Nashville: "It Must Be You" Review

Nashville took a page from the Gossip Girl playbook last week: get all your characters together at a fancy event. Things are bound to fall apart. The interesting thing about the fancy-schmancy polo match was that the characters didn't behave exactly as you'd expect. Deacon, who you might guess would fit in the least at an event like this, eased into conversation all smiles with his beautiful lawyer girlfriend by his side. On the other hand, Juliette, the princess of glitter, was royally out-of-place.

An awkward Juliette strikes an awkward pose.
Source: seat42f.com

Which brings me to this - I am loving Juliette this season. At the end of season one, we saw glimpses of her troubled backstory. But this season, we've seen her humanity in humorous ways. This has endeared the character to me. One of my favorite lines from the episode has to be: "According to wikipedia, that sound means the game's about to start!"

I suppose this is the point where I brag about my predictions from my last Nashville review. They've all come true! Gunnar and Zoey did indeed hook up, Will's already had trouble with Edgehill and Layla's already made her move, and Juliette's affair with Charles (who, in this episode, the characters are all of the sudden chummy enough with to call "Charlie")  is about to cause her a world of trouble. Previews indicate we'll see that in next week's episode. What I did not expect about Juliette and Charles Wentworth was the possibility that the two of them might have a real connection.

I try not to comment judgmentally on the decisions the characters make (being as they are fictional) but rather how those decisions affect the overall complexity and richness of the story. Therefore, I'm not going to fault Zoey for her attraction to Gunnar. It makes for a good story. Plus, I have a theory that Sam Palladio can have chemistry with anyone.

From what we've seen so far, the new characters introduced in season two are adding to the drama in interesting ways. In particular, Luke Wheeler offers another - and very different - love interest for Rayna. "I was not expecting that," she says when he kisses her. Neither was I, Rayna. Well, not until the obviously foreshadowing conversation he had with Deacon at the polo match. This moment illuminates another fascinating thing about the nature of this show. The soapy details - like Luke's attraction to Rayna - move the larger "business of music" plots along. Because Luke wants to see more of Rayna, he's agreed to take Scarlett on tour. So Scarlett's big break might be the result of another entirely separate potential relationship. Which only proves that nothing's entirely separate. (And that makes a good story.)

And now for the reason anyone and everyone should watch this show: the music. The acoustic version of "Hypnotizing" was by far the best number in the episode. It turned a song I sometimes skipped past on the album into a true heartfelt ballad. Acoustic is how the song was meant to be sung. Oh, and listen for the harmonica.

Nashville: "I Don't Wanna Talk About It Now" Review

If the writers of Nashville do one thing really well, it's set things up for catastrophe. And not just the inevitable part of the catastrophe, but all the lingering repercussions.  It's what they did at the end of the first season with Rayna and Deacon's accident. The immediate outcome of that cliffhanger was Rayna's coma and Deacon's incarceration. But the lingering result was Rayna's inability to sing and how that led her to further business conflict with Edgehill's new management, and Deacon's inability to play his guitar.

In last week's episode, "I Don't Wanna Talk About It Now," I noticed three things that just might be hinting at calamities we'll see this season.

1. Gunnar and Zoey leave the Edgehill Showcase... together. Did you notice Gunnar leave the Edgehill party with Scarlett's friend Zoey? I can't imagine that won't lead to something. Even if nothing ever happens between those two, their interactions will eventually bother either Scarlett or Will. Or somebody else entirely, who knows? And leaving together wasn't the start of this. It started the episode before that, when she inspired him to write again. (The song he wrote, by the way, was my favorite performed on the season so far. I cannot wait for the next "Music of Nashville" album to drop.)

Source: abc.com

2. Will's choice to leave Highway 65 for Edgehill. In deciding he was a performer and not a songwriter, not only did Will put himself in a position to feel justified in ripping off Gunnar's songs, but he effectively sold himself short and bought himself a world of trouble down the road. Gunnar and Will have a fragile friendship as it is. And if you think working so near to his old flame won't come back to haunt him, you haven't been paying close enough attention. And that little look Layla gave Will while he was performing? That wasn't nothing, either.

3. And of course, Juliette's adulterous dalliance with Charles Wentworth. There are so many layers to that mistake. For one thing, there was about a 15 second scene in the episode where Juliette looked longingly at Charles and his wife. It seemed to me she wasn't longing for him, but for the love they (supposedly) shared. Poor Juliette. Charles has now further confirmed her disillusionment with love. And talk about foreshadowing - like Avery told her, "Defiance is a drug. It can make you do stupid things." How is this any stupider than any of the other ones? The short answer is that he's married. But the long answer is that he's a media mogul who's influence is of extreme importance to Edgehill Records. This was not just a relationship mistake. This was a business mistake.

It's just brilliant! Nashville proves that good drama has a long fuse. It doesn't happen all at once. By the time we reach the end of season 2, Nashville will have surprised us again. I'm sure of it. Whether it was based on something I noticed, or something else I've totally missed, season 2 is about to get catastrophically good.

Better Late Than Never? Part #1 - Nashville

There are a few dramas on ABC which I did not watch from the beginning but suspect might be worth my time. In this series, "Better Late Than Never?" I watch a few episodes of a show and let you know what I think as a latecomer. Was I better late than never?

Part #1: Nashville

Overall impressions: I have watched the past three episodes of Nashville, and I'm hooked. In "I've Been Down That Road Before," it was the song Consider Me that glued my eyes to the screen. What's great about this show is the fact that it's willing to take a hard look at the entertainment industry, but in a new way. Not as reality trash, or as a CW soap, but as a well-scripted, masterfully-acted drama. By the time the plot really got moving in "There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight," I was invested in the characters' lives. And that's thanks in no small part to the stellar acting from every member of the cast. Hayden Panettiere and Connie Britton deserved those Golden Globe nominations. And in my opinion, Nashville is worthy of an Emmy nod as well. You may be thinking that a show about a rivalry between a seasoned professional and a young star isn't for you. What if I told you it wasn't about that at all?

Biggest asset: The music, which is no surprise, since the show's musical director is T-Bone Burnett. Buddy Miller is one of the music producers as well. To be honest, had I known those talents were behind this show, I would have started watching from the first episode. Nashville's soundtrack is already in my Amazon cart. Panettiere and Britton's musical chops make their whole characters entirely believable. But it's Clare Bowen that really wows me. Listen to this:



What I missed as a latecomer: Some relationship set-up. Because I didn't see what held it together in the first place, I lack a little bit of context as Rayna and Teddy's marriage falls apart. Similarly, I'm a little lost as to why I, as the viewer, am supposed to care about Avery's storyline. It seems to be peripheral to the plot that matters. 

The Verdict: Better Late Than Never? 
Definitely. This show has become a staple of my weekly TV schedule. Not only that, but I hope to catch up on what I missed over the summer. I'm thrilled that I found this show during its first season. I'll admit I am nervous to get too excited. ABC is quick to drop shows that are this expensive to produce. I learned that lesson the hard way when I fell for Pan Am. I can only hope that more viewers find, as I have, that this show is worth watching, even if they haven't been watching it up 'til now.