Setting a television show in the context of a hot-button political issue is inherently risky. So the very existence of "Army Wives," about spouses of military men set in the here and now of the Iraq war, is a bit of a surprise. Even more surprising is that it's airing on Lifetime, a network best known for stories of women in jeopardy.
Fear not. "Wives" is ultimately a pretty down-the-middle female-centric soap opera with the war merely as a backdrop. For every reference to homefront disillusionment with the war, there are multiple plot threads that owe more to "Knots Landing" than "Winds of War."
We get the gossipy military wives, their indiscretions and secrets. And there’s all the "Dynasty"-style class-consciousness one might expect, though because it's the military it's rank, not wealth, that sets folks apart.
Yet we also get efforts at high-minded sociopolitical drama, and therein lies a conflict. "Wives," which airs Sundays at 10, is ultimately too ambitious, like the military wives it portrays, attempting to merge that drama with low-brow soapiness and not really succeeding at either.
There’s something intriguing about "Wives'" ambition as it tackles domestic violence, post-traumatic stress disorder and bathroom stall sex all with the same level of vigor. But it's ultimately off-putting, and at times the effect can be truly jarring.
"Wives" opens as free-spirited bartended Roxy (Sally Pressman, "Freedomland") moves with her husband of two weeks to Fort Marshall, near Charleston. Roxy, completely unfamiliar with the military lifestyle or traditions, is informally adopted by several military wives.
Chief among them is Claudia Joy (Kim Delaney, "NYPD Blue"), the respected wife of a colonel who has just been passed over for promotion because of a scurrilous rumor.
The other spouses include Denise (Catherine Bell, "JAG"), who we quickly learn is being abused, psychiatrist Roland (Sterling K. Brown, "Starved"), the only male spouse in the group, and Pamela (Brigid Brannagh, "Angel"), who is serving as a surrogate mother to earn some extra income for her family.
The first episodes dive right into the drama, almost too fast. Roland’s wife has just returned from Afghanistan and seems to collapse into alcoholism and depression within hours of her return.
Denise, in a twist that will surprise no one, is being smacked around not by her husband but her angry teenage son.
It's clear that the writers struggled to balance the serious and the sudsy in setting up the abuse storyline, and the result is clunky and stereotypically Lifetime-y. Bell doesn't help by conveying her pain exclusively by widening her soulful eyes.
Delaney, always a compelling television presence, is given little to do so far. Her Claudia Joy, the group’s mother hen, mostly acts as the wifely equivalent of her colonel husband: quick-thinking and crisply professional. But dramatically it’s a thankless role, wasting her considerable talent.
What saves "Wives" is Pressman’s Roxy, the show’s breakout character as the saucy working-class mom alternately excited and terrified by her new life as an army wife. She brings a real energy to her scenes, whether mistakenly saluting her husband’s commanding officer or confronting Denise’s abusive son. She commands the screen.
In a scene where no words are spoken, Pressman captures and conveys, as "Wives'" writers could not, the real-world issues of love and war and death its characters face. As Roxy, she stares silently at the TV screen and a report on the carnage in Iraq. Across her face we sense a new realization, the lifting of a veil, as she seems to realize for first time that the events over there will inevitably impact her here.
If only there were more moments like that.
