DVD Reviews

Army Wives: Complete Fourth Season - DVD Review

By Patrick Luce Jan 6, 2011, 14:38 GMT

Relive the heart-warming drama of one of America\'s most beloved series with Army Wives: The Complete Fourth Season. Experience the inspirational stories of four women and one man who are married to those serving in the military as they try to balance family life with the all-encompassing call of duty. Our tribe takes great pride in the Army while they experience many challenges. Friendships are tested as Denise receives unexpected ...more

Army Wives returns to DVD for its fourth season of drama as our main characters deal with the pressures of life in the military, unexpected pregnancy, the death of a marriage, and new career choices. Once again, the strength of the show is in the incredible ensemble cast – which includes strong performances from the Army Husbands.

The fourth season is divided into a four disc set and packed with special features that will please fans of the hit Lifetime series. Created by Katherine Fugate, the series stars Catherine Bell (“JAG,” Bruce Almighty), Kim Delaney (“NYPD Blue,” “CSI: Miami”), Brigid Brannagh (“Over There”), Wendy Davis, Sally Pressman, Sterling K. Brown, Brian McNamara, Drew Fuller, Terry Serpico, Richard Bryant, Katelyn Pippy, and Jeremy Davidson.

The fourth season picks up with the fallout from the third season – Denise Sherwood (Bell) discovers that her son is suffering from things that happened during his first tour – and quickly moves to the main drama of the fourth season – a massive deployment to Afghanistan. In addition to the deployment, each of the main characters has season- long plots to keep fans watching.

To me, the strength of the series is that it doesn’t focus on one character or story and gives fans a variety of reasons to keep watching. If you can’t stand Claudia Joy (Delaney) or if Roxy  (Pressman) still has a voice like nails on a chalkboard, there are other plots and characters to enjoy during this season.

While trying to stay as spoiler free in the review as possible, season four finds Claudia Joy dealing with her daughter Emmalin’s (Pippy) final year of high school and knee injury (which could cut short her dream of playing hockey in college), and the crisis her husband Michael (McNamara) has in Afghanistan. She also discovers she wants to return to law school and become a lawyer – which puts her at odds with Michael several times in the season.

Denise struggles with Jeremy’s (Bryant) breakdown and his decision to stay in the army once he recovers. She also discovers her life with her husband Frank (Serpico) is about to drastically change. Serpico’s reaction to Denise’s news proves the men deserve more time on Army Wives, and his character is easily the best reason to watch this season (his facial expressions constantly cracked me up).

Joan (Davis) deals with an injury that could end her military career along with causing more friction in her marriage with Roland (Brown) – who continues to be the perfect husband no matter how Joan treats him. Roland struggles with helping a friend or turning him over to the authorities. He also continues to be the free shrink for all his friends, and does his best to help everyone who comes through his door.

Roxy suffers with an extremely tragic event, and the deployment of Trevor (Fuller) – who was supposed to get to stay in the states, but is deployed due to his experience. Although her character has some heavy issues early on, she has light duty for the rest of the season – mainly helping other characters with their problems. Trevor stresses over whether he will be a good leader for his men, but shows his leadership material early in the season. He also continues to demonstrate his never-ending amount of patience for the high-strung Roxy.

Pamela (Brannagh) goes through the most change this season as her marriage continues to fall apart and her character is forced to make her husband Chase (Davidson) pick between her or Delta. The result of that choice sees Pamela off the base, returning to her career as a cop (an episode is wasted in the season as Pamela and a guest-starring Gabrielle Union hunt down a killer), and struggling with her feelings for Chase. Davidson gets to show off some of his acting chops as he deals with the impact his career has had on his family.

Like past DVD season releases, Army Wives: Season Four does an excellent job packing on the bonus material for fans of the show. The set includes deleted scenes, features on the making of the show and its setting, a cooking special, a look at the military jargon the show uses, and a must-see gag reel.

Although the fourth season of Army Wives does have a formula feel to it, the show continues to be watchable thanks to its ensemble cast and the writers using multiple plots to keep the characters from becoming stale.  Fans of the show will like what they see, and the series does a nice job of setting up the next season.

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