Is it sinful to come home from church each Sunday evening looking forward to the guilty pleasure of Desperate Housewives?  I sure hope not, because I enjoy the show far too much.

***SPOILERS***

The season premiere was an example of just why this show is so much fun to watch.  Marcia Cross’s portrayal of Bree van de Kamp is both funny and touching on many levels.  The show begins with Bree waiting until exactly 9:00 AM to inform her friends of Rex’s untimely death; and then, the hilarious entrance of Shirley Knight as Rex’s grieving mother was a scream.  Bree may actually have a strong nemesis in Mother can de Kamp.  Then came the funeral: on the one hand, absolutely hilarious as Bree strips off the tie her mother-in-law put on Rex at the last minute, and on the other quite touching as Bree looks down at the man she spent 18 years with.

Of course, the writers also tied up the Mike, Susan, Zach storyline, but that wasn’t very interesting.  I have to say that Terry Hatcher’s Susan is wearing thin on me.  Speaking of thin, can Terry Hatcher lose any more weight?  She looked downright haggard.

Then, of course, there was Gabrielle.  Eva Longoria gets far to little attention, in my opinion, for having one of the most lovingly flawed characters on the show.  Last night was no exception.  It will be interesting to find out if the baby is actually Carlos’ or John’s child.  Sounds like the perfect season 2 finale.

There was also a new neighbor:  Alfre Woodard as Betty Applewhite and her son. Once again, Wisteria Lane has attracts another woman with a secret.  This time it’s a man, her husband possibly, chained up in the basement of the house.

Desperate Housewives got off to an excellent start last night.  This should be another funny and dramatic season ahead.

URL: Fox News Channel’s Smith Buoys Reputation (AP)

Let me say this first:  I despise the Fox “News” Channel.  I think its entire existence is to be little more than an unrelentingly loud advocate for conservative politics of the asinine kind — the Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly kind.  That being said, I have on occasion taken in Shepard Smith’s newscast.  Unlike so many of his Fox cohorts, Smith does a relatively good job of presenting the news.  Of course, that doesn’t stop him from parroting Republican talking points like any other FNC personality.  However, since Hurricane Katrina we’ve seen a different Shepard Smith, a real journalist for a change.  Like so many journalists who witnessed the aftermath of Katrina, he spoke from the heart and wore his emotions on the outside.  I will give him this, he was good. 

This has, of course, caused Smith’s star to rise.  His ratings are up, he’s more well-know, and he’s even appearing on the late night talk shows.  In this article by the AP, a puff piece to be sure, he says something I find interesting:

“I didn’t get into this to be an advocacy journalist,” he said. “I think our job is to tell people what’s going on and let them make their decisions on how to react to things based on the facts and just the facts. It’s a very difficult world we live in, in this business, to just stick to the facts, and I try very hard to do that.”

That statement alone flies in the face of what FNC does on a daily basis and also flies in the face of what some bloggers say journalists should be.  Many would say that FNC is successful because its “reporters” have shed the onerous idea of objectivity.  Smith seems to be saying the opposite.  He seems to be saying his objectivity, while certainly emotional, is what made his reporting on Katrina so good.  When his Conservative cohorts attempt to blame those who were too poor to get out of

New Orleans

, he was more concerned with presenting a full picture.  That’s reporting.  Objectivity with a heart should be, in my opinion, the future of journalism.