TVSquad

But did you not think, for at least a second, that Gabby had fallen for Zack? He's never looked better.

Reply

I felt sure there could have been a bit of sparkage, at least until Zach tried to such face with her - literally. In a long history of bad kissers on TV Zach has to be the undefeated champion.

Reply

It amazes me how Alma's rape of Orson was played so unseriously, almost as a joke. Imagine if the genders were reversed: An abusive man decides to impregnate his ex-wife, so he drugs her and has sex with her while she's unconscious. There's no way that would have happened on a lightweight show like this -- and if it did, there would have been a huge outcry over such a serious subject being portrayed so cavalierly. I realize this show is made for a mostly female audience, there's a tremendous double standard operating here.

Reply

Hey Jim. Please don't be an ass. Self-righteous doesn't look good on anyone, sir.

The writers for this site work very hard.

Reply

"But do you think Mike really knows that Zach is his son?"

Yes. That's kind of why Mike said "Why didn't anyone tell me I had a son?"

And I'm with ya, Ted, on being disturbed on making male rape into dark comedy. Men can, in fact, be raped. It doesn't happen a lot. Or maybe it does happen more than people think but is not reported NEARLY as much as woman rape, due to the "stigma." But yes, imagine the roles were reversed--Orson drugs Alma and forces himself on her in order to get her pregnant. Would anyone find that funny, too? But a MAN being drugged and raped by his wife--that's funny! No, it's not. The concept isn't funny at all no matter who's doing it.

Reply

I was seriously creeped out by the rape of Orson. This show, that I once adored, has hit a new "low." I too asked, "Why isn't Bree calling the cops?" If a woman had been drugged and raped, that's what you'd do.

Poor Kyle Maclachlan. He will be remembered for these "creepy husband" roles on DH and Sex and the City rather than Twin Peaks and that saddens me.

Reply

Where was your outrage when DH wrote about a mentally handicapped guy almost raping and then killing someone last season?(or so we're led to believe until the end)

I really don't think they did it too lightly in this episode. We knew Alma was crazy...but from this we see how really crazy she and Orson's mother are. (I couldn't help but think that Orson *should* be with her, since he's a bit of a psycho himself.)
If you consider the wheelbarrow part the bit that made it too light, ask yourself why you think she did it?

Throughout the show, Bree (imo) has been slow to contact police when she's found anything out. When she found out about the neighbors, she kept quiet, for example. Also, it's unfortunate, but as you have said, most men don't tell anyone they've been raped. Perhaps she feared Orson would get upset with her if she called the cops...and their relationship has been rocky lately.
And yes, it did add a bit of humor to an otherwise creepy and disturbing moment. Which is what the show always does. For any creepy and disturbing moment.

Another situation they've recently lightened a bit was the stalker and Gabrielle. I mean...who wouldn't call the cops when they've seen someone has dropped off a dress in your locked house? No matter how expensive? In her situation, I'd be worried and would report it to the cops...instead she gets her exhusband to sleep on her couch. Then she ends up talking to her stalker on the phone and making a date with him...yeah, that'd be safe to do in a normal situation.

Anyway...this show has always taken serious items and attempted to put a bit of humor in them so that you don't get bogged down with the drama. If you let it get to you that much, you probably shouldn't watch the show.

Reply

"Where was your outrage when DH wrote about a mentally handicapped guy almost raping and then killing someone last season?"

You miss the point. That scenario was played out as a serious situation and was never showed to be anything but a wicked, life-threatening event; Alma/Orson was made into humor. That's the point of our "outrage"--trying to turn rape into comedy.

The issue at hand is that I doubt this would even get out of the writers' room if the genders were reversed, which begs the question: Why is a man being drugged and raped any less controversial or touchy or inappropriate-as-a-joke than a woman being drugged and raped? That's the problem I have with this--there's a double standard in there.

And are you actually comparing this to Gaby not calling the police for her stalker? Honestly? So not the same thing at all.

Reply

I thought Zach looked hot with his new hair (even though it is obviously a wig) and I predict he will stalk Gabby to the point where Carlos will burst in to save the day and possibly get back together with her...

As for poor Orson, well, everyone is complaining that he is being 'raped', let me get this straight, I thought any kind of sex for any kind of man was a GOOD thing? Oh, I see, unless the man is not in control. /Then it's not good sex and therefor a BAD thing. Yeah, how do you like it, guys? Not so fun, is it?

Reply

The rape was disturbing to me too. I hated how it was glossed over, presumably, because it was [just] a man and a 'powerful woman' required his seed...so she took charge and took it. If it were, say, Gaby, we would have inundated with "Coming up on a very special Desperate Housewives..." promos all week...Oprah interviews and everything. I'm just saying...

This was probably the darkest DH episode I have seen--and I've seen them all. Dixie Carter is really creeping me out.

