Those at Home Also Serve: Women's Television and Embedded Military Realism in Army Wives (Lifetime, 2006-2014)

This chapter explores how Army Wives' formal relationship with the US military affected the playing out of serial drama while also contributing to the show's emotional realism. The constraints of embedded military encouraged the development of characters who coped with day-to-day challenges of the military wife rather than the sensationalist storylines of prime time drama. Army Wives presents characters who acquiesce to, struggle with, and celebrate the role of civilian service to the military. This complex subjectivity is delivered through the expressive eloquence of television women's drama. The chapter also considers how Lifetime's marketing reached out to fans, viewers, and military families through social media strategies and woman-oriented philanthropy. Army Wives takes a more placid route in using serial women's drama to situate stories in military realism. As a genre, the Army Wives iteration of military drama intersects in interesting ways with women's television genres.