Desperate Housewives - Season Two

Beginning at the end of Sept. 2005, season two of the hit comedy-drama series, "Desperate Housewives," is like a hilarious soap opera. This may sound a little weird but I'm saying it as a compliment. Soap operas are serious dramatic works and are often poked fun at by a large population, but the second season of "Desperate Housewives" transformed the style into something amazing. Drama and comedy never fit so well together.

Bree Van de Kamp, Lynette Scavo, Gabrielle Solis, and Susan Mayer are back in this delightful and exceptional season. Their lives have changed tremendously since season one. Bree is now a widow, and after grieving, unintentionally dates the man that drugged and killed her husband. Fed up with staying at home with the children, Lynette goes full force back into the working world and climbs up the corporate ladder and becomes her husband's boss. Finally ending her affair with her underage gardener, Gabrielle devotes herself completely to her husband, Carlos, and plans to get pregnant with his baby. Susan has to deal with Edie Britt (the woman who picks at her friend's leftovers) being engaged to her ex-husband, which makes her label Edie as a frenemy.

With Marie Alice Young's suicide case finally revealed at the end of season one, a new mystery arises in season two involving Betty Applewhite and her family who just moved to Wisteria Lane. While the new mysterious plot is entertaining, it takes a back seat to the central characters' stories. The end of season two is shocking but season one's ending has it beat. Close, season two, but no cigar. How will season three compete?