Lifetime's most successful original series, Army Wives adapts Tanya Biank's book about military spouses living on a South Carolina base with the constant dread that their spouses will be deployed to Iraq. Decidedly soapy in nature, the show is peopled with walking, talking clichés: solid-as-a-rock Claudia (Kim Delaney), secretly abused Denise (Catherine Bell), white-trashy bartender Roxy (Sally Pressman), young surrogate mother Pamela (Brigid Brannagh), and boozy, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder sufferer Joan (Wendy Davis). Delaney's character serves as a den mother of sorts, who dispenses shopworn pearls of wisdom as the scripts demand. Hackneyed tropes notwithstanding, the show deserves credit for dealing with a rarely discussed aspect of the war, and even if the 13 episodes from the 2007 first season compiled here are hardly must-see-TV, the series will appeal to fans of small-screen veterans Delaney (NYPD Blue) and Bell (JAG), whose work here is solid. DVD extras include audio commentaries on select episodes, a Q&A with cast members, a featurette on the Operation Homecoming charity for military wives and children, deleted scenes, and a blooper reel. A strong optional purchase. (E. Hulse)
Army Wives: The Complete First Season
Buena Vista, 3 discs, 552 min., TV-PG, DVD: $39.99 September 29, 2008
Army Wives: The Complete First Season
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