Army Wives – Trevor really doesn’t know who TJ’s become

I feel like Army Wives is kicking off its fifth season rather sluggishly. I know it seems a bit early to say that, but there’s nothing going on that’s really grabbed me by my lapels and forced me to pay attention. In fact, there’s not much going on at all.

Naturally I’m relieved that everything’s okay with Denise and Frank’s daughter Molly … but was there really any concern that this was serious? And what a weird premiere cliffhanger, that Molly was sick. It feels more like the middle — or the end — of a story than the beginning, unless of course this tale is actually about Denise and Jeremy’s fiance Tanya (Erin Krakow). Which is fine, but then why make Molly sick? I don’t get that.

By the way, I know I said it before but it would be really irresponsible of Denise not to tell Tanya that Jeremy has a history of hitting women. It might be embarrassing, and it might be a black mark that she wishes not to think about, but how would Denise feel if she discovered that Jeremy had hit Tanya and she’d never warned her?

Chase coming back was a nice surprise, especially if we can believe that he put in his papers for the sake of his kids. I wonder if Jeremy Davidson thought his role on the show was over with the preparations for Brigid Brannagh‘s  spin off. Lucky for us all that’s not happening … unlucky for us, my guess is that Chase won’t be coming home from his last mission. I think Pamela’s life is meant to move beyond him, just not necessarily to Atlanta — especially considering the fact that her new show’s a no-go. But as much as I don’t want to see it happen, I think Chase might be, as TI would say, “Dead and gone.”

It’s interesting that Joan is so obviously not going to be happy in her new position — my bet is she starts talking about wanting out soon — and yet at the same time she has no problem embracing the less pleasant aspects of the job. That being said I think she was completely in the right during the juvenile discipline review board with TJ and Roxy; if the army has protocol for everything, it has protocol for everything. The Big Green Machine isn’t about to do favors for the friend of a garrison commander just because … as well it shouldn’t. Roxy was completely out of line crying to Roland about Joan’s “harshness,” and Roland was out of line for even mentioning it to Joan. After all this time Roxy still doesn’t understand what the army is all about.

Roland, meanwhile, isn’t going to last long with Joan growing larger and larger and her minimizing Roland more and more. Her mention of him in her speech aside, theirs is a marriage headed for disaster unless Joan wakes up to what she’s doing to the man she supposedly loves.

I don’t know why a new actor playing TJ means we have to endure an all new TJ; he’s annoying. And he seems to have brought change to the entire family: that was totally not Trevor on the phone yelling at Roxy and then at TJ. He was acting completely out of character, and I don’t believe it’s because of his deployment — this isn’t his first tour. Are there new writers on the show?

I’m not quite sure I’m following the timeline of some things. Last week Claudia Joy told Michael that his being considered for West Point superintendent would mess with her law schooling; this week she graduated. Huh? I can’t believe that after seeing firsthand how dubiously Professor Chandler (Harry Hamlin) operates in the courtroom Claudia Joy would accept a job with him, but even more so I hope that this isn’t the beginning of a sexual attraction/affair story line. First of all Denise has been there; second of all, the Holdens? No way.

Nice guest spot by new South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Despite the controversy surrounding her appearance, I like how well the show incorporates real figures who would matter to Fort Marshall into the series. If only they’d also work on incorporating plots that matter to us….

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Mar 15, 2011 @ 12:30 EST5EDT