{"id":604,"date":"2013-01-24T01:22:24","date_gmt":"2013-01-24T06:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briari.net\/blog\/?p=604"},"modified":"2013-02-19T01:05:55","modified_gmt":"2013-02-19T06:05:55","slug":"potential-new-guilty-pleasure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briari.net\/blog\/2013\/01\/potential-new-guilty-pleasure\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential New Guilty Pleasure"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"nashvilleimage\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m flirting with a potential new guilty pleasure. I’ve started watching Nashville<\/a>. The jury is out on whether it will become my guilty pleasure. I love country music. I like drama. I love soapy dramas. I have since I was a child. I’ve been a fan of Dallas, Dynasty, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, One Tree Hill, Brothers & Sisters and most of the daytime dramas.
\nI’ve enjoyed Jonathan Jackson since he was a child (former GH fan so I’ve watched him grow up). His character is extraordinarily nasty. A little too nasty for my taste, but nasty with a purpose. It makes sense to a certain degree. I would prefer to see more dimensions to the character. The scripts of the shows I’ve seen haven’t seemed to offer many opportunities for him to show much more. I hope the character and the actor grow in depth.
\nHayden Panettiere. I can basically take her or leave her. She is a pretty good actress, not bad at all for a young actress. When she nails a role I enjoy watching her performances. When her performance is a bit off, the issues are magnified because she is capable of really fine acting. On this show I feel she is a bit off. To me she is overdoing her character Juliette. I imagine her portrayal is thoroughly accurate, but it is out of balance with the rest of the show. Unfortunately, Juliette seems to be constantly having temper tantrums like a toddler instead of struggling with the pressures of fame, a vicious business, a lack of guidance, retention of childhood issues, and the issues of being a young woman. Her character has a lot on her shoulders and complex issues. Its a lot for an actress to communicate. I believe Hayden has the talent to manage this character. There’s a range required and I don’t know that I’ve seen her perform every aspect required, but I think I’ve seen her do enough to bring the character to life. Unfortunately her previous ensemble experience was on a show that was cartoonish in character. Its unfortunate because it is not appropriate for this show so she is in unfamiliar territory (or should be in unfamiliar territory with this character in this type of show).
\nCharles Esten as Deacon is my favorite. His character feels real. I quickly fell in love with the character and find myself cheering for him to come out on top. I look forward to his scenes. Now understand this has nothing to do with his looks. I don’t find him particularly attractive. He is a relatively handsome guy, but not to my taste. My affection is for the character of Deacon and his portrayal.
\nConnie Britton as Rayna is fine. The wonderful thing about her character type in this type of show is that she doesn’t have to be absolute perfection to successfully pull it off. Since its an ensemble she needs to lead the show, carry her share of the load without fading into the background. She has experience with this type show and does an admirable job. I miss the glamour shot lighting other soapy dramas bestow on their stars and would like to see Britton get the fuzzy-love treatment. Gotta love a tough lovable chick.
\nPowers Boothe is Powers Boothe as he should be. As a dastardly southern good-old-boy patriarch he gets the job done.
\nI don’t understand Rayna’s sister’s character, Tandy Wyatt, nor her purpose on the show. She seems to be acting as the stand-in trophy wife which is more than a little creepy. I think her character is extraneous right now and will be plugged in in the future when some of the surplus actors\/storylines \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the weaker links \u00e2\u20ac\u201c have been discarded.
\nThe storyline with Gunnar is weak and seems to be wasting a character with potential and a passable actor. He doesn’t have star quality, but seems to play well with others. I’d like to see his character remain, though it needs reworking somehow.
\nMichiel Huisman is doing a lovely job as Liam. His character is fun and brings the heat. The character’s interaction with Juliette and Rayna has been successful for me. Saucy is good and fun. He could be a strong, ethical character to counter to craziness of the world they inhabit. That’s not to say he couldn’t fall of the ethical wagon occasionally, but overall he could be the voice of reason, the source of common sense and honesty in a world gone country.
