Nashville - Season One (Wednesdays, 10pm on ABC)

[PeterG]

Lots of talk about this show in the TV thread. Figured it deserved it's own thread! Some links:

abc.com website

Wikipedia entry - includes episode list

imdb.com message board

Tried to do a hulu link, but I'm in Canada, so not only can I not watch episode from them, I can't even give a link to my U.S. friends! But you yanks should be able to watch episodes at the abc link, right? (Unlike us hosers... )

A couple of articles about the upcoming soundtrack release:

billboard.com: 'Nashville' Soundtrack Gets Dec. 11 Release

zat2it.com article: 'Nashville' soundtrack coming your way in December

[Wyliefan]

Thanks for this, PeterG!

[PeterG]

I'm listening to some of the songs that have made the top 40 on the country charts so far. Hayden's are my favourites:

Love Like Mine

Telescope

[HeatherC]

Best Nashville line of last night was Deacon's retort to Claire's "you don't like mah Avery": "Do you want me to give him a balloon every time I see him?" I was laughing so hard I had to rewind to catch the stuff afterwards. Glad to see Rayna taking control of her career and Juliette dating someone in her own age bracket.

Quoting dbell1 from the other thread because I wanted to agree with her but thought it was better to post it here!

I really liked that new song Rayna did with the producer and agree that her taking control of her career is a great step for her. Juliette was actually almost human last night which was a nice change and the football guy will be great for her reputation (and for her personally since he's a good guy). Not enough Deacon in this episode for me and maybe it's just me but I don't think Avery is a horrible guy. I think he's caught up between trying to support his girlfriend in her writing career and being jealous that her success seems to be happening so easily while he's been struggling for a long time. That can be a tough spot to be in but I do think some of his decisions and reactions to things are only going to come back and really bite him in the behind. I hope they redeem him a little bit soon because Jonathon Jackson is WAY too talented to be wasted as the bad guy in one of the side stories of this show. The political stuff doesn't interest me as much but having both sides heading into ugly territory does make things a lot more exciting there. Bummed there's no new episode next week but the new one after the holiday should be pretty awesome.

[Jenny]

Wheee our own thread!

I'm enjoying every second of this show. Love all the characters and actors, and like HeatherC, hope that Avery doesn't fall by the wayside as there's a lot of potential there. This is what I'm loving about the show - all the characters are complex.

Love Rayna's struggle to stay relevant, and Juliette's to be herself, whatever that might be. Don't mind the political SL at all - with the father in particular, I'm reminded of the classic nighttime soaps of the 80s, notably the fabulous Knots Landing. Every soap needs a character like him! I'm also interested in Rayna's sister - there's got to be more going on there.

And of course the music - definitely buying the CD, and will fill in downloads along the way.

[star_gazer11]

Ooh, our own thread.

Happy to hear about the full season. They were smart about the music from the start, partnering with Big Machine Records (Hollywood Reporter article) for the original music.

[PeterG]

Five episodes so far of Nashville and four songs from the show have hit the top 40 on the country charts:

25 – Fade Into You (Clare Bowen and Sam Palladio)
27 – If I Didn’t Know Better (Clare Bowen and Sam Palladio)
35 - Undermine (Hayden Panettiere and Charles Esten)
36 - No One Will Ever Love You (Connie Britton and Charles Esten)

Three others have almost hit the top 40:

43 - Telescope (Hayden Panettiere)
43 – Love Like Mine (Hayden Panettiere)
45 – I Will Fall (Clare Bowen and Sam Palladio)

I find it interesting that Hayden's songs haven't done better as I think her stuff is quite similiar to what Carrie Underwood has released. It also fits into the format of country radio more than the songs of Clare and Sam, whose work is more alt-country (Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Allison Moorer,etc.) which gets little (if any) respect from country radio.

[Wyliefan]

If it helps clarify things a little, they're not on the radio airplay chart. There's a new Billboard country chart that consists of country radio airplay plus pop radio airplay plus sales, and that's the chart they're on. (It's caused a lot of fuss among those who follow these things, because the main Billboard country chart no longer accurately reflects what's on country radio. So for instance, you now have Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever" etc., which actually did pretty poorly on country radio and was yanked some time ago, currently sitting at the top of the Billboard country chart. The actual country radio airplay chart is here.)

All that to say, on the actual country radio chart, "Telescope" is the only Nashville song that's charted that I know of. I'm not even sure any of the others were actually released to radio.

