Seven years ago, we were introduced to Wisteria Lane and all of the mysteries that the seemingly quaint and normal American suburb held. The first episode of “Desperate Housewives,” which opened to a scene of a women committing suicide, who we now know as the narrator of the entire series, raised questions to viewers that caused them to return week in and week out to find the answers. The constant turns and underlying darkness has kept audiences watching and increased new viewership. Now seven years later, sex, deception, and bitches are back in a different form for a different age.
The new drama, “Revenge,” has gobs of potential that drips from the dark mind of Emily Thorne, the main character whose goal it is to dismantle and destroy every person who did her father wrong. Thorne, played by Emily VanCamp, has moved from the high-class society of the Hamptons to her old house that she used to live in until the FBI took her father away on terrorist charges.
Like “Desperate Housewives,” the opening scene caused more than a stir. We see Thorne at her own wedding rehearsal at the end of the summer, waiting for her husband-to-be, Daniel Grayson, played by Josh Bowman. In the brief scene there are more than a bushel of skeptical glares sent between the entire cast of characters, building the tension for what was about to happen. Then the scene pans to the beach where two teenagers, clearly from the wedding party, get naked and go swimming. Scandalous already. But then you see a man in the weeds dragging something in the sand. No, these hormone-jacked lovers are not alone. In fact, there are two other people in the same vicinity and the one who is dead is the groom. The scene ends with the two teenagers, one being Daniel’s sister, sprinting back towards the party screaming that Daniel is dead. Note, they’re still sporting their unmentionables.
After the show went to commercial, I was dumbfounded and surprised and confused and riveted. I had so many questions but no answers. Everyone hates each other, and the Hamptons are a lot like Wisteria lane it seems. Turns out that the wedding scene occurred at the end of the summer and then the show goes back to the beginning of summer, and the fun is just beginning. It seems that there has to be a limit to the revenge of Emily Thorne. What happens when she’s done everyone in and she has nowhere else to go? There has to be several quick twists and dives to keep this thrilling drama in motion. Something about a sexy, yet insane mastermind blonde in her early twenties destroying the lives of an entire community of stuck up wealthy jerks has me hooked.