Commanding Drama: 'Army Wives,' Season 3 on DVD

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"ARMY WIVES" HAS performed such ratings wonders for the often ignoredLifetime channel that the network made the unprecedented move to renew the series for a fourth season before its third season had even aired.

And yet, the third-season debut for "Wives" last June drew 22 percent fewer viewers than the season two premiere a year earlier.

So, what gives?

The show is still touted as Lifetime's most successful series, and one drop in ratings doesn't necessarily signal a decline in the drama's overall popularity. But the unfortunate side effect of having five main families to follow in the series is that once you get past the character-development of the first season, each character is knee-deep in his or her own drama, leading to lots and lots of plot lines to follow.

The show's third season (out today on DVD) starts out with all the unfinished situations from the previous season: a runaway daughter, a family moving to Belgium, a marriage falling apart due to extramarital affairs, a business in jeopardy and a new mother facing deployment.

Whew.

That's a lot to follow for one show — especially one that made an impact early on by not being full of the soap opera dramarama that one would expect from a female-centric show.

Most of all, the third season of "Army Wives" suffers from predictability.

Once Denise's affair becomes public, she is ostracized by her friends, then ultimately reconciles with them and with her husband. Strong-willed Pamela won't stand for husband Chase's constant neglect of his family, from his deceptions about spending time with his buddies to a missed ballet recital and a cancelled vacation, so she eventually walks out. Emmalin constantly rebels against her parents, until she bonds with a wounded Iraqi girl her family is hosting. Roxie struggles with her bar business — first with the previous owner's supposed nephew coming to take over and then with her new manager's bossy ways. Joan copes with her deployment; Roland wrestles with returning to work after committing to be a stay-at-home dad.

For the most part, these are all themes we've seen in previous seasons, without too much character advancement. (And let's not even mention the flashback episode "As Time Goes By," which finds the characters transported back to the base in the WWII era.)

Even with some unfortunately uncreative situations, though, there are still a few plot lines that capture the creativity of the show's early episodes.

Denise and Frank's son Jeremy grows and changes a lot during his deployment, especially after losing one of his closest friends in a bombing. His return home is awkward and confusing, especially when he goes to visit his friend's parents. It's the kind of situation at which the "Army Wives" writers truly excel: his predicament is, of course, completely defined by his involvement in the military, but on some level, he's also just a teenage kid struggling with how to grow up and fit in to an adult world.

And when Denise makes a comment about it to her friend Claudia Joy, she captures the essence of that struggle, which has nothing at all to do with the Army: "I've always felt that there were two sides to Jeremy; one that wanted to be just like Frank and one that wanted to be nothing like him."

There are plenty of untied plot lines from season three that will be picked up in season four: the rumored closing of Fort Marshall, the mysterious past of Roland's fellow psychologist, the Army's prohibiting soldiers from visiting Roxie's bar, Joan and her troops being attacked overseas, and Pamela and Chase's rocky marriage. But Jeremy's implied suicide that closed the season's last episode would certainly be a shame — after all, the parents-losing-a-child plotline was already exquisitely handled in season two when Claudia Joy and Michael's daughter Amanda was killed in an explosion.

But more importantly, it would be unfortunate to lose one of the few characters who brought such a relatable struggle — one that far superseded his role in the Army — to season three.

Written by Express contributor Catherine Lewis
Photos courtesy Guy D'Alema/ABC Studios