A Review of the TV Show Army Wives

I began watching this popular and well-publicized Lifetime show recently, as all of my other favorite shows are finished for the season. Army Wives, on Lifetime just started season two last Sunday and prior to that, season one was running in marathon repeat sessions so it was easy to catch-up. Both John McCain and Barack Obama have been advertising the show and remarking on its patriotic themes and insider view into the life of military families. The presidential hopefuls also point the viewer to a link on the Lifetime Network homepage that will tell people how to help military families in need. The commercials and the sincere endorsement of presidential candidates led me to think this must be a really good show and worth watching. The advertising campaign worked.

As the name implies, the show is about military families brought together by their current situation and location. Though these are military families, the themes of the stories are easy to relate to for anyone and standards for Lifetime. The characters deal with domestic abuse, teen dating and sex, cheating spouses, divorce, marital problems, PTSD, kids leaving home and death. Of course the recurrent theme is that of the soldiers leaving home and the spouses left to worry, but go on with their lives at the same time. The military lifestyle and relationships makes the show interesting and opens up a world to those of us less familiar with the challenges these families face.

The camaraderie and support that the women in particular show each other, is a major draw for the show. In one episode Roxy, the wife of recently deployed Trevor is unable to function until she hears from him. She is unable to send the kids to school or even let them outside to play the day after Trevor leaves. She is the newest to military life and this storyline was interesting. It's a shame the writers didn't play this out more and make her experience a major focus of an episode. Instead, the issue became relatively minor in a flurry of activity in this episode. The actress who plays Roxy is great. This very real issue could have been explored, but instead it was resolved quickly and Roxy was back to normal in no time. There is some depth missing in the show

In the opening show of season two, one of their own, a Sgt with a cheating wife, walked in and bombed a local bar. He knew his wife and her lover were at the bar. We know that many of the main characters in the show were also in the bar. Most notably, the Commanders wife, Claudia Joy and her daughter, Amanda. Amanda was just leaving for college and Claudia Joy meant to stop at the bar briefly to give a check to someone in need. Amanda dies, though we don't learn that until the very end of the show.

While we think we are watching the events in real time, as Claudia Joy continues on her trip to take Claudia to school, we are actually watching Claudia Joys mind working as she lay comatose in the hospital. This was relatively well done, though the conversation between Claudia and Amanda was just too corny to be real. It was a little bit too much like a soap opera for me.

I imagine the coming season will have to deal often with the death of Amanda. For this reason, I may stop watching. I just don't want to watch a show every Sunday night that's dealing with the death of a teenager. I think the writers made an error here, as they forgot about their audience. Their audience for this show is likely women, and women with children. If they don't deal with Amanda's death, it will seem odd and unreal and if it takes over the show, people will stop watching.

This first episode of the season was narrated by character Pamela via her radio show. This was another good idea that went bad quickly. There was too much narration and it became boring. Her words were supposed to be deep and moving, but again I started to think soap opera. The narration was distracting and took away from the story. It became like a boring lecture.

The best part of the show, the best story line, was Roland going home to his soldier wife Jane. The story of Roland and Jane has potential and I hope it doesn't get lost in future episodes. Roland is a psychiatrist and a civilian. Jane is the soldier. They have marital problems, were separating, and now she is pregnant. The actors who play these characters are wonderful. Their story is quiet and thoughtful and real. I don't ever feel like I'm watching a soap opera when they are on the screen.

I will probably watch the second episode of this second season, but I'm not sure there will be enough to keep my interest for a full season. The show has had great advertising and great hype and it is a very timely topic. It's a great idea for a show. Hopefully, the writing will settle down and the story lines will play out a bit more fully. The show needs depth and the actors need a chance to show their stuff.