Army Wives returns to Lifetime for a seventh season this Sunday. We sat down with stars Catherine Bell, a series regular since the start, and Kelli Williams, who is returning for her second season on the show, at a recent press event in LA. The ladies dished on the new characters coming in, changes their own characters will endure, and even the real army wives who have reached out to them. The series premiere of Army Wives is Sunday, March 10 at 9/8 Central.
Gabrielle Union has been out of work since FlashForward's cancellation, but she's found a new home on Lifetime. The network has an Army Wives spinoff in the works, and Union has signed on to star in it.
The new pilot will be "embedded" into an upcoming episode of Army Wives, so regular viewers will get a peek at Union and the new show just by tuning in to the current season. Union will play Gina Holt, the police detective partner of Wives' character Pamela Moran.
Network television certainly doesn't have the market cornered on great TV shows anymore. In fact, many of prime time's most acclaimed dramas are found outside of your standard channels. Though the seasons may be shorter, it just makes them even sweeter. So which cable TV drama is your favorite?
Don't forget to vote on all of my Best of 2009 polls!
I know I already rounded up 10 reasons why Summer TV won't be such a drag, but today's the day when I truly believe it. The third season of Army Wives begins tonight! I've long stopped feeling silly for having this much love (and it's a lot of love) for a Lifetime original series, and instead decided to simply bond with my fellow Army Wives fans. You're out there. I know you're out there.
Check out the description for tonight's first episode: "The tribe offers their support to Claudia Joy and Michael, who are supposed to leave for Brussels, but have one little problem . . . Emmalin has disappeared. Meanwhile, Roxy has her own challenges dealing with the bar and Betty’s nephew wanting to own it outright. As for Denise, her affair with former patient Mac will have definite consequences." If you want to catch up or refresh your memory on where we left off with the wives, you can watch full episodes from season two here.
Will you be watching tonight? To see a preview of the upcoming season, read more
I have been faithfully watching my Army Wives ever since the second season began over the summer. And now it's coming to a close, which bums me out because I actually think this season has been better than the first. It may sound cheesy, but I feel a little attached to these ladies, and I'll miss them when they're gone (I know, I know, so sappy).
If you've been watching lately, you know that Michael is being transferred to Brussels, upending the Holden family's life on post. Roland and Joan are adapting to parenthood together while Roxy and Trevor continue to attend Al-Anon and AA meetings, respectively. Over the season, Pamela has struggled with feeling safe while her husband is away and Denise, in the most intriguing storyline to me, is coming into her own as an individual and has found romance with one of her former patients.
The previews often make the episodes look intensely dramatic and the ones for tonight are no different, hinting at more heartbreak for the ladies. I don't doubt it since the season one finale left us with such a breathlessly tense cliffhanger. To check out the preview and some clips from tonight's show, read more
It's almost Labor Day weekend, and you know what that means! No, not the last of beach weather or the beginning of a new school year — Fall TV is almost back! I'm beyond thrilled to get back into the worlds of my favorite shows, whether it's the juicy salaciousness of Gossip Girl, the dramatics of Grey's Anatomy, or the deadpan hilarity of The Office. I've missed my TV friends.
That said, there are a few Summer shows that I've become addicted to, and will certainly miss once the new TV season starts up. Kathy Griffin's My Life on the D-List is already over, and I'm kinda sad about it. I loved watching her ridiculous antics week after week. Mad Men is still going strong, and you know how I feel about that show because I tell you every week in my rundown posts.
I'm still totally hooked on Army Wives, and I actually think this season is better than the first. This isn't often the case with second seasons, and I gotta say Lifetime continues to impress me with this show. Finally: Swingtown. It's not necessarily high-quality television, but somewhere along the way I got hooked on this show, and I find myself hoping some network will pick up the series if CBS does not.
What are you still watching? Or has your TV been dark all Summer (except for the Olympics)?
My Life on the D-List photo courtesy of Bravo
Army Wives photo courtesy of Lifetime
Swingtown photo courtesy of CBS
Variety has issued its annual Women's Impact Report, highlighting women who have made an impression at all levels of entertainment. Just like last year, the list includes executive powerhouses, household-name performers, and lesser-known talents. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be spotlighting some of the women whom I find particularly noteworthy. Today's pick: creator of the TV series Army Wives, Katherine Fugate.
It's hard enough to draw audiences to the theater for movies having to do with the Iraq War; attempting to bring these stories into living rooms week after week is a huge undertaking. But by focusing the stories more on the universal topics of friendship, family ties and community, Army Wives creator Katherine Fugate has successfully found an audience for a show about American military families.
One of the things that I think resonates most with viewers is the show's emphasis on community, for which Fugate recognizes a deep-seated desire in our society. She told Variety, "The one thing that moved me during my research among real-life Army wives was the camaraderie between the women. They will bake a cake for someone they barely know, and that was so moving for me. We ache for community." For more about Fugate — including how the birth of her daughter is all wrapped up with the show's beginnings, and how she sneaked a movie script into Shirley MacLaine's hands — click here.
The subplot in last season's Army Wives featured a character becoming a surrogate to get her family out of debt. According to an in-depth story by Newsweek earlier this year, there has been a significant increase in the number of military wives entering into surrogacy agreements to help supplement their husband's military pay.
The practice has me wondering how much we really know about surrogacy. Take this quiz and test your knowledge.
Take the Quiz
Photo courtesy of Lifetime
All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue.
Army Wives: Season 1
I admitted earlier this month that I'm addicted to the Lifetime series Army Wives when I added it to my must-haves list for June, and when I declared it No. 3 of the top 10 reasons to keep your TV on this Summer. And I'm the first to admit that the show (based on Tanya Biank's memoir Under the Sabers: The Unwritten Code of Army Wives) didn't entice me when I first heard about it. Now, however, I find it to be intelligent, humorous and awfully compelling, given that it centers around the current war.
The second season just premiered last Sunday, so you've got some time to catch up while recording the new episodes.
Special featurettes include titles like: "'Have at It' With the Army Wives" which is a "Q&A Session with the cast of Army Wives featuring questions submitted by fans" and "Wives On the Homefront," including "an inside look at real army wives as they share their fascinating stories and experiences."
Two more titles, so read more
