Show:  Desperate Housewives (“Silly People”)

Role:  Overconfident Housewife-slash-Socialite

Best Line:  [In Cantonese or Mandarin; we're not sure which]

We’re going to admit something here, so lend us your ear and your sympathy: we watched most of the first season of Desperate Housewives.  This was partly because Lois Lane was in it, and we missed her terribly frm her Daily Planet days; partly because the show had such great potential to be the commentary on class and gender that we haven’t had since Roseanne; and partly because, ok, sometimes we do get sucked into soap opera plots and America’s Next Top Model.  And, if we didn’t watch Desperate Housewives, then we would have never remembered Jane Lynch playing Maxine Bennett, a rival overly well-to-do housewife who throws lunch parties the way your wedding reception caterer throws parties.  Assuming your caterer forced undocumented Chinese girls to pop out the perfect canele, or frost the perfect cupcake, that is.  Jane’s stream of Chinese (unspecified dialect) is awesome.