette is never supposed to know... and no follow up on that.

* TheAdventureContinues: The last scene and ending narration indicate that although the main characters will all eventually leave Wisteria Lane and never really meet again, life there will go on its merry way without them.

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Orson's rape by his Alma is never really taken seriously by anyone. The scene even ends on a comedic note when his wife, having found her unconscious just-been-raped husband lying on the bed, tells someone to go get a wheelbarrow (but doesn't bother to phone the police).

* StagingAnIntervention: A spectacularly unsuccessful version and simultaneous case of HypocriteHasAPoint / JerkassHasAPoint / BothSidesHaveAPoint in season eight. After turning their backs on Bree in the aftermath of the [[spoiler:Alejandro]] situation, Bree falls OffTheWagon and spirals out of control, nearly [[spoiler:committing suicide]] in the process. The girls staunchly ignore her until they find out she's started drinking again, at which point they decide to try surprising her with an intervention. They do so, and when they try telling her how much they care about her, Bree takes the opportunity to [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech read them to filth]]. She shuts them down, rejects their help, and heads back to the bar.

* HypocriteHasAPoint: See StagingAnIntervention below. The girls had some gall trying to stage a loving intervention after shunning Bree for months during an extremely different time, but they were right about her drinking.

* ArtifactTitle: None of the housewives were "housewives" at various points in the series.

** The conflict splitting the core four during their intervention attempt in season eight. See StagingAnIntervention below.

** Technically, Paul was an accomplice to Mary Young's murder of Deirdre. The only person he ''actually'' killed was Martha Huber in a fit of passion, after discovering she blackmailed his wife and drove her to commit suicide. While Paul ''is'' a murderer, he is far more sympathetic than his [[AssholeVictim victim]] and spends several years in prison after Felicia Tilman fakes her own murder. When she finally reappears in Series 6, it's clear that she's far ''more'' of a monster than he is!

* StagingAnIntervention: A spectacularly unsuccessful version and simultaneous case of HypocriteHasAPoint / JerkassHasAPoint in season eight. After turning their backs on Bree in the aftermath of the [[spoiler:Alejandro]] situation, Bree falls OffTheWagon and spirals out of control, nearly [[spoiler:committing suicide]] in the process. The girls staunchly ignore her until they find out she's started drinking again, at which point they decide to try surprising her with an intervention. They do so, and when they try telling her how much they care about her, Bree takes the opportunity to [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech read them to filth]]. She shuts them down, rejects their help, and heads back to the bar.

* StagingAnIntervention: A spectacularly unsuccessful version and simultaneous case of HypocriteHasAPoint/JerkassHasAPoint in season eight. After turning their backs on Bree in the aftermath of the [[spoiler:Alejandro]] situation, Bree falls OffTheWagon and spirals out of control, nearly [[spoiler:committing suicide]] in the process. The girls staunchly ignore her until they find out she's started drinking again, at which point they decide to try surprising her with an intervention. They do so, and when they try telling her how much they care about her, Bree takes the opportunity to [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech read them to filth]]. She shuts them down, rejects their help, and heads back to the bar.

* TheAdventureContinues: The last scene and ending narration indicate that although the main characters will all eventually leave Wisteria Lane and never really meet again, life there will go on its merry way without them.

* FourTemperamentEnsemble:
** Susan is sanguine, Bree is melancholic, Lynette is phlegmatic and Gabrielle is choleric.
** The husbands qualifies as well: Orson is melancholic, Carlos is choleric, Tom is sanguine and Mike is phlegmatic.
** Mary Alice would qualify as leukine, as in flashbacks she is shown to be the force that bonds the four leads together, but has no real defining character quality that sets her apart.

* TheAlcoholic: Bree, Andrew and Carlos.

* SuburbanGothic: In the apparently perfect suburb. of Wisteria Lane, neighbors committed suicide, kept the [[spoiler:dismembered body parts of a former drug addict]] under their pool for years so that they could [[spoiler:raise her kidnapped son as their own,]] raised an Enfant Terrible, kept a [[spoiler:falsely accused]] murderous son chained up in the basement, and [[spoiler:murdered Gaby's abusive stepfather and cover up the crime.]]

* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Played straight with Danielle, averted with Julie.

** Kayla in Season 3 gets shot [[spoiler:by Carolyn Bigsby]], bringing her brief conflict with Lynette and Tom to an abrupt end.

** Karl in Season 6 dies by being hit by a plane that's flying through Wisteria Lane.
** In Season 8, [[spoiler:Chuck]] gets hit by a car [[spoiler:driven by Orson]] when he blackmails Bree.
** Season 4:

* AccidentalSuicide: After being exposed [[[spoiler: as a murderer in Season 2, George Williams swallows a [[SuicideByPills deadly dose of sleeping pills]]]]. However, he didn't actually intend to die; he was expecting his ex-fiancee [[spoiler: Bree Van de Kamp to save him by calling for an ambulance. Unfortunately for him, [[DidntSeeThatComing she chooses not to]] and [[MurderByInaction lets him die]], letting everyone believe that he committed suicide]].

** Season 7: [[spoiler: Felicia Tillman]], as an [[NotSoDifferent ironic reversal]] to the situation in the first season.