<p>So, I started a robust thread almost two years ago about Parenthood that’s still going strong. Did anyone watch Nashville tonight? I really liked it and was pleasantly surprised that it lived up to the hype. </p>
<p>Connie Britton was fabulous. The music was great. I can’t see Hayden P without thinking of the little girl from Remember the Titans. And now, she’s sleeping with Ray, one of her dad’s players! ;)</p>
<p>Let’s see whether this show – and thread – has legs.</p>
<p>Loved Connie! Loved Hayden! I even loved the music and I could swear I hated country music.</p>
<p>I watched it mainly because my daughter lived in Nashville for the past two years until recently moving. We visited her there when we went down for her graduation this Spring. It was fun seeing recognizable places on the show. Looks like lots of characters and story lines to follow. My son said something funny though - when they went into the Blue Bird Cafe he said something about there not being many bars that only allow models in. Every single person there was very attractive. He tends to watch more Breaking Bad kind of shows…</p>
<p>I meant to, but forgot. They’ve been doing so much local shooting. Guess it would be nice to see some of what’s messed up some of my commutes :)</p>
<p>Disappointed. I thought it was more Dallas than Nashville (and maybe more Falcon Crest than either). The characters seemed like walking cliches, and there wasn’t one I really wanted to know more about. The believeability dial was set to “preposterous”.</p>
<p>Good: The final duet in the Bluebird Cafe felt legit, although no one had been writing those lyrics as “a poem”. Loved seeing JD Souther as the crusty old songwriter he is. Powers Boothe looked like he was having a great time chewing the scenery as the Embodiment of Pure Evil, and he had by far the best line of the show. (“You see me as your enemy, but don’t make that a two-way street. My enemies don’t fare so well.”) I do like Connie Britton a lot. The relationship between her character and the sister seemed like it might yield something interesting.</p>
<p>Bad: But Britton wasn’t remotely convincing as a reigning queen of country music. It took me half the show to tell the guitarist and the producer apart, and I could have sworn they were the same actor, alternating days when he shaved and didn’t shave. Not a single scene rang true as actual human social interaction. The music (except for the last duet) was completely blah. And it suffered enormously by comparison with that other “Nashville” – Robert Altman’s – which used many of the same characters, and tried to do many of the same things, and was 100 times better in every respect.</p>
<p>I thought it was great. Connie Britton is fantastic, I loved her in Friday Night Lights and American Horror Story and i thought she played her newest character brilliantly. Hayden did a fantastic job playing the villainess. </p>
<p>Although I was born and raised and still live in the Midwest I have always loved the South.it makes me happy to look forward to getting my southern fix one hour a week!</p>
<p>JHS- the cast of Nashville and its fans only hope that the show compares to Dallas, “walking cliches” or not I hope it does that well.</p>
<p>Huge fan of Connie from FNL. I enjoyed, it had some stumbling blocks but the conflict with her family - sister, father, husband is sure to be interesting. And then there is Hayden, wow has she grown up. I agree with previous posters, my favorite music part was the Blue Bird Cafe scene - more what I would expect in Nashville and I am curious where they will take that dynamic. Will keep watching.</p>
<p>I have it Tivo’d but haven’t watched yet. Is it any more than another remake of All About Eve?</p>
<p>I wish that they had made some of the male characters different looking. All brunette’s, I couldn’t figure out who was who. Was the husband the guitarist or the producer. I found out neither. It was confusing. Went to Wikipedia to see the cast that’s how confusing it was.</p>
<p>I liked it though. I think it will get better once the storylines even out. They had a lot to introduce, tons of character’s, ton’s of story lines. Could have probably used 2 hours to get everything in.</p>
<p>I agree that a lot of the guys looked the same, which made it confusing. Thankfully, they were all good looking.</p>
<p>Britton is a Dartmouth grad.</p>
<p>[TheDartmouth.com:</a> ?Nashville? star Connie Britton ?89 sits down to discuss her new show](<a href=“http://thedartmouth.com/2012/10/11/arts/britton]TheDartmouth.com:”>http://thedartmouth.com/2012/10/11/arts/britton)</p>
<p>The husband wasn’t the guitarist or the producer. He was the whiny one at home who apparently just went through some kind of business bankruptcy, which of course qualified him to run for mayor. The husband hasn’t slept with the Hayden Panettiere character (yet, but the chances he won’t are slim). The husband wears a suit and tie sometimes, and is slightly more baby-faced than the other identical-looking men.</p>
