User blog:Renaboss/Best housewife in a season

An interesting discussion has been raised in the talk page for the upcoming episode, "Everything's Different, Nothing's Changed", about Lynette's lackluster year this season. It got to me to thinking what her best season was, and what housewives seem to "have it easy" in what seasons. So I figured I'd like to know which housewives you guys think had the best stories in each season. I'll go first:

Season 1 - Susan: The best year for Susan (though seasons 5 and 7 come close), the year that introduced her as the lovable romantic lead and central female (though that position has been watered down in the subsequent seasons so that each housewife shares the title of "main character"), at the heart of the show's biggest on-again/off-again relationship and the one most connected to the mystery (other than the deceased narrator, of course). She wound up winning us over with her crazy antics (though a lot of people have come to hate her over the last few seasons, for some reason...) and played the part of the damsel in distress in the season finale. Definitely, Susan rocked season 1. Teri Hatcher deserved the top billing.

Close seconds: (Bree, Gabrielle)

WOrst - Lynette: Lynette's family-centric issues made for a lot of filler stories in this season. Notice how in the very second episode her story consists of training her kids to sit in the back seat of the car. It's sitcom-y material (though much better :P). She was actually quite good this season, but the other women were a lot better. Sometimes I wonder why, in the first season, Felicity got the second billing, how that all came to be.

Season 2 - Bree: Best year for Bree (season 1 comes close), the era that showed us the darkest side of the robotic housewife, and the time that got me thinking she really was the most desperate and suffering of them all. There came a point in the second half of the season where it seemed she couldn't catch a break. Her feud with Andrew (we miss bad Andrew, don't we?), her connection to the Applewhite mystery, her drinking problem, her sex-addict boyfriend... and that was all in the second half. Let's not forget mourning Rex (tie-swapping: awesome!) and dealing with crazy George (that suicide attempt scene is one of the most brilliant of the series, and of any series). Bree went though hell in season 2, but she made it back. But she never got back to the neurotic perfectionist she started off as, for shame.

Close seconds: (Lynette, Gabrielle)

Worst - Susan: I liked Susan in this season, I just liked the other women more. See season 3 for something similar.

Season 3 - Lynette: Felicity Huffman nailed this season, making it the one that got us thinking "boy, she really is the best actress out of the bunch". Just look at her heart-wrenching performance in "Bang": Felicity at her best. Lynette's feud with Nora, with Kayla, with her mother, with the pedophile, the opening of the Scavo pizzeria, her thing with Rick, the cancer... everything happened to her over the course of 23 episodes (with amazing guest stars to go along with it, i.e. Laurie Metcalf, Matt Roth, Polly Bergen, Kiersten Warren, Jason Gedrick, and series regular Rachel Fox. (seasons 2 and 6 come close)

Close seconds: (Susan, Bree)

Worst - Gabrielle: This is the best "worst" in here, because I actually loved Gabrielle's story in season 3 (which might just be the one with the best stories overall, at least in the first 15 episodes), it's just that I loved the other women's stories even more.

Season 4 - Gabrielle: At this point one might think I'm giving each housewife a go, but it's really what I feel. Gaby was the best in season 4... but she was even better in seasons 1, 2, 5 and 7. Whereas the first 3 seasons were the best ones for their respective housewives, season 4 was, in my opinion, merely the fifth best for Gaby... but it was even worst for the other housewives. Saying it like makes it seem like I don't like season 4, but I do, I love it. The first 6 episodes make for the best premiering streak any season's ever had, and then there's the amazing tornado show and the breath-taking (and funny) 2-hour finale. But overall, the stories lack. Lynette had the amazing cancer story, but her feud with her mom didn't do much for me, and neither did Rick's return. Susan's story was the worst, I couldn't care less about Mike's pill-popping vice, which made me loathe him just a bit, and I was so disappointed that Bree was, yet again, the housewife dragged into the mystery story in the finale. Gabrielle was consistently the best one: I loved her romantic square (Gaby, Carlos, Edie and Victor), Carlos going blind (I'm with Breefan2626 on that carrots line, LOL) and Justine Bateman's arc in the last episodes.

Close seconds: (Bree, Lynette)

Worst - Susan (d'uh!). She was just boring this year. Mike was even more boring. Perhaps they really should had milked their on-again/off-again relationship a bit further. I like them as a married couple now.

Season 5 - Gabrielle: Again. This was the best year for Gaby (seasons 1, 2, 3 and 7 are close seconds). Seeing Eva Longoria frumpy was awesome. Her problems with her kids were interesting and funny enough (with Madison De La Garza nailing the role of fan favorite Juanita), and overall all her arcs were interesting, such as the one with Mrs. Hildebrand (loved Frances Conroy in this role), with the Scott couple, with Lucy and with Carlos' family in the finale).

Close seconds: (Susan, Lynette)

Worst - Bree: Business-Bree was more boring than I figured. At first I kinda liked it when her friends and husband resented her success, but after a while her stories became so mundane I couldn't care anymore. Notice how her story in the disaster episode is a total filler. Susan's probably was as well, but at least it featured the return of a major castmember. Orson's kleptomania storyline made me detest him. He never showed any sort of remorse for indirectly killing Edie. But I digress...

Season 6 - Lynette: Perhaps the second best season for Lynette, one that featured her dealing with an unexpected (and, at first, unwanted) pregnancy, concealing such pregnancy, feuding with the Solises, losing a child, dealing with issues with her husband, meeting the daughter-in-law from hell and playing mommy to a serial killer. Granted, the resolution to some of those stories were less than satisfying, but it was overall better than anything else going on.

Close seconds: (Susan, Bree)

Worst - Gabrielle: I didn't care about the homeschooling storyline, Ana was completely wasted and her involvement with the Bolens was over-hyped, nothing much happened, and Gaby didn't do anything all that heroic in the end. At least season 7 proved to be much better for her.

Season 7 - Susan: Yes, Eva Longoria has really shown us her acting chops over the course of the season, and she's looked more beautiful doing so than in recent years, but Susan is having the worst year of her on-screen life and I'm loving it. The kidney storyline might have become a bit stale lately, but we all know it'll pick up in the very next episode to become an awesome feud with the local baddie. I loved her stripping days back in the first five episodes (almost as much as I loved Lainie Kazan as Maxine), and even her nanny story, which I hadn't been hoping for, proved interesting.

Close seconds: (Gabrielle, Bree)

Worst - Lynette: No surprises here, she has the most filler stories out of all the housewives this year. It seems like they don't know what to do with Renee so they unload her on Lynette and therefore her arcs suffer. Every story of hers hasn't gone beyond 2 episodes so far. After a stellar year last season, Lynette is having it a bit too easy this year. And it seems like things aren't gonna change in the near future.