7 Shows To Watch If You Love Desperate Housewives

Do you have a taste for campy drama? Do you like your shows with actual stakes attached, especially when they're laden in humor and snark? "Desperate Housewives" may have been unique among nighttime soap operas when it debuted back in 2004, but it served a fresh niche filled with broken vows, dirty deeds, and wild happenstance. While the girls of Wisteria Lane might be long gone and their actresses scattered to other projects, the influence they left on television still lingers.

If you're looking for a good, silly, over the top but still emotionally thrilling drama to sink your teeth into, here are a list of seven shows that contain echoes or themes similar to those contained within "Desperate Housewives." They span a gamut of genres, from horror to suspense to mystery to flat-out comedy. While they might not be as much fun as revisiting the manic adventures of Susan (Teri Hatcher) and company, they should still provide hours of entertainment.

The first place to start on this soapy showcase of women at the end of their rope is another series produced and created by "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry. "Why Women Kill" is a historical look at another pack of desperate housewives, a pack who are fearless when it comes to killing off their spouses in pursuit of peace. 

Its first season aired on CBS All Access, the precursor to Paramount+. The outing featured three different wives driven to kill their spouses for varying reasons, be it for revenge, out of mercy or as an act of self-preservation. The series follows them and the trouble they get into, or out of, by doing so. The various kills, which take place in three different time periods, are knit together by the same house. Season 2 played on Paramount+ and features the life of Alma Fillcott (Allison Tolman), a post-World War II housewife who discovers her husband is a serial killer. 

The series has the same wicked comic tone of "Desperate Housewives" but leans harder on its John Waters-ish influences, making for campy but delightfully creepy viewing.

Another Marc Cherry production, "Devious Maids" had a decently long shelf life and took a peek at how the other half — but ended up being cancelled on a cliffhanger that was never resolved by a fifth season. But even incomplete, it provides plenty of humor, drama and action for fans who've survived all eight seasons of "Desperate Housewives."

The series focuses on four Latina housemaids — Marisol Suarez (Ana Ortiz), Rosie Falta (Dania Ramirez), Carmen Luna (Roselyn Sanchez) and Zoila Diaz (Judy Reyes) — as they navigate the world of the rich and famous into which they've been plunged. Much as the death of Mary Alice (Brenda Strong) drives "Desperate Housewives," the murder of Flora Hernandez (Paula Garces) brings together these four domestics. Their interpersonal dramas develop from there, leading to mayhem, comas, secret babies and other disasters.

While that unresolved cliffhanger might be dangerously unsatisfying, there's plenty here to love and some solid work to enjoy from Judy Reyes in particular. 

The sorority sisters who make up the main characters of "Scream Queens" aren't housewives — well, not yet — but they certainly are desperate. This is a goofier show than "Desperate Housewives," but not by much, and it isn't afraid to get twisty with its mystery. 

The show focuses on self-centered Chanel Oberlin (Emma Roberts) and her fellow Chanels #2 (Ariana Grande), #3 (Billie Lourd), and #5 (Abigail Breslin). When a serial killer called The Red Devil resurfaces on their college campus, an old mystery opens up and new targets are acquired. The second season changes the premise to put the surviving Chanels in a hospital, where a new murderer called The Green Meanie strikes. 

The longform narrative with multiple unreliable narrators, the soapy murder mystery, the high-fashion camp, the guest stars and the murder — it may not be just like watching "Desperate Housewives," but it's still quite the experience. 

Can a sitcom possibly feel like an episode of "Desperate Housewives"? "Cougar Town" definitely replicates the show's vibe, though without its murderously campy drama. Instead the show's story about a middle-aged woman and her tight knit circle living in a small town reflects the spirit and mood of the dramedy well, making a solid companion piece.

"Cougar Town" follows the adventures of Jules Cobb (Courteney Cox), a newbie divorcee who moves to Gulfhaven, Florida. It's known as "Cougar Town" thanks to its local high school football team, but Jules soon embodies the more colloquial version of the term by dating some of Gulfhaven's most eligible young bachelors. But her love for wine and her friends are what prove to be the character's anchoring forces.

It's the show's sense of sisterhood that calls "Desperate Housewives" to mind, and its love of a little bit of the bubbly. Though lighter, it's still just heavy enough to have the right kind of emotional impact. Sip it down with a glass of wine after your "Housewives" rewatch and you'll find it feels just right. 

"Dead to Me" is like "Desperate Housewives" on (darkly comedic) steroids. It might be a hair less goofy, but it's still all about (twisted) friendship, (unpredictable) mystery, and a whole lot of death.

The story follows Jen Harding (Christina Applegate), a widower coping with the death of her husband in a hit-and-run accident. While attending a grief support group, she meets the peppy Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini). Friendship develops between them, but Jen doesn't know Judy's deep, dark secret; she's the one who ran over Jen's husband, and is using the group to get closer to Jen. Darker secrets soon bind the twosome in friendship.

A dark dramedy about friends who mainly got that way through the power of death, "Dead to Me" does not take its foot off the brake, staying fearless and getting weirder and darker as time goes on. It's not glitzy, but it's funny and just the right note of soapy. And it might be Christina Applegate's final on-camera acting appearance, so get to watching it! 

CBS responded to the cable-based onslaught of "Sex and the City" by releasing this surprisingly frank and amusingly soapy drama. The end result? A series that bombed in a single season. However, fans of "Desperate Housewives" who are here for the show's messy sexual politics will probably like this one. And unlike "Pan Am" and other historical soaps which rose after the combined success of AMC's "Mad Men" and ABC's "Desperate Housewives," it manages to feel authentic to its setting.

Set in 1976, the series follows neophyte swingers Susan (Molly Parker) and Bruce Miller (Jack Davenport). Parents of two, they find themselves inspired to try partner swapping and an open marriage by their free loving neighbors, Tom (Grant Show) and Trina Decker (Lana Parrilla). Opposed to their choice? Neighbors and longtime friends Roger (Josh Hopkins) and Janet Thompson (Miriam Shor). 

While it's not on streaming, the free spirited show is worth a lookup on DVD. It's sexy, sassy, and bold, just the kind of stuff the girls from Wisteria Lane would love.

Trying to pick the season of "American Horror Story" that feels the most like "Desperate Housewives" feels like a fool's errand, since the bloody show runs on camp, mystery, and slice-of-life vignettes. But the controversial "Coven" season of the splattery horror series seems the best fit for "Housewives" fans. It's got Patti LuPone, Stevie Nicks, splashy all-black fashion and spooky magic. All you really need to have a gory if campy night. 

The season's main protagonist is teen witch Zoe Benson (Taissa Farmiga), who, like X-Men's Rogue, discovers her powers after a romantic night turns disastrous, only in Zoe's case, she kills a boy with her magical abilities. She's spirited off to a magic school called Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies in New Orleans, where she meets rivals and mentors while trying to dodge supernatural killers, and the grabby handed frat boys next door. Zoe sets out to find real love, harness her powers in a worthy way — and perhaps even become the new Supreme, head of the magical roundtable currently occupied by the murderous Fiona Goode (Jessica Lange). Since one supreme must die for another to rise, Fiona's willing to make a literal deal with the devil to hold on to her power.

Wicked good stuff, this season has a few flaws that are partially corrected by "American Horror Story: Apocalypse." Don't let that deter you from having a little fun.