The new dark dramedy “Why Women Kill” has a lot going on: open marriage, bisexuality, adultery, a closeted spouse, an overdose, a front-yard brawl, a choking incident involving meatloaf, shoulder pads. And that’s just the first episode of the show, which arrives Thursday on CBS All Access. (Behold, in Episode 2, a “ mobile sex den ,” as one character describes it.)

The series, created by Marc Cherry (“Desperate Housewives”), centers on three women and their defiance of patriarchal suppression and societal expectations across multiple decades. Beth Ann ( Ginnifer Goodwin ) is a stifled 1960s housewife, Simone (Lucy Liu) is a wealthy socialite in the 1980s and Taylor ( Kirby Howell-Baptiste ) is a feminist lawyer in the present day. What they have in common: All live in the same home in their respective time period , and all are dealing with their own marital infidelity.

“Why Women Kill” is Cherry’s fourth series showcasing a female ensemble. He began his career writing bold, sharp and sexy older women in the early 1990s on the enduring sitcom “The Golden Girls.” Cherry then went on to create “Desperate Housewives,” which ran for eight seasons on ABC and leaned into the dark, juicy corners of suburbia; he followed that up with the Lifetime series “Devious Maids,” which cast a spotlight on the lives of Latina domestic workers. During a recent phone interview, Cherry discussed the stealthy gender politics of his work and how being gay affects his depictions of women. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.

What does “Why Women Kill” add to the current conversations about how women are treated by men and about the power they have to control that dynamic?