Nashville, 2012.
Created by Callie Khouri.
Starring Connie Britton, Hayden Panettiere, Clare Bowen, Eric Close, Charles Esten, Jonathan Jackson, Sam Palladio, Powers Boothe and Robert Wisdom.
SYNOPSIS:
Fading Nashville singer-songwriter Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton) agrees to go on tour with teen sensation Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere), who is determined to become the new queen of country. The two women take to the road with their personal and creative differences in tow.
Connie Britton vacates the Haunted House of American Horror Story, leaves behind the Friday Night Lights and says goodbye to the apocalypse and Steve Carell for the Country music scene, encountering professional rivalry whilst dealing with a tumultuous love life and guarding a secret that threatens a personal apocalypse much smaller in scope than her recent feature film outing.
Nashville’s saving grace is it’s unwillingness to descend into one-dimensional territory – the fading star versus young up and coming sensation. The Jaymes and Barnes narrative forms just one thread of the drama throughout Nashville’s first season, colliding with drama of politics, love and music to create a drama that is anything other than tunnel vision. Nor should it be surprising that at the heart of the drama is the relationship between two women, as creator Callie Khouri’s writing credits include the female driven films Thelma and Louise (1991) and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002); the latter Khouri’s directorial debut.
To her credit Khouri creates a complimentary cast of male and female characters, successful country guitarist, singer-songwriter Deacon Claybourne (Charles Esten) alongside aspiring musicians who we follow through the highs and the lows of trying to find success in the capitol of country music. Khouri exploits these aspiring characters to offset the highflying Jaymes and Barnes, creating an ensemble piece that even takes a break from the music scene to instil a little political intrigue with the always compelling Powers Booth as Nashville’s elite power broker and Rayna’s father Lamar Wyatt.
If the tangled webs of the casts relationships don’t already give Nashville a bite of darkness, the political intrigue, machinations and deceit adds this touch of spice, though in a place where the characters walk a line between success and failure, non-political intrigue and self-preservation inevitably gives the political side of the show a run for its money.
Whilst filled with a number of fine performances Charles Esten as Claybourne, Clare Bowen as Scarlett O’ Connor, Robert Wisdom (The Wire’s Bunny Colvin) as Coleman Carlisle, Michiel Huisman as Liam McGuinnis and JD Souther as Watty White, Hayden Panettiere despite billed second steals the spotlight from Britton.
Excessive to insinuate Juliette being one of those characters you love to hate, nevertheless she is the type who can compel a strong dislike and yet can immediately invoke feelings of sympathy. Nashville’s emotional heart is split between the flawed Juliette and the aspiring singer-songwriter Scarlett O’ Connor, the Cinderella of Nashville.
Britton represents both the genial country star Juliette and Scarlett may become but her character is deliberately positioned opposite Juliette, serving as an example of the mistakes the young and ambitious pretender should sidestep. We will Juliet on her quest to become both this genial person as well as discovering her musical and professional freedom to move beyond her pigeon-holing as a teen sensation.
If Juliet is the emotional heart and a dual good and evil, representing a possible journey of redemption throughout the seasons to follow, the moral ambiguity remains in the grasp of the scheming Powers Booth, with that all too familiar subtle and ominous voice.
Nashville is undermined by dreamlike or fanciful moments which feel decidedly awkward, and forced by the pen of the writer and further still by the cast.
Nashville may be a stronger show with a darker edged Rayna James. However, she and Juliette represent two sides of the same coin, and already at her destination the edgier persona is left in the hands of the young sensation. Without Juliette, Rayna would struggle to headline the series, and whilst Rayna is a more conventionally sympathetic lead, Juliette is the more compelling character with more potential for growth whilst Rayna is limited to the repetition of past mistakes.
With a score that could well send viewers scuttling off to explore country music, Nashville borders on a musical television series minus the dance numbers, and with enough intrigue and drama to maintain interest, Nashville is a solid and entertaining new addition to the television roster, though one that fails to put a dent in the current television heavyweights: Borgen, Boardwalk Empire, Endeavour and Sons of Anarchy.
Paul Risker is co-editor in chief of Wages of Film, freelance writer and contributor to Flickering Myth and Scream The Horror Magazine.
Originally published July 15, 2013. Updated November 6, 2019.
