Shanghaiist: Raymond Zhou on why Desperate Housewives 'bombed'

yueyue

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 15:11:02 +0800

Or, everyone'd seen the show already on compressed DVDs that are 3 kuai a disc. The local media only compare absolutely everything to Desperate Housewives (from relationship advice columns in Modern City Life Weekly to Evening News' report on the popularity of yoga), so does Ray Zhou live under a rock in Shandong? And why is China Daily paying him to watch Desperate Housewives?? But props to him for watching the show so many times that he noticed about the avocado tree in one of the episodes to deduct that Wisteria Lane is in California!

yes_no_maybe

Tue, 10 Jan 2006 02:13:58 +0800

LMAO...this guy Ray must be a PhD or something that he enjoys desperate housewives so much. Maybe watching it is part of his education.

Bob

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 22:16:42 +0800

Also if young urbanites like the show, are you assuming they are "well versed in Western Arts and Culture"? or what middle class america is all about? I HIGHLY doubt that.

Bob

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 22:10:20 +0800

haha Ray! You got to be kidding me if you think one has to be "well-versed in Western arts and literature" to watch Desperate housewives. Gosh I sure hope not, otherwise it would reflect very poorly on western culture! As for the latter part, when you mentioned that the show failed because there was disconnect between the viewer and the show due to no prior knowledge of American middle class? haha you think American middle class families like the desperate housewives? Like Brie Van Der Kamp?? Or sleeps around with Gardeners? You still don't get it do you? They are not even close, exaggerated or not! That’s why it is so funny to the Americans as well. And I am not even sure Wysteria Lane could be considered average middle class, suburbia sure. I mean middle class families in the US don't have maids or "gardeners" lol let alone sleep with them. I would think sleeping around with gardener isn’t normal in US either, like in China. I hope you know this is supposed to be comedy with couple of twists here and then. I think funnily you are the one who missed the whole point of the show and what middle class America is all about.