simpsons and desperate housewives

B
oth shows are simply delightful! And they came almost back to back. And it seems like tonight was a really gay night. The Simpsons at 8 (with a repeat episode at 8:30), and Desperate Housewives at 9. I will comment on the Simpsons episode first (but with as little spoilers as possible) and on the Desperate Housewives last (but with full explanation of the plot I am most interested in).

Its pre-show warning of explicit materials aside, The Simpsons treated the topic of gay marriage so funnily and with the truest heart that I am just amazed. Yes, almost every minute we were subjected to watching gay-themed scenes, repleted with hand-holding, kissing, and everything so overblown and different from the usual Simpsons that I couldn't help but feel awkward and yet delighted, weirded out and still surprised. The Homer kissing another Homer with many little baby Homers was an interesting bit that made me laugh.

The most fascinating thing was the ending, which had a delightful twist that reaffirmed Marge's love for her sister. (Yes, that's the character.) Marge was that typical liberal that gay conservatives complained about, who always support gay marriage, yet cannot support her sister. She even didn't believe that Patty was gay. And they showed a funny flashback scene that made Patty's homosexuality glaringly obvious.

In the end, though, Marge behaved in a manner consistent with her support of the love between two people as more important than the sexual organs that each person may possess--which sounds uncommonly strange to me, but funnily enough, rather sensical.

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As for Desperate Housewives . . . GAY! I wasn't even planning to watch the episode. In fact, I was thinking that the TV should be turned off and I should be going back to doing my paper. But the channel was changed and I stumbled onto this little gem of a show. I never watched Desperate Housewives before, but I wanted to watch it. It was just that I never seem to remember to try to watch it on a Sunday night, when I'm usually prepping for homework and trying to catch up on everything. It was because of that Simpsons show that I finally got the chance watch Desperate Housewives.

My verdict? It was great, splendid, and wonderfully done. It's a subversive comedy much like The Simpsons, actually. I would even suggest that it is a show you would expect to be on Fox, but fortunately, it's not on Fox!

With four different stories going on, I thought it was like a fast-paced opera with hilarious elements. I think someone said that it was a show without a laugh track, so you're forced to pick the moment when you should laugh, or say, "Oh, that evil [insert expletive here]."

It was most fortunate, however, that I happened to come onto this particular episode when they introduced the GAY character! I don't remember his name, except that he is a friend of John, perhaps a roommate, since the show aired him with Gabrielle Solis going to John's apartment to tell John about his roommate trying to have sex with her.

What happened? John's roommate told her that he might be gay. So after the usual chat about his sexual habit with a buddy of his, his subsequent denial, and his search for truth, and his discomfort with his sexuality, Gabrielle kissed him in the mouth longly and passionately.

After that kiss, she asked him, "Do you feel anything?" And he shook his head!!! WOW! I love that scene. Maybe cable has this kind of thing all the time, but for me to see it on mainstream show . . . GAY!!! LIBERAL!!! OPEN-MINDED!!! PROGRESSIVE!!! AWESOME!!! And extremely cute.

If that wasn't enough, the ending scenes (note the plural) of all the stories also had Susan, who was looking for her daughter after finding out that her boyfriend was a drug convict and a murderer (doesn't that sound so much like the soap opera you see as day-time trash?), went to the pool party hosted by Zach. She stumbled onto two people kissing each other in the pool. She thought that one of them was her daugher so she screamed at them. They immediately swam to the bottom of the pool to try to hide, but she stayed there until one of them swam up. He was that John's roommate! And who was he kissing? He came up later, leaving Susan stunned to find both of them are teenage boys! Slowly she came to subsequent realization and much to her blustering embarrassment tried to leave them alone. John's roommate's buddy choked out, "I'm not gay." But she was already on her way out.

How great! How glorious! This is my kind of TV show already, because it's filled with the awkward moments (notice how I use awkward so often now). I wish I had started watching from the very beginning. The show ended tying all the stories together with the dead lady, who I haven't yet seen, but who is named Mary Alice Young, talking about how people always lie to themselves every day with a new set of lies, and how lying to themselves was the worst thing. Then they showed the two boys again and she said of John's roommate's "buddy," "convincing himself that he could change" and of John's roommate "convincing himself that he could change his mind." In that little statement, you can already gleam what happened after Susan left the pool. One tried to persuade the other to stay. The other continued not to admit that he was gay and fled.

More pointedly, I'm surprised that between the scene with Gabrielle and the pool scene, John's roommate (whose name I will definitely try to take note of) was able to accept and even embrace his homosexuality without any anguish, while the other continued to deny it.

I loved both shows tonight, but I loved Desperate Housewives more. The Simpsons returned to normal, and will undoubtedly continue its old-fashioned comedy, but with gay marriage still legalized (and conveniently forgotten until the next bit happens). I don't know about Desperate Housewives, but it's a new plotline that I hope they'll continue, but ratings may take a hit if viewers don't like it.