DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES continues to dazzle with over-the-top brilliance, proving that executive producer Marc Cherry's decision to jump ahead five years was the spark the show needed to kick-start its engine. There are simply no other prime-time soaps currently running that offer the viewer such a tightly written and well-conceived mix of comedy and tragedy, often at the same time. Since September, we've seen:

• Lynette (Felicity Huffman) finds out she's pregnant with twins (again), but took a promotion and hid that fact from her boss, BFF Gabby's (Eva Longoria Parker) husband Carlos (Ricardo Chavira). Lynette knew Carlos would fire her if he found out. He did, but Lynette has left the office building threatening to sue, putting a definite damper on her friendship with Gabby.
• Bree (Marcia Cross), sick of mopey ex-convict hubby Orson (Kyle MacLachlan), broke character and began an affair with her lawyer, who just happens to be Susan's (Teri Hatcher) ex, Karl (Richard Burgi).
• Susan's daughter Julie (Andrea Bowen) was attacked, choked and nearly died; then Emily, a well-liked waitress at the Coffee Cup, was strangled, most probably by the same madman. Could it have something to do with the new family on Wisteria Lane, Angie (Drea De Matteo; ex-Adriana, THE SOPRANOS) and Nick Bolen (Jeffrey Nordling; ex-Larry, 24), and their troubled son, Danny (Beau Mirchoff)? (Hint: Danny is in love with Julie, and Nick was having an affair with her.)
• The Bolens have been running from something for the past two decades, and their names are aliases, but just what happened to them, or what they did, remains to be seen.
• Mike (James Denton) chose Susan as his bride, and now a grieving Katherine (Dana Delany) has boarded the crazy train. She's tried to sabotage Mike and Susan, most recently telling their son M.J. that Susan is a bad person, and then "kidnapping" him after school. When Mike told Katherine how he really felt about her, she did the only thing a desperate, dumped woman could do: stabbed herself with a huge kitchen knife.
• If the above isn't enough, very soon a small plane will crash directly onto Wisteria Lane, killing several people and affecting the lives of everyone who lives there. The housewives, their present shattered, will have flash-forwards (don't worry; it's the same network!) and peek at their lives a decade hence.

None of this would work, of course, without the expert plotting and performing that is evident every week. Soapy? Yes. Outrageous? Often. DH remains must-see soap TV.