Episode: Army Wives 4.15 – “Hearts & Minds”
Original Air Date: August 1, 2010
Screencaps from thisyearsgirl13.
Two weeks ago, Army Wives left me an emotional wreck with the big deployment episode. It was old school heart-string-tugging Army Wives goodness. Now, things are getting really cheesy and Hollywood, and I’m rolling my eyes. A lot. Spoilers ahead for the review of this week’s installment, and some chatter about the last few weeks in general.
GET PAM AND CHASE BACK TOGETHER. NOW. I am so over this divorce. Its awful, and it makes watching the show way less enjoyable in general. I’m just over it. This week’s “speed dating” event at the Hump was super cheesy, and having Chase show up? Just way too easy. Then we’re teased by seeing them have a weird little date, and then we’re let down when Pam says the divorce is going well, and seeing each other again is a bad idea. I’m miserable with them apart. And from a series perspective, I have zero interest in a spin off about single Pam as a lady-cop. Ugh times a million.
Poor Denise. She’s breaking my heart. When Frank painted “Molly” on the crib right before he left, I couldn’t stop the tears. Now she’s all alone, about to pop with that baby, and I’m just sad for her. I want her to have her husband, but I want that for all the soon-to-be mommies whose men are deployed. It’s one of the most depressing and heart-wrenching aspects of deployment in my opinion. And Army Wives is really twisting the knife by playing this all out with Denise.
Sometimes the show is so realistic and it just gets to me. Sometimes it’s so Hollywood, I can’t stand it. Recently, we’ve been getting a weird mix.
All of the in-country stuff seems fake and cheeseball to me. I mean, I’ve never personally deployed — so what do I know? But even through my mere spouse’s eyes, this seems over-dramatized to me. Jeremy is mackin’ (err, trying to) on an engaged medic gal. The infidelity aspect is realistic in a lot of ways, but all of the nonstop action, and every one of our male cast members all being super involved in each other’s missions — too fake.
Joan’s TBI is really getting to me too. I mean, hasn’t she been through enough? Roland is really handling it well. And I applaud the show for illustrating aspects of war injuries that aren’t so obvious (first Joan had PTSD, and now she has a brain injury that’s impacting her cognition and motor skills). I just don’t like seeing Joan down and out, I want her back in top form. The whole “lion chips” joke was super cheesy and weird. I miss when the writers used to make Roland really funny.
Claudia Joy, Emmalin, the General: the Holdens are kind of boring, kind of making me worry. I don’t really care about Emmalin’s hockey career. Oops. This nerdy boy she met, that could be fun or interesting. I hope she’s all better of course, but something about the whole storyline with her injury just isn’t gripping me. Claudia Joy is back to her status quo for now, it seems. And the General is getting hit on, in country, by a hot civilian contractor head hunter. Pretty Hollywood, and pretty annoying. That whole plot line was just making me roll my eyes this week.
All in all, I give this week 2.5 out of 5 stars. Nothing really exciting, but maybe plots are building for something super dramatic? I do appreciate the realism that the show has been giving audiences about certain aspects of the lifestyle this season. Like I said, two weeks ago — the episode where all the soldiers leave for deployment — that was a five star episode. It was so realistic, I was an emotional wreck afterwards, replaying my own deployment experiences (saying goodbye to my loved one as he was Afghan-bound). But now life at Fort Marshall is back to silly, boring and mostly irrelevant. Hopefully the next episode picks it up again! I’m thinking when Molly comes I’ll be letting loose with the waterworks.
Rating: 2.5 / 5 Stars
About the Author
Growing up, Rose Duggan had no idea she was a geek. She thought her childhood of space camp, anime, Tolkien, and sci-fi was totally normal. The blame should probably lean towards her parents: a couple of original Trekkies who own a small collectibles business. Technically Rose is a housewife, married to a U.S. Marine and living on base in Hawaii. Aloha! Besides her awesome cooking and cleaning skills, Rose is an Registered Nurse (licensed, but without a job at the moment), owner of a successful tie dye business, tie dye by happyhippierose, and dabbles in modeling, writing, painting, and crafting. Rose loves surfing, running with her adorable pooch, as well as dancing in her car to European electropop. She watches genre dramas like Flash Forward, big budget shows like Dexter, Weeds, and Mad Men, '90s anime, comedies, and gory movies; she'll try anything, but her discerning humour makes keeping her interested tough. On the sly she pens racy Harry Potter fanfic; on the not-so-sly she blogs about crafting, church events and crock pot recipes. To see the wackniness for yourself check out: happyhippierose.
I couldn’t agree more, Rose. Last week’s episode was super cheesy and super boring. I’m just waiting for it to grab my attention and tug at my heartstrings again, like the old Army Wives I used to know. It does all seem way too predictable, so I’m hoping the producers have something up their sleeves that will have us all saying, “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!” after the finale. We’ll see though!