Army Wives (TV Series) (DVD)

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"Army Wives" is an old-fashioned soaper that could very easily have been set in the corporate world. It plays like daytime television, so if you like shows like "All My Children" you'll appreciate this show, which could just as well be called "All My Military Children." The headlining actress, Kim Delaney, is a veteran of "All My Children," the writing comes closer to the melodramatic and clichéd dialogue of daytime television, and the near-constant background music is heavily melodramatic. The main difference is in the production values and the blocking. One cliché of daytime TV is that the actors stand toe-to-toe and deliver LONG emotional monologues. They're at least broken up here, and the characters move around more naturally. Still, this isn't a tongue-in-cheek soaper like "Desperate Housewives." It's an unabashed, unashamed, play-by-the-book daytime soap opera refitted with an evening gown. And one tux. "Army Wives" doesn't exactly romanticize the military culture, but it comes close.

Kim Delaney stars as Claudia Joy, the army wife people feel thinks she's better than everyone else because she won't have an affair while her spouse is spending a year at a time away from home. Then there's Denise, the timid and proper wife who wants to maintain appearances and keep the abuse she's been experiencing a secret. Speaking of secrets, the big one in the pilot comes to us courtesy of Pamela (Brigid Brannagh), who struggles financially that she and her husband agree to have her be a surrogate mother--something she tries to keep from the rest of the camp. The most engaging character, though she's also a cliché, is Roxy (Sally Pressman), a barmaid with two children from two different guys who gets a proposal in the opening scene from a serviceman. The tux is worn by the long-suffering Roland (Sterling K. Brown), a psychiatrist whose military wife Joan (Wendy Davis) just returned from Iraq with a big-time case of post-stress syndrome.

The thing is, despite some strong performances, the material and the treatment are so soap-bubbly clichéd and the lines are said with such doggone determined seriousness (which makes them sound even more clichéd) that you have a hard time forgetting about the dramatic structure and just enjoying the characters. The people who will be able to do this will be the fans of daytime television who are used to the weepy and overly dramatic music accompanying every character everywhere, like a sappy version of the Peter Pan shadow. Or, as we learn on some of the bonus features, families of soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But this isn't the kind of show that you can just pick up in the middle. Season 2 picks up where Season 1 left off, and the back stories are significant enough to where you'll be a little lost if you start with Season 2. But contrivances abound. This Band of Sisters (plus one honorary brother) gets a little too touchy-feely in terms of its support mechanism, too, as if these folks were in AA and were such hard cases that they needed more than one buddy to keep them from sinking. A flag waves on the menu screen as clips from the show play, and those clips and that flag pretty much tell the whole story. This is a TV show that walks an uncomfortable line between paying tribute to and exploiting the current military presences in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Nineteen episodes are contained on five discs, which are housed in a single-width DVD keep case that has two plastic "pages." There are no annotations on the episodes, though--just titles printed on the inside of the cover. Here's a brief rundown on the episodes:

1) "Would You Know My Name." A popular hangout is bombed, and it takes everyone quite a while to adjust.

2) "Strangers in a Strange Land." Betty is still shook from the bombing, and Roxy lets her live with her temporarily. Meanwhile, Joan tries to decide whether to have her baby, and Pamela and Chase grow farther apart as he becomes more secretive.

3) "The Messenger." Denise has a older patient who thinks back to the years before she was married.

4) "Leaving the Tribe." Joan decides to "come out" about her pregnancy, while Denise decides to try new things, such as riding a motor scooter.

5) "The Hero Returns." Trevor returns a hero and it causes some discomfort around the post. Meanwhile, Denise goes a little overboard with her motor scooter and that makes Frank worry.

6) "Thicker than Water." People begin to talk about Denise. Meanwhile, Betty pursues a dream and gets some news about her cancer, and Roland tries to learn how to become a good father.

7) "Uncharted Territory." Joan and Roland learn the gender of their child. Meanwhile, Roxy decides to open the Hump Bar again after the bombing.

8) "Loyalties." Everyone has trouble in this episode and learns who their real friends are.

9) "Casting out the Net." Denise and Getty's relationship is put on hold, maybe permanently, after Frank returns. Meanwhile, Roxy tries to get her GED.