TV is armed — or at least “Army” — and dangerous this week:

* “Army Wives” (Sunday, 9 p.m., Lifetime) Last Sunday’s fifth season premiere gave the “Wives” a bump in the ratings, with good reason. Classic, soapy melodrama is a dying art, which leaves TV women lumped into either the false-reality camp variety of cat-fighting fame-seekers with insides uglier than Lindsay Lohan’s liver, or the scripted version of gal pals who are so obsessed with sex and man-snagging that their stories devolve into the ridiculous. (Mama’s looking at you, “Desperate Housewives.”) Instead, the women of Fort Marshall have formed actual friendships that are built on shared, relatable experiences. This character-driven drama is at its best when the women have a realistic crisis to rally around, as they do this week when the gang gathers at the hospital to support Denise (Catherine Bell) and her gravely ill baby. Lifetime announced last month that it has picked up two more scripted dramas, which Mama can only hope is a sign that the network can pull itself out of the reality gutter where so many niche cable outlets now dwell.

* “Bones” (Thursday, 9 p.m., Fox) Arnold Vosloo, who scared Mama silly as “The Mummy” and as a terror mastermind on “24,” returns as Booth’s former friend-turned-serial sniper. Now that he’s broken up with Hannah, Booth can focus on taking out his former mentor and on talking to Brennan about their relationship. But don’t expect the why-haven’t-they question to get addressed until next week, when Booth and Brennan fall victim to a classic dramatic cliché: getting trapped in an elevator.

* “CSI: NY” (Friday, 9 p.m., CBS) Not sure if this week’s “Gossip Girl”-esque murder is supposed to attract the teenage contingent missing from CSI’s audience, or if this is cathartic release for all the cranky old people watching “CSI” who wish those overprivileged snobs would just die already.