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Date Posted: 03:38:59 06/11/09 Thu
Author: Peggy
Subject: oops, I messed up, I try again
In reply to: Peggy 's message, "Here is another article about AW Lifetime's "Army Wives," not surprisingly, has become a soap opera." on 03:36:52 06/11/09 Thu

Lifetime's "Army Wives," not surprisingly, has become a soap opera.

A really good soap opera.

Yes, it sells some of the same dramas as the dozens of other female-bonding shows on the air these days. But it feels sturdier, perhaps because the military component ties the show and the characters to something more solid than shopping, carrot-stick lunches and boyfriend neuroses.

Tomorrow night's season three opener advances, though it doesn't always resolve, several of the soap-style cliffhangers from the end of season two.

Claudia Joy (Kim Delaney) and her husband, Brig. Gen. Michael Holden (Brian McNamara), are frantically searching for their 16-year-old daughter, Emmalin (Katelyn Pippy), who has run away on the eve of the family's move to Brussels for the general's new gig at NATO.

Michael wants Emmalin to shape up and ship out. He sees no need or reason for discussion. Claudia Joy is more torn, though, of course, they first must find her.

Meanwhile, nurse Denise (Catherine Bell) has to face the consequences of sleeping with a young soldier/patient who returned from Iraq without his legs. If that sounds like a classic soap opera setup, it gets even sudsier, and more dire, as tomorrow night's episode moves on.

It also becomes more touching, thanks to Bell and Terry Serpico, who plays Denise's husband, Frank.

On the somewhat lighter side, Roxy (Sally Pressman) scrambles to hold on to the bar that Aunt Betty left her, because it seems some previously unknown cousin also inherited a half-share and he's pressuring Roxy to sell out cheap - a tempting offer when you're as broke as Roxy.

Other dramas also swirl through the base, but "Army Wives" is smart enough not to give each one a few superficial minutes each episode. Instead, it picks a couple and develops them with some style.

The Army also remains a major character because the military sets so many of the written and unwritten rules by which the characters live. That those rules are often bent, broken or ignored only raises the stakes.

The actors do their part by not playing their stories as soap. There's no melodramatic music, no too-poignant pauses. The action happens in real time, with conversations and encounters ending where they should.

"Army Wives" is soap that doesn't get in your eyes



http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2009/06/06/2009-06-06_drama_adds_soap_to_earn_army_wives_soap_earns_stripes_wives_face_major_drama.html#ixzz0I55LVwIw&D

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[> thanks for the good article peggy. -- Linda R, 09:22:04 06/11/09 Thu


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