[Spareoom]

Don't watch Nashville, but I gotta love it because it has Chip Esten in it. Dude is hilarious; ever seen him in ABC's "Who's Line Is It Anyway?"? So thumbs up for that!

[Allskate]

I was surprised that they managed to get T Bone Burnett to do the music for the show. Then I found out that he's married to the show's producer.

I like Clare Bowen's singing voice the best. Singing voice. Her speaking/acting voice seems overdone.

[MarieM]

I loved "If I Didn’t Know Better (Clare Bowen and Sam Palladio)" the best of all the songs performed so far. It has a little something I really like. And I am still waiting for something similar to happen to the show. We'll see !

[Wyliefan]

Normally I love Scarlett's singing, but she just murdered "Ring of Fire." That's one song where you gotta stick to the melody.

[HeatherC]

I thought the show was really great tonight overall and I loved that final duet between Rayna and Juliette. I assume Rayna listened to the CD that Deacon gave her which is what made her think that the two of them could write something together. They are so going to end up touring together and using Scarlett & Gunner's songs somehow at some point during this season and if they can keep up the whole "being able to work together but still snarking about/towards the other one" thing going for a while, then it will be highly entertaining! I'm so enjoying this show and I hope the ratings and DVR updates keep going up because I think they could go a lot of different directions with the cast and stories.

And I agree that "Ring of Fire" was not Scarlett's finest moment, LOL

[Wyliefan]

I loved the duet too, except that the instrumentals were overpowering the vocals. I wonder if that was just a problem with my TV, because I just watched the video at ABC.com, and everything was nicely balanced there.

Also, I wonder just how many "I hate you" expressions Hayden Panettiere has in her arsenal. I swear we saw at least twenty in that first scene with Rayna.

That really was a nice moment with Juliette and the Tebow character, BTW. It's been obvious for a while that she uses sex as either a power play or an opiate. The thought of taking something slow and having a guy interested in more than just a quickie really threw her, but I think it did her some good.

[genevieve]

Tebow guy is so forgettable that when she was trying to have sex with him I thought it was some guy she'd just picked up on the corner

[Wyliefan]

I have that problem with a lot of the men on this show -- or at least a similar problem: I have trouble telling them apart. I still think it was a mistake to make all the main men brunette and all the main women blonde. (Even though the blonde thing pretty accurately reflects the real-life country scene!)

[genevieve]

I can tell the other guys apart just fine (except the guy dancing with Scarlett looked a lot like Gunnar, but I think that was deliberate), I just think that character is very two dimensional compared to everyone else on the show.

Last night's ep in general was one of my least favorites - seemed to just push some of the storylines along. But if it sets up for a stellar "winter finale" (as ABC is referring to all of next week's episodes before the holiday break), then it's served its purpose

[Jenny]

And I agree that "Ring of Fire" was not Scarlett's finest moment, LOL

I think y'all (!) are being a bit hard on Scarlett's rendition of Ring of Fire. This wasn't a performance, it was a slightly drunk girl high on dancing and sweat jumping up to take the mike for a minute and doing a better job of it that most of us would. Certainly not a song that I want to add to my iPod and listen to over and over, but certainly not offensive either

Also, I wonder just how many "I hate you" expressions Hayden Panettiere has in her arsenal. I swear we saw at least twenty in that first scene with Rayna.

Yes - she is rather good with the looks of death - could be an ice dancer!

I have that problem with a lot of the men on this show -- or at least a similar problem: I have trouble telling them apart. I still think it was a mistake to make all the main men brunette and all the main women blonde. (Even though the blonde thing pretty accurately reflects the real-life country scene!)

I'll give you that all the men have brown hair, but in fact only two women are blonde. Two are redheads (including the star of the show) and we have three brunettes in feature roles.

And I have no trouble telling the men apart

[Jenny]

Here's an interesting article about the house they are using as Rayna's home

One point of note - they were filming in the house for the first three eps, and then when ABC ordered a full season, they replicated the interiors in a soundstage.

Here's the real estate listing - $19.5 million!! And also the listing for Juliette's new house - a bargain at $2.75 million

[Wyliefan]

I'll give you that all the men have brown hair, but in fact only two women are blonde. Two are redheads (including the star of the show) and we have three brunettes in feature roles.

I usually think of Rayna as a blonde. A strawberry blonde, maybe. Sometimes there's just a very fine line between blonde and red.