DVD REVIEWS: Desperate Housewives

Season 1 Touchstone
Series •••½ Picture/Sound •••½ Extras ••½
Wisteria Lane may look like the perfect neighborhood, but it has some nasty secrets. Snoop through the first season of this hit TV series, and you'll learn sordid tidbits about local forays into adultery, suicide, S&M, and even murder - all in good fun, of course. The writing starts to slip in the second half of the 24-episode set, but for the most part it's as clever as guilty pleasures come. Image detail is sharp enough to pick out every blade of grass in the manicured lawns, but skin tones lean slightly toward red. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is always active, especially for the many layers of Danny Elfman's mischievous theme song. Fluffy extras, spread across the six discs, include a few commentaries by series creator Marc Cherry and director Larry Shaw, some featurettes, a handful of deleted scenes, a blooper reel, and an alternate season ending. [TV-PG] English, Dolby Digital 5.1; letterboxed (1.78:1) and anamorphic widescreen; six dual-layer discs.

X