Desperate Housewives offers us a rich selection of memorable characters, and here are the best among them:

 

Bree

Bree is more than perfect from wherever you look at her. She is passion made of ice and is certainly the deepest person and best character on the show. Whether she’s teaching people manners, doing a striptease to Tchaikovsky’s music or being pushed to the limit by her children, she will always approach it with a dose of class that will bring tears of laughter to viewers. Bree is no stranger to rock bottom, but she always comes out of it like a true lady.

 

Mike

Mike is a perfect man and as Judge Mary Gallagher says, it’s easy to see why women would fight over him. He’s earthy and masculine, yet mysterious and capable of romance. He and Susan have good chemistry as a couple and provide us with many wonderfully-comic moments.

 

Susan

Susan gives us some of the show’s funniest scenes right from the start, and bad luck is a genius specific quality of a character to have. She’s a wonderful example of how an addiction to drama and emotion can get one into totally ridiculous situations. Susan also has her moments of depth, such as her desire to help Paul, which is one of the best storylines in the show overall. In her case, of course, we have to just ignore season eight, because the writers there were clearly confused about what to do with her.

 

Andrew

Andrew is an extremely likable character, both in his good guy moments and in his total jerk moments. The relationship between him and Bree is one of the best in the entire series and they feel genuine love to each other in the parent-child aspect. In the later seasons he matures, but we can still see the devilish sparks in him.

 

Paul

Paul is a wonderful character and an even more wonderful antagonist. I don’t think he’s ever been likable to anyone, but his plot manages to raise a lot of good questions about right and wrong. Paul nails interest because he’s neither good nor bad, just a guy who has to deal with the twists and turns of fate.

 

Bob and Lee

The two of them go together because they complement each other beautifully. They appeared on screen at a time when the LGBT issue wasn’t that big of a deal, and they’re a great example of how a gay couple can be great. They both have strong individual personalities, but also show the interplay between masculine and feminine energy in such a relationship.

 

Keith

Keith is a “too good to be true” kind of guy. Not only is he strong, sexy and has a bad boy attitude, but he’s also down-to-earth, with feelings and unconventional enough to choose to date Bree. While he doesn’t stay on the show for long, he contributes precisely by bringing out a great side of Bree’s personality.

 

Edie

While we may be quite morally reserved about her, Edie is still an individual and shines in all the seasons she’s in. She also has at least one superscene – I’m referring to the one where she undresses in front of Carlos. Edie makes a lot of monstrous mistakes, but she’s always looking for happiness and that makes her a real person.

 

Karen McCluskey

McCluskey is one of the characters who undergoes the biggest development, from being a mean old neighbor, to being a constant key character, to having one of the most important roles in the resolution of the final season. Behind her typical flaws, she’s a loyal friend and we can always count on her to surprise us with her spicy sense of humor.

 

Angie

Angie is wild, feisty and doesn’t follow the rules. Her appearance, even for just one season, brings a nice dynamic to the show and gives us a chance to see her tempestuous nature clash with that of the more composed main characters. Her plot itself could have been better done, but that’s the screenwriters’ job.

 

Honorable mention

Karl

He obviously has no chance to be in top 10, but there’s no way I’m going to pass him up. Sure Carl is terrible in reality, but every time he appears on the show it’s like a breath of fresh air. He’s energetic, witty, changes the dynamic with his presence, and thanks to him we get to see both Susan go completely out of her skin and Bree have an affair in a cheap motel, and that’s no small feat.