While Sex and the City’s return was a success, this doesn’t mean that a Desperate Housewives revival would necessarily be a good idea—although it could be. In the past few years, countless classic staples of ‘00s television have returned to television screens. Series that debuted in the early ‘00s such as Gilmore Girls and Sex and the City are now old enough for viewers to be nostalgic about the original shows, and many fans want to see more from their characters (although some of these revivals were more successful with fans and critics than others).As such, Desperate Housewives could reasonably be expected to make a comeback. While the cast of Desperate Housewives has been busy since the series ended in 2012, it has been over a decade since the show wrapped up and almost two decades since Desperate Housewives debuted. In comparison, A Year in the Life arrived on Netflix only 16 years after Gilmore Girls originally debuted, while And Just Like That arrived only 11 years after the second Sex and the City movie. As such, Desperate Housewives could more than justify a revival if there is sufficient fan interest and story potential.Related: How High Was Desperate Housewives Kill Count (& Which Season Was Highest)?
Desperate Housewives Could Follow A Revival Trend
Like A Year in the Life and And Just Like That, Desperate Housewives could easily sustain a revival. Like both those shows, its revival could begin with a time jump that aligns with the amount of time that has passed in real life, showing viewers the updated lives of its heroines. This would not be the first time jump in Desperate Housewives, which would make the decision less jarring. Not only that, but this time jump would also allow the revival to work around the tricky place that the Desperate Housewives series finale left its main characters.
However, while this approach could be effective, there are obstacles. By the time Desperate Housewives wrapped up, its heroines were left in different corners of the US. Almost no one remained in Wisteria Lane, a setting that was as central to the campy suburban melodrama of Desperate Housewives as Stars Hollow was to Gilmore Girls and New York City was to Sex and the City. As such, it would be hard for a Desperate Housewives revival to justify the original main characters returning to the iconic setting. Unlike That ‘90s Show (whose new characters lead the show), a Desperate Housewives revival couldn’t follow new cast members since the original characters were central to the show’s appeal. All this makes any Desperate Housewives revival, however tempting, potentially more complex than many contemporary series.
A Desperate Housewives Revival Would Be Tricky
Since the ending of the Desperate Housewives series finale left Mike dead, Bree in Kentucky, Gabby in LA, and Lynette in NYC, it would be hard for a revival to bring them back to one place. A time jump alone wouldn’t cut it. After all, returning every character to Wisteria Lane would stretch credulity even with the inclusion of a lengthy time jump. That said, since Desperate Housewives season 9 never happened, the revival could get the gang back together by killing off one of the main characters.
This would give the Desperate Housewives revival built-in emotional stakes if the show explored the contrasting reactions that each character had to the loss of a friend. However, it could also allow Desperate Housewives to benefit from a recent TV trend. Murder mysteries are popular thanks to hits like Only Murders in the Building and The Afterparty and, since Desperate Housewives started life as a murder mystery, it would make sense for the revival to retune to these roots. This approach could also allow the revival to touch on some earlier Desperate Housewives plot holes as a criminal case could force the women of Wisteria Lane to air their dirty laundry once more.
Desperate Housewives Is Ready For A Revival
The campy, Lynch-indebted tone of Desperate Housewives was an early predecessor of the Ryan Murphy/Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa style that has been extensively replicated, and a Desperate Housewives revival could sustain nostalgic appeal a full decade after the show’s original ending. What made And Just Like That a success was the fact that the Sex and the City revival brought back the bonds between its heroines, something that Desperate Housewives could replicate while having a more fast-paced, high-stakes plot than that reboot. Meanwhile, what made the Gilmore Girls revival disappointing (other than the absence of Sookie from A Year in the Life) is how much the heroines changed.
Since viewers came to Desperate Housewives for larger-than-life characters, this is less likely to be an issue. A Desperate Housewives revival could get away with changing the heroines provided the show still gave viewers the ludicrous melodrama and dark comedy that the original show was famous for. As such, there is no better time for a Desperate Housewives revival after Sex and the City’s comparable success.
