Friday, 27 March 2009

Discussing the comparison of differences in appeal with Lynette Scavo and Bree Van De Camp/Hodge In Desperate housewives.

The two Characters that i feel obviously contain the main differences and similarities within Desperate Housewives are Lynette Scavo and Bree Van De Camp/Hodge.

I'll firstly start with Lynette Scavo her representation of being a housewives is a stereotypical hectic overworked mother. She has 4 children who are unruly, husband who prefers work than being at home and a local neighbour who occasionally looks after her children.
She dresses in men shirts with her hair normally tied up, which to me shouts out "runned down MUM" you can tell that like any other mother who have troubled children that in the way which she hardly wears make up and feminine clothes means she's most of her time rushing around after her kids and clearing up the house and cooking just like every stereotypical housewife role. Though this is not all bad, as you can tell that with slight situations that come across within the many series that she is a very intelligent woman who wants to work and make something of her life. she's determined and a control freak.....

Bree Van De Camp/Hodge is a well represented 1950's housewife with elements of modern culture. Her role in life is to be the perfect housewife. She cooks with passion, smothers her 2 children, and pampers her bread winner Husband. She looks and Plays the role perfectly, just like Lynette she's a complete control freak, and also very intelligent. Unlike Lynette Bree takes pride in her appearance, making her hair perfect (which her husband refers to as Non Moving) and making sure that there's not a piece of dust on her surfaces. She's more organized, and prepared for situations like arguments and unwanted surprises.

The Observer- Racheal Cooke-Sunday 22 January 2006- Article History

Stylish it may be, but Desperate Housewives is a step back in time

In 2006, a woman is not supposed to take herself too seriously. Being po-faced - tight of jaw and thin of lip - is just about the worst crime she can commit (unless she is overweight). So I feel quite anxious about what I intend to write here. God forbid that anyone should think that I don't have a sense of humour, that I fail to see the irony in certain aspects of camp. But what I'm wondering is: why do so many intelligent women enjoy Desperate Housewives? Doesn't it irk them? Don't they feel it's backward-looking? Has it never occurred to them that if Teri Hatcher, who plays Susan, gets any thinner, the other housewives will be able to use her to floss their teeth?

The days of shared excitement at TV cliff-hangers the night before are meant to be over. The theory is that, with so many channels available, the audience is too fragmented for conversations along the lines of 'who shot JR?' I am not convinced of this. If it is the case, how come I'm always feeling so left out? Desperate Housewives is a case in point. Recently, a friend revealed she was having a 'Bree moment'. It was several minutes before I understood that this had more to do with control freakery than soft cheese. Then my heart really sank.

Everyone I know is crazy about Desperate Housewives, and I just don't get it. It's as if I'm back at school and, while all the other girls are busy lusting over some boy who is obviously a complete bastard, I'm secretly hankering after the dork with an earnest smile and a CND badge on his blazer. I ignored the first series, in so far as I could. The title alone, which sounds vaguely like a specialist porn mag, was enough to set my teeth on edge. And on the few occasions when I did catch a brief blast, I was always bewildered. As another Housewife-aphobe, the TV critic of The New Yorker, Nancy Franklin, wrote 12 months ago, playing around with tone - with soap opera, melodrama, and comedy - proves that the series' creator, Marc Cherry, has talent, but it doesn't prove that he has artistry. Its scripts are pap: slick pap - but pap all the same.

But worse than these faults of drama is the insidious way it plays on sexual stereotypes. Its jokes, which are often funny, and the unbridled sex one of the women has been having with her teenage gardener, and the female characters' sharp tongues all act as a distraction - very handy, this - from the central thesis, which is that women are mad, bad and dangerous to know. Their hormones make Hurricane Katrina look like a blowy weekend in Bexhill.

The second season began on Channel 4 last Wednesday; minutes in, and it had started. Mothers-in-law? Boo! Childless career women? Boo! I am told that Bree, who is like Martha Stewart on Ritalin, is everyone's favourite. Why? Because her rubber gloves are a vampish purple? Because the great, shining dome of her forehead appears to contain so much Botox it looks like an ostrich egg with a torch behind it? I suppose you could say that she stands as a kind of warning - that an unfulfilled life is a shrivelled life. But if so, why does she get such great outfits? Even by the standards of this show, where a woman with a bum or a bust is not really a woman at all, she looks good. And looking good, in Wisteria Lane, is just about the only thing that really counts. Cheekbones are go!

