Monday, August 31, 2009

'Army Wives' Monday: Duty to Inform

*Warning: Spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Army Wives*

Dear Lifetime:

Please don't put episodes on your network that end with a cliffhanger, only to have the resolution of said cliffhanger be spoiled by the network's preview for the next episode.

Case in point: In the very first scene, the show's writer(s) mentioned that Pamela's husband Chase was two weeks late in coming home from one of his super-secret missions. Then a car -- the one that brings bad tidings and makes Army wives Army widows -- drove down Pamela's street. The car drove on by, in slow-motion . . . without stopping at Pamela's house.

The whole episode was overshadowed by Pamela's desperate need to find out what happened to her husband, especially after Pamela saw one of Chase's colleagues on base and he acted very cagey. In the last scene, after Pamela was finally allowed into the super-secret facility to get a look at her husband Chase who was in some sort of medical center, she opened the door, gazed upon her husband and looked horrified. We viewers didn't see what she saw, of course, thus the cliffhanger. We didn't know what happened to Chase and how/whether he'll survive.

Then, there he is in the previews. Standing up. On his own. And, aside from a bruise on his eye, Chase looked okay to me, other than the fact that his wife was yelling at him.

So next time, maybe you network folks should be a bit more careful about wrecking the next episode with your spoiler-filled previews.

Sincerely,

An Army Wives watcher

In other Army Wives developments from the recent episode:

-- Why is Claudia Joy acting so insanely idiotic about keeping her new diabetic diagnosis from her friends? Why is she so insistent about maintaining a shroud of secrecy? As Denise said, it's not a good idea to keep that kind of information under wraps in the event of a medical emergency.

What was with the control freakish behavior in yelling at Emmalin who was just trying to help out by tossing out foods that were bad for her mother? Misplace anger much?

-- Poor Trevor. Chasing people down the street. Running with members of a high school track team trying in vain to get them to just accept just one of his business cards. That was so, what's the word, sad? Pathetic? Hopefully he'll get a better handle on the new gig in the next episode or so, and not have to engage in a mini foot race with teenagers in order to disseminate his business cards.

What are your thoughts on Army Wives' episode "Duty to Inform?"

Image credit: Lifetime.

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