'Land of Women': Eva Longoria cuts through 'depressing' TV with new show in the tone of 'Desperate Housewives'

Desperate Housewives legend Eva Longoria has come back to TV (technically a streaming series), with Land of Women on Apple TV+. In the English and Spanish-language show, Longoria plays a wealthy New York wine shop owner who flees to her mother's hometown in Spain, after finding herself on the hook for her husband's debts to criminals.

Gala (Longoria) is travelling with her mother Julia (Carmen Maura), who is in an early stage of dementia, and her teenage daughter Kate (Victoria Bazúa). When they arrive in the Catalonia town, they discover that the family home has been sold to Amat (Santiago Cabrera), the only man involved in a local women-run wine cooperative.

As Gala is forced to figure out how to provide for her mother and daughter, and keep them safe, family secrets are revealed.

Apple TV+

Watch Land of Women on Apple TV+ with 7 days free, then $12.99/month

$13 at Apple TV+

The tone of Land of Women doesn't feel entirely removed from Desperate Housewives, but that's because, as Longoria described, Marc Cherry's hit TV show was her "film school."

"It was the biggest show in the world, we were basically making a movie a week, that's how big the budgets were," she explained to reporters. "It was a decade of my life and so for me, everything I do actually has the tone of Desperate Housewives, because I came from the school of Marc Cherry and the school of ... things can be funny and serious at the same time, or they can be funny and have stakes."

"I think he really invented that tone at a time where it didn't exist. I remember being in award categories, they didn't know where to put us. ... Now you look at Fleabag or you look at Killing Eve, or you look at all these other shows and they're a mix of genres. And I think that's what makes shows interesting in a very crowded landscape of television."

'She doesn't just go to Spain and fall in love'

In terms of crafting Gala, Longoria identified that the only thing she has in common with the character is being a "wine snob."

But the real joy of Land of Women is this personal, emotional and oftentimes incredibly funny journey these women go on. Critically important is that the show strives to centre the story on these women being able to tackle critical problems on their own. No one is desperate for help from men.

That also extends to the will they/won't they flirtation between Gala and Amat.

"I wanted it to be very clear that she doesn't just go to Spain and fall in love with the first guy that she bumped into," Longoria said. "Our relationship is such a slow burn, because I kept telling the writers, I was like, 'He cannot be the answer to her problems. She has to fix her own problems.' And he has a lot of problems, so he's dealing with his own sh*t."

"They're just such powerhouse women, each in their own way," Santiago Cabrera added about Gala, Julia and Kate in the series.

'I felt like right now streaming and TV is so depressing'

For Longoria, Land of Women is also a step towards creating a "true dramedy" that provides an "escape" for its audience in a sea of content that the actor described as "depressing."

"I always I knew I wanted to come back to TV in front of the camera, and I felt like right now streaming and TV is so depressing, like it gives me anxiety to watch the shows about a dystopian future where the government has collapsed, or the zombie apocalypse, ... or whatever it is," Longoria said. "That stresses me out. My life is stressful enough."

"So I knew I wanted to come back with something light and fun, in the tone of Desperate Housewives. A true dramedy where the comedy stems from these situations that are impossible. And so I do think that's something people will gravitate towards because there's not a lot like this in television and streaming right now, very blue skies and you can escape into these characters. There's drama and mystery and comedy and love, and I love those shows. Those are characters I can stay with for a long time, because I can escape into those characters."