The critics are kind to Housewives. They regard it as a bit of fun. 'Perkily malicious,' says one. 'Preposterous glitz,' says another. But women get told that so many things are fun; we're compelled to smile so often, and so hard, that our faces ache. In the series, only Lynette (Felicity Huffman), a career high-flyer who became a full-time mother but is now going back to work, betrays any sense of this; only in her do the strange, mixed messages women receive, and the internal conflicts these messages ignite, seem to have any life at all. Last week she ended up selling herself to her new boss while changing her baby's nappy - which was, well, a bit better than the robot antics of the other wives, for whom work seems to be about as appealing as flat shoes or pop socks, but still a bit dumb. Even as she 'multi-tasked', she looked disorganised. You see how women cock things up? So, Lynette got the job. The question is: will she be allowed to keep it?

Much of our culture seems to be so retrograde at the moment. It's like living in 1973. Rachel Weisz wins a Golden Globe for a brilliant performance in a politically-engaged film, and all anyone wants to talk about is that she and Kate Winslet - allegedly - are not the best of friends. Well, no wonder - when our favourite TV is dolly birds in suburbia. Do I have a sense of humour? I think so (though you should never trust someone who tells you they possess such a thing). But do I worry? Yes, I do.

When I watch the BBC's wonderful Life on Mars, in which a cop has been transported back to 1973, there are times when the sexism seems outlandishly shocking - and times when it seems just a little bit too familiar for my liking.

Thursday, 19 March 2009

Characters..

Mistresses: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mistresses/themistresses/

KatieRoden, Doctor,

The rock of the group, Katie is ready for a fresh start after a tough couple of years.

Having been suspended from her job for conducting an affair with a patient, Katie is determined to wipe the slate clean and start afresh. With a new job in a local hospital, albeit in a junior role, Katie hopes for a less complicated life and is determined to stick to her vow of celibacy.

Katie previously had a two-year affair with John, a terminally ill patient she was looking after. While mourning his death, Katie found comfort in his son Sam, but ended the relationship when the details of John’s death we’re revealed to his family. Since then Katie has moved on and determined to stay happily single.

Siobhan Dhillon, Lawyer

A hard working professional whose personal life isn’t what it seems.

Hari and Siobhan are now proud parents to baby Elsa, and have managed to sort out a relatively ‘normal’ family life. But, despite appearances, their family unit isn’t as strong as it may seem and Siobhan hides a dark secret.

Successful lawyer Siobhan seemingly had the perfect marriage to the handsome and caring Hari. However, she was unable to resist an office fling with her colleague, Dominic, and as a result fell pregnant. Siobhan decided to confess all to her husband, who eventually agreed to stand by her.

Trudi Malloy, Mother and Baker

Mother first, partner second, Trudi is in the middle of juggling a busy family life.

Trudi and Richard are in a constant state of chaos; they and their three young girls are living between two houses and money is very tight. The spontaneous first throws of passion and romance are slowly ebbing away from their relationship but Trudi is keen to take her relationship with Richard to the next level.

Trudi has been badly burnt in the past, not least by her lying husband who betrayed her by pretending to perish in the 9/11 attacks in New York and planned, with his American lover, to con Trudi out of a third of her compensation money. However, Trudi feels that Richard is completely different and is keen to tie the knot and make their commitment permanent.

Jessica Fraser, Event organisner

Gorgeous and fun-loving with an adventurous sexual appetite.

Having moved on from the heartache dished out by her lesbian lover, party girl Jessica seems to have met her match in playboy millionaire, Mark.

Jessica's previous conquests include her boss Simon, married lesbian Alex and her friend Stella. However, after a whirlwind romance with Mark is that all about to change?

Characters..

Desperate Housewives Characters: From http://abc.go.com/primetime/desperate/index?pn=bios#t=character

Susan Mayer is a forty something divorcee living with her 14-year-old daughter, Julie. Her romantic heart always has her looking for her next great love. Writing and illustrating children's books has kept her around Wisteria Lane most days making it easy for her to keep an eye on neighborhood beau, Mike Delfino, her occasional boyfriend.

