November 12, 2006: Children and Art
Well, you knew that after last week's standout shoot-out episode, tonight was going to be somewhat of a letdown no matter what. How can you top last week? Since my expectations were already lowered, I was able to enjoy tonight for the most part - especially the Bree and Orson scenes. Continuing in the tradition of casting the very best actresses in the business to play the mothers of the characters,
Dixie Carter acted up a storm as Gloria, Orson's mother of a mother. As soon as Bree started talking to Gloria as though she were senile, you knew there was going to be hell. I like that we still don't know exactly why Orson wants to keep his mother in the nursing home, yet Gloria has something over Orson - something that could get him in big trouble: "I gave you life. You know I won't hesitate to take it away." Maybe we'll find out next week.
It was great to see how frustrated Orson was getting around Gloria, which just frightened Bree and humored Andrew: "So - can we call her grandma?" I also liked Andrew's reference to Bree's spreading "holiday denial" rather than holiday cheer with her annual newsletter, followed by Bree's line: "Oh, Andrew, it's etiquette. Nobody wants to read the truth at Christmas." Watching Dixie as Gloria reminded me of how wonderful she was on
Designing Women and what a travesty it was that she was never nominated for an Emmy for that show! Not even once. Hopefully that won't happen this time, and she'll be included in the guest actress category.
While I'm mentioning fabulous female guest stars, Tony winner
Debra Monk (who I loved as Katie Sipowicz on
NYPD Blue) was hilarious as Marcella, Gabrielle's modeling agent. Gaby should've known not to upset Marcella, especially after she referred to her as "a career-obsessed lesbo who would die alone and be eaten by her cats." Gaby's best line was after Marcella told her she had a gig for her in New York: "Are you serious? I can't tell since your face doesn't move anymore." Poor Gaby had to play a mother, so it was not a shocker that she attempted to change her character's style. After she was told by director Durkin (
Ian Paul Cassidy) to "just make it work," I laughed out loud when she changed her entire outfit: "Oh, I made it work. I'm Hot Mom!" Although Durkin was mortified and got Marcella to reprimand Gaby,
Tim Gunn would've been proud.
Excellent usage of
Kathryn Joosten tonight as Mrs. McCluskey. She got involved with just about every neighbor (whether they liked it or not). But my favorite part was her scene with Edie, in which she threatened to show Mike the hidden (by Edie) photos of him and Susan together. Edie's best line: "Don't lie to me, prune!" Mrs. McCluskey even had Mike's toolbox, the one the detectives were looking for, so I hope she's not the next murdered neighbor.
Another awesome Edie moment was when Susan came to Edie to protest the pairing of Austin and Julie. Susan asked: "How can you be so calm?" Edie (as she and Mike were about to go out): "I'm calm because I know if two people are meant to be together, there's nothing anyone can do about it." Snap! Speaking of Austin and Julie, it was good to see
Richard Burgi back as Karl. (I know several of you had made "Where's Karl?" comments, so I bet you were happy, too.) You knew Karl would not be pleased when he heard Susan was dating Ian, but I hope Karl continues to come back. Nice mother/daughter scene between Susan and Julie toward the end, when Susan said: "Relationships have nothing to do with good judgment. It doesn't matter how smart you are. You can still get hurt."
So I'm leaving my least favorite story line for last. After going through almost the entire episode enjoying Lynette's scenes with her kids and with the man who saved her life, new neighbor Art (
Matt Roth), I knew she would eventually discover something strange about Art. I mean, it's pretty much impossible for a
normal person to move to Wisteria Lane. But Lynette discovered that Art has hundreds of photos of shirtless little boys taped on a wall, in a room of trains, toys and pinball machines. Ewwww. Makes the episode's title even more fitting: "Children and Art." Parker was enthralled by Art's basement; thankfully, Lynette discovered this secret right away, before it was too late. I can't wait to see how Lynette deals with
this next week. At least we know she won't be baking cakes for Art anymore.
Since the Art story line grosses me out, I'll end with a more pleasant memory from tonight: Tom explaining to the boys that Aunt Nora is "up in heaven" and Lynette following that twice with "or wherever."
