For me, the show was really hurt this season by Hayden Panettiere’s absence. I kind of hate how her character oscillates between interesting and cartoonishly evil, but one way or another she energizes the show whenever she’s on. I am pretty sick of everyone else: Deacon has turned into a boring loop, Rayna is another boring loop (and, sorry, I love you Connie Britton, but you can’t sing, and there’s never been a Queen of Country Music in real life who couldn’t sing paint off a wall), Scarlett is a loop, Gunnar is a loop, Layla has Panettiere’s Syndrome – a sympathetic character except for her flashes of satanic evil. Basically, all the women are evil except Rayna, who is the world’s wimpiest diva.
I like Luke Wheeler, though, even if they had to change his character completely to make that happen. And I liked last week when they finally gave Will more depth than the distance between the closet door and the back wall.
Another thing that hurt the show somewhat this year was following Empire, which is really about 90% the same show in a different color, and with much, much better clothes. I am losing patience with Empire, too, but every week, about half way through Nashville, I think, “How much music industry/family soap opera do I really need to watch?”
Both shows have been scrimping on the best part, too: the music. I’ll forgive anything for a few good songs every week, but they haven’t been delivering reliably. Last week, Connie Britton sang two verses of a song, and that’s always a mistake. Maddie’s audition was awful (as it was supposed to be for the plot, but they could have made it awful with a good song). The couple bars they showed of Avery’s song were alright, and I don’t remember if we every really got to hear the song Gunnar wrote with What’s-Her-Name.
Re Smash: Megan Hilty is suddenly everywhere, and Katherine McPhee is decorating some other show and dating her co-star. They seem to be fine.
