‘Ah, But Underneath...’ Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Desperate Housewives

Abstract

The pilot episode of Marc Cherry’s immensely successful television show Desperate Housewives (2004–) begins with a literal bang and with an opening sequence which immediately gives the viewer a strong indication of the direction which will be taken by the rest of the first season.^{1 ‘}My name is Mary Alice Young’, our initially unseen narrator tells us, as the roving camera comes to a halt outside a picture-perfect suburban home, complete with mandatory white picket fence. ‘When you read this morning’s paper, you may come across an article about the unusual day I had last week.’ There follows a brief montage in which we see Mary Alice, a serene-looking and immaculately groomed housewife in her late thirties, carry out a number of everyday tasks. It is, it seems, a day much like every other day for our narrator, one which she spends ‘quietly polishing the routine of my life until it gleamed with perfection’.² Her next act does deviate from the normal routine: she takes a gun out of a closet and shoots herself.