On the comeback trail

Ten episodes into the third season of "Desperate Housewives" and this has to be said: The show is a lot better this year than it was last year.

Not that all of the criticism the show received during its sophomore season was deserved. Sure, it wasn't up to its spectacular freshman debut, but then backlash is to be expected any time a show starts out as hot as "Housewives" did. (You might recall there was the second-season "Friends" backlash, too, and that show was still wildly popular when it retired after a decade.)

The fact is that "Housewives" got off to such a strong start that some of the show's first-season flaws were overlooked.

Storytelling has always been a bit problematic — story lines and characters sometimes seem to be ignored for weeks on end.

But, in addition to a flopped mystery, Season 2 just wasn't as funny as Season 1. And that problem has been remedied.

Season 3 has been full of funny stuff. Creator/executive producer Marc Cherry made a very smart move by bringing in Joe Keenen ("Frasier") and Jeff Greenstein ("Will & Grace") to join the writing/producing staff. And, as Cherry promised critics before the season began, he was going to emphasize comedy again this season.

And he would bring the mystery back closer to the regulars. I don't know what's going on with Orson (Kyle MacLachlan), his murdered mistress, his surprisingly not-murdered first wife (Valerie Mahaffey) and how Mike (James Denton) is involved, but it's been interesting.

How can you not love the addition of Dixie Carter as Orson's nasty mother, a woman who's hiding something. Something big.

But, more than anything, "Desperate Housewives" has been funny. Really funny.

Can't wait until new episodes start airing in January.

LAST SUNDAY'S episodes of "Desperate Housewives" and "Boston Legal," which aired back-to-back, contained a couple of odd coincidences.

Dixie Carter, best know as Julia Sugarbaker on "Designing Women," was on "Housewives." Delta Burke, best known as Suzanne Sugarbaker on "Designing Women," was on "Legal."

Marcia Cross (Bree) and Doug Savant (Tom), whose first big TV fame came on "Melrose Place" (as wacko Kimberly and gay guy Matt) were in their usual places on "Housewives." And the murder suspect on "Legal" was played by Laura Leighton, who was wacky Sydney on "Melrose."

Oh, and Leighton and Savant have been married since 1997.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com