Reply

The irony of all this is Carolyn Bigsby. Since Alma was still alive, and Carolyn was her "best" friend, you think she would have given her a call or an e-mail.

Hey I am still alive. Don't tell Orson, I will explain later. It might of adverted the hostage situation, and Carolyn's break down.

Reply

Anyone else catch the mistake in the last two episodes? John Rowland turned 18 last season. Last week, Zach told Gaby that he was two months older than John Rowland. Last night they said Zach turned 18 a month ago. Oops.

Reply

As far as making light of the rape scene goes: remember last season when George threw Bree's psychiatrist off the bridge? That was played pretty lightly with the music and all (I actually remember laughing out loud). Granted, we later found out that Goldfine wasn't dead, but, at the time, there was every reason to believe he had just been murdered.

And I think the reason a double standard exists about rape of men compared to women is that (through a combination of being more commonly raped and reporting it more), most people have seen plenty of news stories and fictionalized accounts of women dealing with the psychological fallout of being raped, but you don't see much of that for men. It's the same reason why I can make a joke about how stupid the Trojans were for accepting the Trojan Horse, which led to them all being slaughtered, but can't make a joke about how stupid the Jews were for thinking they were going into showers, which led to them all being slaughtered. Because of Schindler's List, Elie Wiesel, and the like no one seems to find the Holocaust funny, but no one gives two bits about the ancient city of Troy.

Reply

Sean, that's the stupidest comment I've ever heard. Congratulations on coming out to the world as a bigoted jackass.

Reply

"Sean, that's the stupidest comment I've ever heard. Congratulations on coming out to the world as a bigoted jackass."

What? It's a fact that if you make a joke about the Holocaust, people won't laugh. I have, however, seen people laugh at a joke about the city of Troy being destroyed by the Greeks (an episode of The simpsons, did that once, for example). Both are examples of mass murder, but no one's ever seen survivors of the sack of Troy in a documentary or read the memoirs of a Trojan child whose parents were killed by the Greeks. As such people being killed in the Holocaust, off limits for humor; people being killed in the Trojan War, go right ahead. The same thing applies to the rape of men and the rape of women. There's lots of stuff out there dealing with how women suffer because of rape, therefore it's not considered acceptable humor by most people. Male rape (particularly of the man raped by woman nature) has an infintismal speck of that exposure, so most people don't have the negative reaction to it that would make it seem inappropriate as a joke.

What I'm getting at is: Holocaust, destruction of Troy, and rape; all bad. Jokes about Holocaust and rape of women; in bad taste. Jokes about Trojan War and the rape of men; not in bad taste.

Reply

So what you're saying is that while we're in agreement that rape is bad, it's bad taste to make jokes about women being raped but not regarding men being raped? What did Ted say above? Oh yeah: That's the stupidest comment I've ever heard.

Reply

Wow, Sean, wow. Maybe the difference is that the Trojan Massacre occurred thousands of years ago yet there are still people walking on this Earth with numbers tattooed on their forearms. Your comments are in bad taste.

Reply

Wow...just wow.

Reply

This is getting pretty off topic, so this is the last comment I'm going to make on this topic:

I personally side with the writers of South Park and saying that either everything's okay to make fun of, or nothing is. If you can make a joke about Holocaust victims, child molestation, Princess Di's death, and sex with dogs and make it funny, I say more power to you. What makes one tragic event funny and another not is largely based on subjective stuff like how much it gets reported and talked about (which is often directly tied to how recently it happened, I admit).

Basically what I'm getting at is that, if they had tried for a similarly light tone with a woman being raped, audience reaction probably would have been more appalled/aghast (and probably wouldn't have gotten past the FCC), but that doesn't mean they were wrong to play Orson's rape for laughs.

And back on topic: since Desperate Housewives embraces so many over-the-top, often cliche storylines, I'm going to guess that Monique was somehow related to Zach's mother a.k.a. the woman Mary Alice killed a.k.a. the woman Mike used to date and sought revenge for.

Reply

I'm not saying that male rape is ok...or that it's a light situation. And yes, it is more serious than Gabi's stalker...but having a stalker can be a serious situation as well. Which I have a feeling it will be. And the biggest point I was pulling from Gabi's situation is that she didn't call the cops. Because it seems that, for the most part, the cops are rarely called on Wisteria Lane, unless they have to be (or unless you're Susan...)

They've turned murder into light situations, stalking into a light situation, amnesia, adultery...it could go on, perhaps. Even the whole "watching your crazy boyfriend kill himself by overdose" thing was made light of.

So, no, in the real world, male rape is NOT funny. Rape in general is a horrible, horrible thing.
But you can't get pissed at a show that makes light of many serious situations for making Alma so crazy that you laugh at her.

Reply