"Army Wives" is sort of half "The Unit," half "Desperate Housewives" ... and about half interesting.
Lifetime's new ensemble drama is just what the title indicates. It's about women (mostly) who are married to soldiers and live on sort of a khaki-colored Wisteria Lane.
Unlike "The Unit," the men here are (for the most part) supporting characters.
"Army Wives," which premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. on Lifetime, features a wide array of characters, which might end up being good for the show but is somewhat confusing to begin with. Roxy (Sally Pressman) is the audience's entry point to this rather singular world — she's a single mom/bartender who impulsively marries nice-guy soldier Trevor (Drew Fuller) and finds herself trying to navigate this unfamiliar world in which she finds herself.
Claudia Joy (Kim Delaney of "NYPD Blue"), the pillar of the community, is in a seemingly ideal marriage with a colonel, Michael (Brian McNamara). Her best friend, Denise (Catherine Bell), married to a major, is hiding a secret.
So is Pamela (Brigid Brannagh). A former cop, she's pregnant with twins that aren't hers. She's a surrogate, and her husband, Chase (Jeremy Davidson), doesn't want anyone to know what's going on.
And one of the "Army Wives" is actually a husband — Roland (Sterling K. Brown), who has to put his skills as a psychiatrist to work at home because his wife, Joan (Wendy Davis) — a lieutenant colonel — is suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder.
There are obviously some serious issues here. But the only time the show really comes to life in the first hour is when we're dealing with the bartender-turned-Army-wife, who adds some much-needed life to an otherwise tedious show.
Which is too bad. "Army Wives" has a great cast — the newcomers as much as the established TV stars. It's a potentially fine concept. And it looks good, helped along by shooting on location at a former naval base in South Carolina.
And there's absolutely nothing wrong with a good soap opera. It's just that "Army Wives" doesn't start out as a particularly good soap opera.
Too bad.
Catherine Bell already has a whole lot of experience with the TV version of the military, what with spending nine seasons on "JAG."
Not that playing an Army wife has much in common with playing a military attorney, but as a member of the "JAG" cast Bell did often visit military bases.
"The most touching thing was when I would meet the wives and their families," she said. "We were at Camp Pendleton one year, and all of these families came out to watch us film — women and two, three, sometimes four children. And their husbands had been away for six, eight, nine months.
"And I just remember being so moved by that — by their lives and their strength and what it must be like to live on that base and deal with that."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com