Desperate Housewives - Season Four releases on DVD 9/2

It's a Sunday night as I type this. Usually I'd be settling in to watch my favorite TV divas: Susan Mayer, Bree Hodge, Gabrielle Solis, Lynette Scavo, Katherine Mayfair and even Edie Britt. Unfortunately, my guilty pleasure is still on summer hiatus not to return until September 28th.

But if you're itching for a fix like I am, you don't have to wait another month. Tomorrow, the complete fourth season of Desperate Housewives aka "Sizzling Secrets Edition" releases on DVD. A beautifully packaged set that includes five discs with a clever Wisteria Lane real estate guidebook featuring ads for Dr. Orson Hodge, DDS and Delfino's Plumbing along with the information on the episodes included on each disc.

(I'm wondering why the packaging features the newly cast-off Nicollette Sheridan who left--or more accurately, was run out of town--at the end of season four and excludes Dana Delaney, who according to the final episode flash forward is continuing with the show...Oh, and if I understand Marc Cherry's commentary correctly, the five years later epilogue to the season finale IS the direction he is taking the show. No details about the mystery hottie replacing Mike Delfino in Susan's home and heart, though...)

This is a loaded box set filled with all sorts of goodies: all 17 (abbreviated season due to the Writers Strike) episodes with commentaries; Getting Desperate: From Beginning to End, an in-depth look at the production of the tornado episode; Spare Time: Hanging with the men of Wisteria Lane; Cherry Picked: Creator Marc Cherry's Favorite Scenes, an alternate ending, deleted scenes and bloopers--and a bonus disc containing the pilot episodes of Pushing Daisies, Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money.

The Getting Desperate featurette was completely fascinating to me. If you want to see what goes into producing a TV show, you'll love this extra. Of course the tornado episode was the most dramatic, expensive and complicated of the season. Maybe the entire show--who knows if they'll ever do anything that action-packed again?!!! Said Cherry of the degree of difficulty involved in filming Something's Coming:

"Anytime you see action sequences, especially with wind and cars dropping, it becomes this technically very complicated thing. And it always makes me just marvel at the shows that do that kind of thing all the time. 'Cause mostly I just have women, you know, sitting around a kitchen table talking about adultery."

It was also fun to see an extra focusing on the males on the show. As Dana Delaney adroitly observes in the Spare Time feature, "The men are playing the chicks on this show." Ah, yes--and what eye candy they are!

I attempted to pause the scene and get the wording of the note that Aunt Lilly wrote to Dylan. Keep in mind that the note had been torn in pieces by Katherine, thrown in a fire and then retrieved by Dylan who attempted to reconstruct it. But the words read:

I tried...her tell you...your father...was murdered...never knew the...tried to...the truth...

Dylan pieced together the "your father" and "was murdered" but obviously the note wasn't originally written that way.

I especially liked the fact I was able to turn the subtitles on and get down the great speech Tom (Doug Savant) made to Bob and Lee in the season finale:

"If you're willing to break up over an ice sculpture, you guys should absolutely not get married. Because who gets to choose the ice sculpture, who should take out the trash, who has to stay home and make the mini pizzas, that's the little stuff.

What are you going to do when the big stuff comes along? What are you gonna do when a tornado hits your house? Or if you have problems with your kids? Or one of you gets cancer?

At some point, the crap is going to hit the fan. And that is why now, before you make the commitment, you have to ask yourself, is that person in bed next to you worth the trouble?"

Ah, what a great speech and what a great moment! Desperate Housewives is DEFINITELY worth the trouble in my book. If you're a fan of the show, check out the season four box set! By the time you get through all the episodes with commentaries and the wealth of special features, it will be time for season five!

Yay!