She and her wise-beyond-years daughter have a tell all relationship often resulting in a parental role reversal. Susan often consults with Julie on important decisions like which dress was sexier for her first date with Mike and how to best stalk him after he became a presumed killer. Inevitably, Julie was always the one there to pick up the pieces, a tradition which began when Susan's adulterous ex-husband, Karl, walked out on them.

Susan's notoriously clumsy escapades have resulted in accidental arson, embarrassing public nudity and an unsightly encounter with a mechanical bull. Unfortunately her magnetic charm tends to attract trouble usually involving her secretive neighbor, Paul Young. She found herself knee-deep in a mystery surrounding her late friend Mary Alice Young's death involving a cryptic blackmail note, a dead woman's journal and a baby named Dana who may in fact be Mike's child.

Lynette Scavo was once best known as a savvy career woman. In the work force she was an over-achiever who could accomplish any task, but those days came to an end when she and her husband, Tom, decided to have children. She gave up the working world and within six years had twin boys, a five year old son and a baby girl. Soon, she gained a new reputation as the mother of quite possibly the most unruly children ever born.

In her efforts to tame her children and keep up with her domestic responsibilities, Lynette developed an addiction to her children's ADD medication that she eventually overcame with the help from the women of Wisteria Lane.

While Lynette's intentions are usually genuine, her actions often are not. Her need to actively meddle in the lives of others for the greater good led her to tank her own husband's promotion in order to preserve his time with their family. Unfortunately for Lynette, Tom found out about her subterfuge, but decided that she was right. He needed more time with the children. With that he quit his job and resolved to become a stay-at-home dad sending his wife back out into the professional arena with a seven year gap in her resume.

Bree Van de Kamp is a searing, uptight perfectionist. Her strong resolve and proper demeanor have caused tension in her marriage and home-life. As a mother of two teenagers, her icy cool nerves were often tested. She struggled to rein in her rebellious, and at times soulless son, Andrew, and fought to give her self-absorbed daughter, Danielle, a proper perspective on life.

During a routine meeting with the neighborhood call-girl, her husband Rex suffered a heart attack, thus shining a light on his dark secrets. Bree reluctantly cared for him during his recovery after her children's insistence. He marriage was further troubled when she began dating the local pharmacist, George Williams, much to her husband's dismay. Rex took matters into his own hands when he went to ward off George, only inciting his jealousy which led him to begin tampering with Rex's heart medication. Bree was eventually widowed when after months of poisoning by their pharmacist, Rex's heart gave way.

Despite all this, her "perfect housewife" routine remained nearly unshaken during the past year. She was able to keep up appearances at the country club, find time to bake muffins for her incarcerated arch nemesis, Maisy Gibbons and somehow maintain her perfectly quaffed flip.

Gabrielle Solis, the youngest of the housewives on Wisteria Lane, spent her early days climbing out of a desperate situation to become a glamorous runway model in New York where she met her husband, Carlos. She gave up her exciting life and married him on the spot, knowing that he would be able to provide everything she could ever want: an exquisite home, jet-setting vacations and a bottomless bank account. It was only after moving to suburbia that Gabrielle realized that perhaps she wanted all the wrong things.

With Carlos' long days now spent at the office, Gabrielle quickly became bored with her new life and began an illicit affair with her stunning underage gardener, John. She struggled to keep her affair under wraps and after several close calls was seemingly let off the hook when her husband was arrested. During this time she was forced to take a variety of odd jobs which often put her in uncomfortable and humiliating positions, such as showcasing mattresses for Valentine's Day and displaying Buicks at the local mall while having her dress caught in the revolving display.

Gabrielle's life was further undermined by her husband's desire to have children spurred on by the untimely death of his mother. He successfully tampered with his wife's birth control and she became pregnant, but with who's child? His or the gardener's?

News of the affair finally came out, but at the worst time. Carlos, already under house arrest for importing slave labor and now up on charges for assault and battery, flew into a jealous rage during his trial upon discovery of the affair only incriminating himself further and possibly sending him away for no less than 8 years.

What the Program is about...

Desperate Housewives...Dark comedy drama exploring the complicated reality behind the apparent domestic bliss of a group of housewives in a fictitious American suburb.- www.channel4.com

Mistresses..Drama series about four female friends' marital and extramarital relationships..-www.bbc.co.uk

Similarities & Differences?
Similarities: