The Post In Which I Attempt To Justify An Embarrassing New Obsession

Friday night I was husband free. I was also plan free. I was in quite a dilemma. I couldn't for the life of me remember what normal people do on Friday nights. Weekend nights to myself are extremely rare and I didn't want to waste this one. So, I did what was rational and spent about two hours worrying about how to not waste my Friday night alone.

I did what any other red-blooded American would have done, I headed to Blockbuster to rent a bazillion movies.

I walked into Blockbuster, stared at the rows and rows of colorful, perfectly aligned movie shelves. I was in heaven. It's not that I never go to a movie rental store, it's just that I never go to a movie rental store without my husband. Every single chick flick in the history of Hollywood was at my fingertips. I didn't have to worry about my husband not liking what I picked out and forever labeling me as "the bad movie picker" - which I dread as much as contracting some uncurable transmitted disease.

Essentially, I could rent ANY movie I wanted- cheesy romantic comedy, raunchy drama, a completely action-less eye candy film, or one of each- and the only person to judge me was the Blockbuster employee at the check out counter. I perused down all the aisles and a million titles jumped out at me that I had never even noticed during my previous trips with my husband. So many films looked good. Embarrassing as it is, I was in the mood for something with a steamy sex scene...

I got to the end of the "new releases" alphabet with about five movies in my hand, all promising to deliver some hints of romantic or at least steamy sex. That's when I came across the television series section. Nothing looked too great, Dexter (the physco killer? Way too bloody and scary), 24 (heard it was good but not really in the mood), Desperate Housewives (...?...). I had never seen Desperate Housewives but I have always thought poorly of the show for some reason. I thought it was a brainless, soap opera-like drama where the problems of the snobby rich people were on display in order for us "normal" people to feel better about our own lives. I was just about to skip on to the comedy section but then I felt remarkably compelled to see what all the fuss was about.

Feeling totally embarassed, I grabbed disk one of season three (the earliest one they had). The lady at the check out counter took her sweet time entering my movies into her computer, meanwhile I kept scanning the room, soaked in the paranoia that someone would see me walk out the door with Desperate Housewives. Then, in a voice much louder than I would have liked, the check out lady said, "Just to make sure, you know this is Season Three Disk One of Desperate Housewives?" I nodded and turned a deep red. She had just announced my selection to the entire store, great. I felt like I was buying a sex toy or something.

I was still really skeptical when I popped Desperate Housewives into my dvd player at home- but I had back ups films in case it was, in fact, really lame. To my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode. It was interesting, entertaining, and not entirely mindless. Ok some of the characters are a little tacky and almost unbelievable, but that made it more fun. I got sucked into the plot and become engrossed with the main characters, one in particular- Lynette. The actress who plays her has won an Emmy for her performance. In the show Lynette is an overachieving, working mother of four children. She is "mom next door" pretty, has a husband who is sometimes like a fifth child, and although she is kind, she doesn't take crap from anyone and will stand up for what she believes is right. I want to be her in 15 years.

I felt a little stupid getting caught up in the story line of Teri Hatcher's character. Major soap opera cliche: she's madly in love with her boyfriend who is in a coma. She starts to fall in love with a guy whose wife is also in a coma. But the whole thing was just comical and I think the wrtiers throw that stuff in there in an effort to mock the soap opera genre.

I think what I admire most about the show, other than the colorful characters, is how the show deals with serious issues that are important to all of us but in a way that is both meaningful and comical. The characters face (on an extreme level, of course) betrayal, seduction, sabotage, death, adolescence, family loyalty, illness and friendship. While sometimes the plot comes straight out of a soap opera, at other times it is sincere, witty and downright hilarious.

I've seen ten episodes in the past three evenings and I'm still craving more. If the show's entertainment came in a morphine drip form, I would be hooked up to an IV in a hearbeat (that's saying a lot considering how easily I faint). Clearly, I'm addicted.