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Red Sluts, Blue Sluts (Lefty Desperate Housewives review)
The Nation ^ | December 16, 2004 | Richard Goldstein

Posted on 01/15/2005 1:11:52 PM PST by The Loan Arranger

The first pop phenomenon since the election is that salacious howler of a prime-time soap called Desperate Housewives. At this writing, it's the top-rated show on television, and the media are galvanized by its success at a time when red-state reverence is seeping into everything.

Despite its gleeful attitude toward fornication, this show is popular in Bush country. It even grabs men who never watch such sudsy stuff. One reason is its subject: babes behaving badly. These sexy suburban sisters don't have faggot friends--or careers, like most women in sitcoms today. And this trad but funky set-up suits the Monday Night Football crowd just fine (as the risqué locker-room visit by one of the show's stars, Nicollette Sheridan, attests). Yet Housewives also appeals to gay men and feminists: the Sex and the City set. How can the same package attract such a diverse audience? Even more remarkably, how can it succeed in such a chastened cultural climate?

At first glance, Housewives is a pungent rebellion against the ideal of America the Wholesome. Set in the proverbial suburban byway of Wisteria Lane, the show features more unhappy couples than a Doctor Phil special. With a knowing smirk, it showcases infidelity, treachery and outright schadenfreude.

(Excerpt) Read more at thenation.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: bush; morality; sex; thenation; trashtv
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To: My2Cents

I never saw that show either. For some reason I didn't set out to watch 24 Hours, I'm not into tv too much -- I think I just happened to see the first episode and that's been the only show I look forward to -- or know what night and time it will be on.


41 posted on 01/15/2005 2:47:14 PM PST by FITZ
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To: The Loan Arranger
At this writing, it's the top-rated show on television, and the media are galvanized by its success at a time when red-state reverence is seeping into everything. Despite its gleeful attitude toward fornication, this show is popular in Bush country.

It would be nice if the author backed up his assertion with some facts. Such as, how many votes did President Bush receive in the red states and how many viewers does Housewives have?

42 posted on 01/15/2005 3:37:20 PM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all)
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To: Polybius

"Did he also believe that Harry Potter told you exactly how students in boarding schools really lived?"

I don't know. If they're dumb enough to believe the MSM and kowtow to Michael Moore, they are probably dumb enough to believe practically anything.


43 posted on 01/15/2005 4:39:07 PM PST by AZ_Cowboy ("Be ever vigilant, for you know not when the master is coming")
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To: Texas Eagle

Why do liberals knock suburbia, green lawns and housewives? The Left's critique of the bourgeois will always be with us. With the public at large, the preference for the normal and and settled pace of every day existence is always stronger than any desire to change the world. Human nature, to the bane of liberals, always reasserts itself. Let's hear three cheers for surburbia!


44 posted on 01/15/2005 4:48:46 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: The Loan Arranger

Most straight adult men should get quickly bored with the show, since we all knew women like this in the past. And left them there.


45 posted on 01/15/2005 4:57:08 PM PST by BobS
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To: goldstategop
Why do liberals knock suburbia, green lawns and housewives?

Because they hate America.

46 posted on 01/15/2005 5:02:34 PM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all)
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To: Izzy Dunne

I watch it.

Conservatives should have sex as much as possible. I know I do.


47 posted on 01/15/2005 5:04:29 PM PST by wardaddy (Quisiera ser un pez para tocar mi nariz en tu pecera)
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To: The Loan Arranger

From hearing Glenn Beck talk about it I've yet to see my first showing of it and i most likely never will.


48 posted on 01/15/2005 5:04:31 PM PST by ATOMIC_PUNK
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To: livius

It's not stealth....it's not smarmy like American Beauty the movie, the left loved.

It's saitirical a bit and goofy but funny and all the middle aged to youngish gals are attractive which doesn't hurt.

I am really sensitive to PC jabs in shows and movies and I have seen none in this one.

The show that follows it Boston Legal is nauseatingly full of Bush bashing. Shame to waste Spader and Shatner's talents.

DHW is the only network show I watch or have watched in decades......Terry Hatcher is an inspriation for 40 year old wives....hot...very.


49 posted on 01/15/2005 5:08:22 PM PST by wardaddy (Quisiera ser un pez para tocar mi nariz en tu pecera)
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To: My2Cents

I know a dozen Conservatives here in Nashville that watchg it.

Husbands and wives...together....like my wife and I.


50 posted on 01/15/2005 5:09:40 PM PST by wardaddy (Quisiera ser un pez para tocar mi nariz en tu pecera)
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To: The Loan Arranger

Captain Nemo's island in Lost is a better TV show. DH is dull and most of the characters are morally repellent.


51 posted on 01/15/2005 5:15:12 PM PST by freeforall
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To: wardaddy
I watch it.
Conservatives should have sex as much as possible.

Hmmm. I tend to think of watching TV and having sex as two different things.

52 posted on 01/15/2005 5:24:42 PM PST by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: Izzy Dunne

There is no TV in our bedroom.


53 posted on 01/15/2005 5:26:52 PM PST by wardaddy (Quisiera ser un pez para tocar mi nariz en tu pecera)
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To: wardaddy

Yep...the bedroom is for two things.

Sleeping ....and uhhhhh.....sleeping.


54 posted on 01/15/2005 7:12:49 PM PST by I got the rope
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To: livius

Watch it. It's fun.

It's kind of a guilty pleasure, except I don't feel guilty.


55 posted on 01/15/2005 7:23:11 PM PST by altura
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To: RJL

I was watching it the other night and the domestic partner comes through prepared to scoff at me.

ten minutes later he's still standing there watching and asking me a bunch of crap like, "who's she?" "what did he do?"

It's definitely tongue in cheek. (and many other places as well.


56 posted on 01/15/2005 7:25:23 PM PST by altura
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To: The Loan Arranger
Sometimes I grow a little weary of the "Republicans don't enjoy sex" myth. Even more puzzling is sentiment like this line from the article:

But conservative eras instill a much harsher mood

Perhaps I'm not paying attention, but I haven't noticed any significant change in pop culture since Dubya took office, except maybe that it's gotten more lurid, as it always does.

57 posted on 01/15/2005 7:30:20 PM PST by squidly (I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosity he excites among his opponents)
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To: squidly

The problem for democrats is that Republicans enjoy sex. Just with their husbands or wives respectivly. I bet they even love their spouses (GASP!)

I bet they even like their children. (double GASP!)


58 posted on 01/15/2005 7:34:55 PM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE!)
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To: livius

I've never watched it. Don't think I ever will. Looks like
typical lib trash to me. On this mornings CNN gab fest at
seven am one of the talking head news gals said she loves it, why am I not surprised.


59 posted on 01/15/2005 9:11:36 PM PST by 2rightsleftcoast
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To: FITZ
It's on Sunday night 9 p.m. EST. It's on ABC. I don't know what time it would be on where you live. If you have another show you watch and enjoy, stay with it. If your show is preempted, you might want to take a glance.

It's a little offbeat, but there's some good life situation humor. It's mainly tongue in cheek, but there are a few twists in the plot. There's been a couple of murders and a suicide in Wisteria.

The voice-over is the woman who committed suicide, and her friends (the living desperate housewives) are trying to figure out why she did it. Nothing is too disturbing in the show, but you become involved with analyzing the characters, and what makes them tick.

I just hope that with its popularity the writers don't take it over the edge. I've seen that happen enough times.

60 posted on 01/15/2005 9:31:35 PM PST by World'sGoneInsane (LET NO ONE BE FORGOTTEN, LET NO ONE FORGET)
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