The TV Zone

Splendid new addition to "Housewives" - from late/lamented "Kidnapped."

It doesn't get much ink or pixels anymore but "Desperate Housewives" seems as fresh - to me and maybe 18 million other fans - as ever. No, of course, I'm not talking about the plotlines, deliriously absurd, as always, or the on-agains/off-agains/on-agains between whomever in any given week or season. But I am talking about the fact that the cast is superb and the footing of the show - lost so completely in 2005, then regained somewhat in 2006 - now seems to be solidly on terra firma again, at least if last night was any indication.

The original “DH” tone was set by Marc Cherry, who was unceremoniously dumped, then brought back again last season. This whole thing was his idea, his humor, and his show in the first place, so it makes perfect sense that a revived "D Housewives" should take place on his watch, even if this is the second time around.

Now, maybe best of all, is last night's addition of Dana Delany - Katherine Mayfair, the newest snarkqueen of Wisteria Lane, with a scalpel for a tongue and a mysterious daughter and bearer of secrets as sinister as any of the other secrets of the past three seasons. (An early rumor was that she was supposed to be Bree's long lost sister, but who knows...) Yeah, she moved into the Amityville Horror house of W Lane, where bad stuff always seems to happen (and maybe a realtor should check one of these days to see if there was once an Indian cemetery there...) We last see her and her husband/doc, Adam - who I'm pretty certain is Nathan Fillion of "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," and a few dozen other shows, including "Firefly," as my vigilant colleague Diane Werts pointed out - looking over a darkened room where something terrible happened years earlier...

If it seems dismissive or even slightly pejorative to call someone an "old pro," then guilty as charged, but Delany is indisputably that, and she fits squarely among a core group of other seasoned pros that span a couple generations - including Polly Bergen, Kathryn Joosten, John Slattery, Kyle MacLachlan, Marcia Cross, Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria, Nicollette Sheridan, Ricardo Chavira, Doug Savant, James Denton and (of course) Teri Hatcher.

So here's to Dana and "D Housewives" - fine actress and pretty darned good show. Seriously.