What can I say? I'm not a country fan, but there was plenty for me to like, namely having the uber-awesome Connie Britton back on my TV! I have loved her since Friday Night Lights and, while I loved her in American Horror Story, I've missed her southern twang and her awesome "y'alls." Thank you Nashville, for giving those back to me.
The show revolves around Rayna James (Britton), an aging country star whose current album isn't selling as well as she likes. Or as well as the record label would like. Now she's being asked to co-headline on a tour with Juliette Barnes, played by Hayden Panettiere (co-headlining is code for being an opening act, btw). Juliette is a young crossover artist with mass appeal. Picture her as kind of a slutty Taylor Swift and you're there.
I've never really been a Panettiere fan and her turn as the conniving, spoiled Juliette is not helping matters at all.
I was worried the show would be a TV version of Gwyneth Paltrow's Country Strong, where she plays a used-up country star trying to rebuild her career while staying clean, but up-and-comer Leighton Meester is dangerously close to eclipsing her fame.
There is some of that storyline at work here, but Nashville is about a lot more too. There's Juliette's junky mom who calls begging for money, thus reducing her daughter to tears. And then there's Rayna's power-hungry, hard-as-nails father played perfectly by Powers Booth. I took an instant dislike to this man. I am looking forward to seeing him get his comeuppance. And then there's her husband, forced to live in her shadow until her father convinces him to run for mayor. And her band leader, who is apparently a former lover.
It's a tangled web Rayna is caught up in and I could easily find myself getting hooked in as well. Nashville is soapy, but in the best way possible. And with music supervised by renowned producer T Bone Burnett (he's worked with BB King, Elton John, Tony Bennett and John Mellencamp to name a few), the show is sure to launch more than a few radio hits.
If Nashville holds up to everything the pilot promises, we'll be visiting these ladies for quite a while, and I, for one, am ready for the trip!
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