A Sudden Slice of Whimsy

Zooming four years into the future - skipping embarrassing explanations as to why all the cast ended up going to the same, local college - has worked wonders for One Tree Hill - turning the angsty teen drama into a modern, angst-ridden twentysomething romp, complete with Lost-style flashbacks. And now it looks like Desperate Housewives has taken a leaf out of One Tree's book, taking the fifth season in an unexpected direction.

The conclusion of the fourth, much improved, season took viewers five years into the future to reveal a few surprises about the Wisteria Lane lasses. Lynette's troublesome tots are now extremely troublesome teen tearaways. Gaby's got a couple of sprogs of her own. Susan's got a new fella. And - best of all - Bree's become a Martha Stewart-esque domestic goddess, with Andrew as her PA. It seems inevitable that this is a set-up for the new season, rather than a sudden slice of whimsy - and re-inventing both the series and the characters could be just what's needed to get through a difficult fifth season.

The only potential fault with Despo Housewives leaping forward five years is the fact that tiresome narrator Mary Alice is still haunting the girls. When will US telly bosses get over this obsession with disembodied narrators stating the obvious throughout otherwise top shows? Though Pushing Daisies at times tries to have a laugh at Jim Dale's incessant bleating, only Arrested Development has ever come close to mocking this overused convention. Perhaps a second bullet to Mary Alice's cranium could do the trick?