US Airdate: September 27th 2009 – May 16th 2010In the sixth season of the ongoing show, a new couple’s arrival onto Wisteria Lane generates it’s own mystery as the main wives deal with the collapse of a marriage, a neighbourhood strangler, money woes, a new baby and the death of a loved one all over again.
The Almighty Edition: Isn’t that a kick in the nuts? I stop reviewing this show on an episode by episode basis and the bloody show only goes and improves astonishingly well, doesn’t it? It might be time for both Marc Cherry and ABC to be sitting down and coming up with how to end this show full time but for me, this was certainly a season that was worth watching.
First off all, the mystery of the piece – the Bolens. After hitting the skids with Dave’s painfully obvious season long arc, it’s nice that the writers actually sat down and thought this one out. Casting Drea deMatteo as Angie was a brilliant choice because not only is she a terrific actress, but she actually fitted with the cast rather seamlessly as well.
I wouldn’t have pegged Angie down as an eco-protester responsible for the death of an FBI agent and I certainly wouldn’t have seen John Barrowman ending up playing the very guy that Angie would keep uprooting her family just to get away from him but that was where this season was a pleasant surprise.
Angie mostly clicked with all of the women at the start of the year and while she wasn’t above using Susan and Katherine’s rivalry against them to keep herself safe from suspicion at times, she still managed to actually be a decent neighbour. Who else would’ve been quick enough to have scored a job working for Bree and covering for her adulterous new boss in one episode? Okay, I guess a lot of people might have but it still doesn’t stop Angie from being made of win.
Another thing was that made of win was actually getting Gabby of all people involved in Angie’s mystery. After five seasons of largely Susan and Bree being tied into the mysteries, it was a welcomed change of pace and the last couple of episodes managed to build a rather convincing friendship between Gabby and Angie to boot.
John Barrowman as Patrick Logan was an interesting choice for the actor. As someone who’s profoundly had enough of seeing the actor behind Jack Harkness presenting dodgy Saturday night shows, it was nice to see him a pretty untypical role for a change. Patrick might not be the greatest of television villains or even on this show but his five episode stint was impressive and being blown up by a bomb in the detonator itself was a fantastic way for Angie to get rid of a dangerous obstacle in Patrick Logan.
The fact that Angie and her family are forced to stay on the run and leave Wisteria Lane was surprisingly sad but made a lot of sense. Between husband Nick and son Danny, both of them aren’t as dynamic as Angie but they’re decent enough characters, even if Nick had an affair with Julie and Danny was mostly involved with the rather self-involved Ana but it really is Angie who left the bigger impression throughout the season.
That being said, Angie’s storyline wasn’t the only major mystery this year. Having Julie strangled (thankfully she didn’t die) in the opening episode and subsequent murders later on meant that we had another story to solve, and again, props to the writers for using Lynette on this one.
Feeling sorry for the sociopathic Eddie was something of a hard one. Okay, his mother was rotten to him and he did thankfully bump off Porter’s annoying fiancée but on the flip side, he also held Lynette hostage in the finale and there was the worry that he was going to kill her newborn baby as well, even if it was Lynette’s words of wisdom that did force him to hand himself over.
With the Eddie plotline only involving Lynette towards the end of the season, the start of the year wasn’t as great for her. There were arguments with her and Tom over having twins, losing one of the twins, antics with a crappy therapist, Carlos being a dick to Lynette when he learned she was pregnant and the rivalry between Lynette and Irina certainly won’t go down as one of the series more engaging one to be honest.
However a rivalry that was excellent was the one between Katherine and Susan at the start of the season over Mike. I’ve never been the biggest Katherine fan out there but Dana Delaney did a terrific job this season – first as a psychotic Katherine tried her damndest to break Susan/Mike up, then as a more fragile Katherine trying to make amends to everyone in the neighbourhood as she began to fall in love with stripper Robin.
I was cynical over a Katherine/Robin hook-up but the four episodes used to explore their relationship worked quite well (and even allowed Bob and Lee a chance to shine) and while Julie Benz and Dana Delaney are now on different shows for ABC, I do hope that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Katherine and Robin on Wisteria Lane.
Outside of Katherine and Angie, Bree probably has some stronger storylines as well. Her relationship with Karl certainly had much needed spark to it but it was cut too shortly with the plane crash event episode wiping Karl out and most of her scenes with Orson are painful to watch. It’s actually a godsend when he decided that their marriage should end in the finale but it’s also a season too late as well. Plus the storyline with Rex’s other son, Sam could’ve been spread out a little further as well and Andrew was savagely underused as well.
Apart from the Angie stuff, most of Gabby and Carlos’s stuff this season isn’t that great. The amount of time dedicated to Gabby trying to home school Juanita or deal with Ana could’ve been better utilised but for some odd reason, I did like the inclusion of Heidi Klum reminding us how badly behaved Gabby used to be and did I mention that Gabby’s friendship with Angie was fantastic?
Susan and Mike’s plotlines this year was largely boring to be honest. Mike’s always had financial problems but the fact that it’s resorted to him, Susan and MJ having to leave their home felt more annoying than distressing. That being said, I can’t wait to see the look on their faces when they realise that Paul Young of all people has bought their house and therefore has also set up the mystery for the seventh season along with the baby swap drama. It’ll be more shocking than Karen getting a boyfriend, which funnily enough she actually did this season or Bob and Lee splitting up after a dumb kid subplot with Gabby went predictably awry, which funnily enough did and there’s that odd ‘what if’ episode that also doesn’t serve any overall purpose to the season as well but it’s possibly best not to think about that one.
DVD EXTRAS: The DVD is due for release in October and it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot in the way of extras to be honest. From what I’ve researched, you can find the usual smattering of bloopers and deleted scenes, an amusing feature involving Miss Piggy in Wisteria Lane (undoubtedly no stranger than the Oprah one from the Season 1 DVD) as well as some specifically picked moments from series creator, Marc Cherry but apart from that, it’s a limited bunch.
EPISODE RATINGS
6x01: Nice Is Different Than Good = 8/10, 6x02: Being Alive = 9/10,
6x03: Never Judge A Lady By Her Lover = 7/10,
6x04: The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me Blues = 6/10,
6x05: Everybody Ought To Have A Maid = 8/10, 6x06: Don’t Walk On The Grass = 9/10, 6x07: Careful The Things You Say = 7/10, 6x08: The Coffee Cup = 7/10,
6x09: Would I Think Of Suicide? = 9/10, 6x10: Boom Crunch = 10/10,
6x11: If = 5/10, 6x12: You Gotta Give Me A Gimmick = 7/10,
6x13: How About A Friendly Shrink? = 9/10, 6x14: The Glamorous Life = 8/10,
6x15: Lovely = 8/10, 6x16: The Chase = 8/10,
6x17: Chromolume No 7 = 7/10, 6x18: My Two Young Men = 8/10,
6x19: We All Deserve To Die = 9/10, 6x20: Epiphany = 9/10,
6x21: A Light Night Music = 7/10, 6x22: The Ballad Of Booth = 8/10,
6x23: I Guess This Is Goodbye = 9/10.
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