If you haven’t heard by now there is a new reality tv show on the OWN network called, Married to the Army: Alaska. It follows the lives of seven women from Fort Richardson, Alaska, who are married to soldiers of the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry. Their husbands deployed November of 2011, and are just now starting to return after almost a year in combat (from OWN)
I will admit I do like my reality TV although I don’t watch too much of it anymore now that we cancelled Directv. I enjoy watching shows about other people and yes I am even a fan of some of the “Real Housewives” shows, as full of drama as they are. It can be really interesting to get to see into a person’s life, especially if they are so different from you.
For the last few years I have even thought about how a reality show like that would work for Army wives. Would a show be able to capture the real people? Would it focus on just the drama? Would it be a good thing or a bad thing?
With the start of Married to the Army: Alaska we can see first hand how a reality show about Military wives is going to go. Now I have not seen the show yet so I am not going to say if it is good or bad. I have talked to a few people who have seen and I didn’t hear a lot of positive reviews although some people did enjoy it.
I am not sure what to think about a show like this showing America what it is like to be an Army Wife. When it comes to the show Army Wives on Lifetime I do get questions about if that is what it is really like. People are curious about how we live our lives and how we are able to make it work through deployments and everything else. I am not sure if a reality show of this nature is the way to do that. I am not sure there is even a good way to do that other than knowing people personally that are going through a deployment or involved in Military life. That way they can see first hand what it is like without any of the drama.
I don’t blame the network for making a show like this. I know they felt there is a market for it and maybe there is. But I am just not convinced it will be able to show everything or what it is really like. Another part of this is because different people have different experiences when it comes to the Military. Just in my close group of friends here in Campbell, we have all been through different types of experiences even if our husbands have been in the Army about the same amount of time.
What do you think? Do you think this show is a good way to show the public what it is like to be an Army wife? Have you seen the show? What do you think?
I probably won’t watch it mostly because I don’t watch much tv anymore, but I’m always skeptical of any reality show that is supposed to follow the lives of anyone. The networks are only going to show situations that cause drama because that is what their viewers want to see. I’m from Michigan and when Bowling From Columbine came out, everyone asked me if you could really get a gun at a bank in Michigan. The movie of course didn’t show the whole story behind it – such as thorough background checks, the fact that the area is very rural and most people participate in the annual deer hunting seasons. Since I’m basically out in the civilian world full time, I always get questions about the drama that is depicted on these shows. Of course I can’t really speak to life on an Army base, but I can always speak to the ways of the Army and their knack for messing up even the most well laid out plans 🙂
I tried to watch an episode of it and I just can’t get into it. You can’t tell me that they don’t hype some of this up for the cameras. Some of the things they showed really disgusted me, like one of the husbands showing his wife footage he videotaped of a firefight! Really?! Just ridiculous.