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As the storylines intertwine throughout the years on Wisteria Lane, there is one character who has never been put on the backburner. Bree Van de Kamp is always in the scene somehow because that's how she wants it. Life on "Desperate Housewives" does and always will revolve around Bree.
We first met Bree Van de Kamp as the woman who was brought up with a silver spoon and became the perfect wife with perfect house married to the perfect doctor. She had two children, one boy and one girl, just like it was supposed to be. She was a clone of Martha Stewart around the house, but she was packing a pistol as a conservative republican with lots of opinions when she wasn't in the kitchen or pushing a vacuum. Those first few scenes in which we saw Bree were like a clipping of an old 1960s sitcom - until the character came alive and we realized her life was far from perfect.
Rex Van de Kamp, Bree's first husband, acknowledged his distaste for living in the perfect world that very first season. He wouldn't live past that year as a jealous pharmacist, George Williams, would kill him and with him went a change in the Van de Kamp household. From season two on, there was no longer perfection in Bree's life and it only continued to get stranger. As the years unraveled, so did the character, who dealt with life changes that went way beyond what an uptight housewife could deal with. She found out her son was a homosexual and her daughter became pregnant out of wedlock; she had an affair in a sleazy motel with friend Susan's ex-husband Karl while married; and she became an alcoholic when her second husband, Orson Hodge, went to jail for running over Mike Delfino.
Marcia Cross, whose former co-star Kyle MacLachlan (who played Orson Hodge) said was "a pleasure to work with" and "so talented," is definitely responsible for making Bree the wife you love, you hate or you feel sorry for - sometimes all in the same episode. The actress has certainly had plenty of experience acting.
Cross grew up in Massachusetts and entered the Julliard School of Drama at 18. She did theater before arriving on television in the soap "The Edge of Night." Though she appeared on many television shows, she is probably best known for the disturbed character of Dr. Kimberly Shaw she played for five years on "Melrose Place." Ironically, after she finished filming that show, Marcia Cross went on to earn her Master's degree in Psychology. Fortunately for the audience, she decided to return to acting as Cross manages to give us a character in "Desperate Housewives" that brings full emotion to every scene.
We have seen Bree Van de Kamp emerge through some major challenges and appears to be heading back professionally as queen of cookbooks. It will be interesting to see where Bree Van de Kamp is going now that her son's alcoholism appears to be under control and she has no other man (or child) in her life. It's pretty clear, though, that we are going to see this character impact Wisteria Lane even if her story isn't the biggest one there.
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