\nEric Close is Eric Close. Hiring him is like hiring Tim Daly \u00e2\u20ac\u201c you get what you pay for. He is and has always been bland. As the antagonist to Deacon’s protagonist, Teddy should be ‘born to be mild’. He also does gullible well, so Close is well casted.
\nRobert Wisdom is thoroughly enjoyable as Coleman Carlisle. The character has not received a lot of screen time, but is memorable. His character is the foil of Boothe’s Lamar Wyatt, going from acolyte\/partner to adversary. Works for me, though his many stated years with Wyatt raises ethical questions that can be answered in episodes to come.
\nClare Bowen as Scarlett O’Connor is a total nightmare. Her accent and vocal delivery are beyond dreadful. Her look is straight out heroin chic. The role seems like it could be incredibly juicy for the right actress and Clare Bowen is definitely NOT the right actress. She is so bad in this role it brings down the quality of the entire show. The character’s behavior is so far out of the realm of reason I find myself wondering if the character is drugged or breaking down mentally. That role needs recasting as soon as possible. Deacon’s niece who falls into the music business while supporting her boyfriend and discovering her abilities as a songwriter and singer is a character with a future. We could see her character face the choices that Juliette and Rayna might have faced on their paths to the top which would give us further insight into those complex women. Her character has the opportunity to play both sides in the learning process and add juicy elements to each storyline. The unbelievably na\u00c3\u00afve, dumb, deep thinking, frightened blonde who looks 35 and acts like a mentally challenged 17 year old has no place on the show.
\nThe pacing is off on Nashville. The show doesn’t flow. The dialogue is frequently stilted. Then again I am a southerner, though not from Nashville. I am used to hearing southerners speak though and used to the rhythm of the language. The non-southern actors have yet to find that rhythm. Initially the shows contained full song performances. Those were torture. The songs on the show are not strong enough, the singers aren’t strong enough, and the action isn’t hot enough to tolerate the lull created by the long, long, long singing segments. It started to feel like an infomercial for the album from the show. One Tree Hill had some musical segments in a couple of the seasons and I often found myself fast-forwarding through musical segments if I was watching a recording of the show. I would stop when the characters were speaking, then fast forward again when the crap song was playing \u00e2\u20ac\u201c if it was a crap song. When the songs were good I didn’t fast forward, but I usually looked forward to the end of the singing. I’m a huge music fan. I have eclectic tastes. BUT I’m a fan of good music, interesting music, music that moves me. I love pop music, but it needs to be good pop music. That might sound like an oxymoron, but it isn’t to me. If you have talent, real talent, special talent, that’s all it takes. Gavin McGraw has talent. Love him! Loved his songs on One Tree Hill. Tyler Hilton \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not so much. Much fast-forwarding and muting. So far the musical performances on Nashville have me muting them live and living with missing the dialogue or fast-forwarding when recorded and stopping if Deacon or Rayna are speaking. I am a massive fan of country music and have been for decades. Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Miranda Lambert, and Gary Allan are phenomenally talented. I love them so much! Taylor Swift. Well, I’m guessing the character of Juliette is based on Taylor since various characters constantly comment on her lack of talent, her young audience and her meteoric rise to the top. Taylor Swift is one of those people who make me immediately change radio stations or turn off the sound. I detest her stuff. Unfortunately that means the similarly styled stuff sung by Juliette in Nashville strikes all the wrong chords also. I’m hoping the musical numbers will be condensed as the show continues. At this point hearing the intro to a song and maybe a line or two and the outro should suffice. Now, if an actual recording artist makes a musical appearance that furthers the plot lines that’s a totally different scenario.
\nRight now everything is rough around the edges, but quite a few of my guilty pleasures didn’t get good until the second or third season and this one has potential. I cheer for Callie Khouri. I’m a fan of her work. I love the concept of the show. I’m a country music fan, a sudsy drama fan, a feminist, and a fan of good television. I hope for the best and, for now, will keep watching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m flirting with a potential new guilty pleasure. I’ve started watching Nashville. The jury is out on whether it will become my guilty pleasure. I love country music. I like drama. I love soapy dramas. I have since I was a child. I’ve been a fan of Dallas, Dynasty, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, One … <\/p>\n

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