house of habit: Stuck ON

When I was first approached about a collaboration to host a series viewing party for friends, I may have let out a little shriek of joy (anyone who knows me can attest to my life long passion for holding preview parties in honor of award shows, movie debuts and series finales that I've carried out since I was 10 - or younger if you count my obsession with the Academy Awards - so if there is any way to make a career out of hosting parties for casual couch cable reviews in the company of good friends, wine, and in home dinner delivery, I need to know how to get myself to the front of the line, Ok?)

Fact is, I was already dying to see this show. My niece and I (who share identical taste in cable television) were already counting down the days to premier night since catching wind of the stellar cast in a series teaser making the rounds late night on HBO a couple months ago. The special perk of viewing it addition to the generous sponsorship of HBO's complementary "party in a box" which offered up everything I needed to host a party, from serving dish wear, to champaign glassware, candles, wine gift cards, all food expenses and childcare paid for, was merely icing on the cake. I invited a handful of ladies to eat and watch it with with me at my home this past Sunday, and with just two episodes down the hatch, I think it's safe to say we're all equally hooked and looking forward to the watching the whole season unravel.

BLL is the kind of show that's almost demands a call to your best friend the day after, to mull over Monday morning (Leave it to David E. Kelley to forever hold court in that specific talent)With a setting and tone being everything I tend to love innately in any series I fall hard for on screen. Much like The Affair, it shares that same sexy, broody beachside appeal, but anchored here on the West Coast, specially, inside the jaw dropping shores of Monterey where wealthy women (played by big name stars) seek to show us just how complicated life can prove behind the glossy shields of some of the country's most enviable real estate. With a stylistic edge leaning on smart, slight campy undertones, but more centered (like a more proud, sophisticated soap opera) with stalking egos played by Hollywood big whigs, sloping sun soaked wooden decks, and one riled up Reese Witherspoon at the root of it all already raking in plenty of praise for her role as Madeline. Which The Ringer predicts: "We’ll spend many sunset-soaked moments pondering the answers to these questions, but ultimately, they are hardly the ones that matter. Because as much as BLL is a satirical, skewering, and prickly ode to lush interiors and Nicole Kidman’s perfect honey-blond dye job, it is also a suburban murder mystery. David E. Kelly has given us the True Detective we deserved, with dashes of Desperate Housewives drama and Valley of the Dolls undertones for good measure. The only trick: In addition to not knowing who did it, we do not yet know who was killed."

It's true, we don't know yet know the circumstances surrounding the murder at the core of this story, but I can say that I'll be tuning in every Sunday night until we do. And then likely long there after. Even when the only party surrounding me is the last of those fancy wine leftovers, and one tired dingy dog at my feet after the kids have all gone to bed and the last of my Sunday night belongs to this new stinging suburban drama where the dirty secrets will likely always outweigh the sharp wardrobes and killer landscape it's so prettily encased with.