After the atrocious second season of Desperate Housewives wrapped up, I vowed never to turn the show on again. But then I started reading all these articles about how the show had brought in new writers, that they recognized what a joke Season 2 had become and that Season 3 would be different. And quite frankly, I got suckered into watching again. The first half of Season 3 ended and I once again vowed that I was done with the show. And yet here I am still watching. It's like the old cliché of the train wreck that you just can't look away from.

What I loved about the first season of Desperate Housewives was the witty banter, the slightly exaggerated (yet somehow reality-based) characters, and that it was a parody of  --- and homage to --- soap operas. Unfortunately, tonight's episode has proven that there is sparse humor left and that the show has become the thing it set out to make light of : a soap opera. The rape of Orson by Alma tonight really cemented it. And Gaby and Zach as a probable couple? C'mon! The show has completely left the realm of black comedy and moved into the twisted fantasy-land of Susan Lucci and her gang.

Not to mention, where's the mystery this season? And don't tell me it's the whole Orson, Alma and his mother deal --- BORING! Season 1 had a great ongoing mystery, and even Season 2, as awful as it was, tried to uphold that premise.  With no mystery and no comedy I'm sorry to say it, but Desperate Housewives has become just a superficial shell of its former self.

With that being said, check back next week for my thoughts on the show, because you know (and I hate to admit this) that no matter how absurd it gets, I just can't look away.