<p>The producer is the one who shaves regularly, and slept with Panettiere first. He also doesn’t ever carry a guitar around, and isn’t openly carrying a torch for Britton.</p>
<p>The guitarist looks exactly the same, except he has permanent stubble and plays guitar a lot. He is in love with Britton, always has been. That’s why it took him until the second half of the first show to sleep with Panettiere.</p>
<p>Then there are the two young guys, who both like the same girl, neither of whom has slept with Panettiere yet, although she made it clear to one of them that he had only to ask. The “bad” one has sideburns and uses big words sometimes. The good one has no sideburns, is slightly cuter, and has an “aw, shucks” manner. He’s the great guitar-player, songwriter, and amateur psychotherapist. We’re supposed to like him a lot. He hasn’t even met Panettiere, yet.</p>
<p>Panattiere’s character makes me uncomfortable. I have a D her age, and thank heavens D is nothing like THAT!!! Yeah, I know … it’s only make-believe. I just can’t turn off the mom-ness enough to enjoy it.</p>
<p>JHS - LOVE your summary! I don’t know the actors from their other shows except for Hayden in Heroes, so was getting the producer and guitarist mixed up. I could tell they were different people when one was at the gate and one was in the bed, although again channeling Heroes, they could have been the same person from different times. I could tell the husband apart, but the two young guys were a bit trickier to distinguish.</p>
<p>Even though I’m not a country fan, I enjoyed the show - took me back to the evening soaps of the 70’s. The father had one line that sounded just like it came from Dallas; can’t remember what it was but all I could think was JR!</p>
<p>
Exactly what I posted on the thread about the new TV season! It’s the same screwed-up family/sexy industry formula. But there are a lot of people out there who didn’t live through the 70’s era of hour-long soaps and will see Nashville as something new. Connie Britton deserves better than this kind of melodrama. I thought the scene where she stomped out of the record label office and the one where she and her ex had a “moment” outside were so overdone. And Hayden Panettiere’s character is one giant cliche. As for the music, I’m not a fan of country, but I do have ears, yet I have no idea if Connie actually sings better or Hayden’s songs are truly crappy. It all sounded heavily auto-tuned and like every other country song I’ve ever heard. I don’t know whether the networks are incapable of producing quality dramas or just think they won’t garner good ratings, but I find that the only hour-long shows I like are on cable.</p>
<p>My test for all the new shows this season has been: would I rather watch this or read a book? Books are winning all the matches.</p>
<p>I’m so glad to know that others got the male characters mixed up. I was really looking forward to this show but I felt sort of lost at times due to character confusion.</p>
<p>Yes, the husband is whiny, and is played by Eric Close from Without a Trace and Suits. The lead guitarist is Charles Esten, who has been in tons of tv shows for the past twenty years.</p>
<p>I have to admit that I was looking forward to this show but it left me very disappointed. Powers Boothe is perfect for the role of Lamar (of course, his name is Lamar!) and was probably the highlight of the show. The Juliette character is written as such a caricature, it was painful to watch. One thing I did enjoy was Clare Bowen’s duet at the end of the show. She’s a very talented singer and will likely be my favorite character on the show if I continue to watch. I hope they let her sing every week. She was in the Australian production of Spring Awakening with a friend of my daughter.</p>
<p>I really expected more of Callie Khouri. I’ll give it a couple more episodes but I really hope that the writing improves.</p>
<p>I loved pretty much everything about it and so did Nashville based D. Her only criticism was that she didn’t think a Nashville native would be wearing the Loveless Cafe shirt around town that Rayna was sporting, that it was a touristy type of shirt. I love country music, love Carolyn Khouri (she may be Callie now nationally, but she’s still Carolyn to many people where I live), loved Connie Britton and the other actors, and the Nashville views. I thought the duet at the end was especially good. My family laughs that I like lots of “common” things - Impressionist art (which art history major D claims is considered very pedestrian among true art connoisseurs), Riesling, and a chain restaurant or two. Maybe I have low standards or maybe it’s what MOWC said and having a Nashville experience makes the show better.</p>
<p>I enjoyed the show and so did H, which is great since there hasnt been a weekly drama we have watched together since FNL!</p>
<p>We watched the show because S now lives in Nashville! So far, he really likes it. Has a great apartment right in the City. Was surprised at all the City has to offer.
(Not just related to Country Music…)</p>
<p>(We wanted to see if we recognized any sights. We did. )</p>