The Best Character on Desperate Housewives

Desperate Housewives has so many plotlines and minor cast members that the best character on the show has to be one of the Housewives themselves. That award goes to Gabrielle Solis, played by Eva Longoria.

Bree is obsessed with projecting the perfect image. Lynette is forever trying to balance career and family. Susan is a needy, boy-crazy klutz. While they have shown depth beyond those main character traits, they haven't grown as much as Gabrielle.

Gabrielle's world has changed drastically since the show began. She was a successful runway model and enjoyed a prosperous life with her husband, Carlos. Still, all of that wasn't enough, and she embarked on an ill-fated affair with her teen-age gardener, John.

Carlos found out and mistakenly attacked John's gay roommate. This landed Carlos in jail. Most other shows would have written Carlos off the show for a while. Instead, Gabrielle had to fend for herself while visiting Carlos in prison. It was Gabrielle's first step out of her self-centered universe.

Another way Gabrielle has grown is her maternal instinct. First, she resisted having a baby until Carlos tricked her into getting pregnant. Gabrielle then suffered a miscarriage, and she mourned the loss her child and her status as a new mommy.

Gabrielle and Carlos then came close to adopting a baby, only to have the adoptive parents reclaim the child at the last minute. Gabrielle's maternal instinct grew, even as it was denied again.

Finally, Gabrielle and Carlos tried to conceive a child by implanting a frozen embryo into their housekeeper, Xiao Mei. That's when everything fell apart. Carlos and Xiao Mei had an affair, ending the marriage. Then the baby was black, revealing an obvious screw-up at the fertility clinic. It was strike three for Gabrielle becoming a mother.

So after all of this, Gabrielle is alone. She has often reached out to Carlos for friendship and protection, but she has refused to let him back into her heart. Instead, she has been fending off the clumsy advances of newly wealthy teen-ager Zach Young.

The writers must love Gabrielle, too, because they often give her the best lines. After Zach's clumsy attempt to kiss her, Gabrielle told him "Don't buy a Ferrari if you don't know how to drive it!"

The best part of Gabrielle's character how in her head, she hasn't changed. She still considers herself a supermodel who is just a phone call away from walking the runways of New York and Milan one more time.

Gabrielle has grown so much - even though she would never admit it.