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This week showcases some enjoyable soap-opera drama, cringe-worthy scares and a few chuckles to boot.

Desperate Housewives, always a guilty pleasure, returns strong this season, still bringing the drama as Tom and Lynette’s divorce complicates their family life, while murder haunts the housewives of Wisteria Lane.

Dishing out more tasty morsels of suspense and upscale drama is Revenge, as Emily steps up her game, taking down yet another contributor to her father’s mistrial and ultimate death.

American Horror Story introduces a new concept for modern television: a TV-MA rated horror series created by none other than Glee creator and director Ryan Murphy. Let the skepticism ensue, but the show surprises with chills and thrills of a broken family moving into a house in the West Coast in the hopes of a new start, only to find a duplicitous maid, too-close-for-comfort neighbor and dark memories slithering out from the basement.

The Office, Modern Family and Parks and Recreation highlight the lighter side of television with their customary giggle-inducing stories and characters, but nothing too new.

Castle and Prime Suspect offer the daily dose of cop drama; each not developing very much in a serial sense, but providing a fresh alternative to Law & Order or CSI.

The ‘60s Mad Men wannabes spiral downwards, with Pan Am remaining less than interesting and The Playboy Club being cancelled after only three episodes (to be replaced by reruns of Prime Suspect).

All in all, put the cops and bunnies on the backburner, and instead queue up some haunted-house horror and suburban melodrama.