The Agency's Posts

NBC confirms Jimmy Fallon will replace Jay Leno in 2014: Ending weeks of gossip and speculation, NBC confirmed thatJimmy Fallonwill succeedJay Lenoas....
Read More>

'Game of Thrones' renewed for fourth season: While its future wasn't in much doubt, fans of HBO's lavish fantasy series"Game of Thrones&
Read More>

Justin Timberlake tops album chart with 968,000 copies sold: He didn't quite hit the million-sold mark, though he came awfully close. Capping a....
Read More>

'Croods,' 'Olympus' rise at box office. CBS eyes TV Guide Network.: After the coffee. Before the matzo ball soup. The Skinny:I'm in D.C. forPassover, and it....
Read More>

Review: 'Olympus Has Fallen' a remix of standard action fare: Antoine Fuqua's White House-under-siege thriller doesn't add anything new to the genre, and....
Read More>

'Phil Spector,' on trial: HBO's movie about the record producer's murder trials distorts the truth and serves only to....
Read More>

Review: Justin Timberlake's 'The 20/20 Experience': It’s not hard to figure out whyJustin Timberlakehas been pushing an old-school vibe in....
Read More>

MGM plans for a new Bond movie 'within three years': MGMStudios plans to send James Bond on his next mission sooner than later, announcing Wednesday....
Read More>

'Burt Wonderstone': Has Carell made the most of post-'Office' life?: Steve Carellleft “The Office” for the same reason most actors do: to concentrate....
Read More>

'Spring Breakers' has virtues in its vices, critics say: Despite the initial shock over alt-film provocateurHarmony Korineteaming up with....
Read More>

Gerard Butler on Sacrificing His Life, Declining the '300' Sequel and His ... Bar Mitzvah: Gerard Butlerhas seen these kind of odds before. The Scottish actor stars in the March 22....
Read More>

Comedian Dave Chappelle resurfaces and speculation begins anew: After joking with Chris Rock about a possible tour at a recent stop at New York's Comedy Cellar,....
Read More>
Television review: ABC's 'Nashville' is bold, ambitious and fun
Posted on: 10/12/12
Share/Save/Bookmark
 

Connie Britton and the music are among reasons to watch Callie Khouri's drama about a country star pressured to team with a young artist (Hayden Panettiere.)



When an Oscar-winning screenwriter makes a show for network television, people take notice.

When she decides to situate it in the world of country music and enlists the aid of a legendary (and Oscar-winning) country songwriter, musician and producer T Bone Burnett (who also happens to be her husband), well, now pretty much everyone's looking. So by the time she up and casts one of television's most currently beloved stars, a woman of apparently boundless heart and versatility, Full Critical Attention has been achieved.

For months now, the assumption has been that the title of best new drama of the season is "Nashville's" to lose, and if the pilot is any indication, the show is not in a losing state of mind.
 

Created by Callie Khouri ("Thelma & Louise"), "Nashville"stars Connie Britton as Rayna Jaymes, a country superstar faced with a fading demographic, a conniving plutocrat father, a flawed marriage and a Taylor Swift-ian young nemesis.

As the story opens, she is confronted by an increasingly familiar pit and pendulum: Her artistically fine but commercially challenged new album and tour are not hitting their projected sales quotas, prompting her record company — the label she built, for heaven's sake! — to demand she pair up with Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere), the auto-tuned hot young thang who rules the airwaves.

"Unfortunately, the older business models have become irrelevant," says the maddeningly arrogant new CEO when Rayna asks for a little payback for her years of service.

It's a brilliant line, and one that makes Rayna's battle our own — who among us does not feel that our own personal business model has become irrelevant? (ABC certainly does, as it has already made the pilot available on Hulu, iTunes and its website.) Not that with Britton in charge we needed too much convincing.

TIMELINE: Fall TV premieres and trailers

A woman who can go from "Friday Night Lights" to "American Horror Story" without missing a beat or losing her luminous humanity is a force to be reckoned with, and "Nashville" would be worth watching if for no other reason than to see Britton shine. (Watch how she says the simple word "no" when the combined tour is first suggested to her.)

Fortunately for us, there are plenty of other reasons as well,including the music, which is woven into the fabric of the narrative in a manner more evocative of "Treme" than "Glee."Burnett has enlisted A-listers like John Paul White and Elvis Costello to write for the show, but most songs are not sung in their entirety, and when they are, the action still works around them. (Singles, beginning with one co-written by White, will be released weekly through Swift's label on iTunes,)

The setting too is worth noting. Hollywood in general and television in particular have trouble with the South, which is too often portrayed in desultory broad strokes as one big backwater where, rich or poor, folks are rendered incomprehensible and culturally unconscious by cracker accents and small-mindedness. (The failed "GCB" comes to mind.) Khouri, who has roots in Nashville, is clearly trying to remedy that — this being a pilot, there are broad strokes aplenty but even with a few familiar figures, the colors they wield are shaded and complex.

In addition to being a superstar, Rayna is the still-rebellious daughter of Nashville's former mayor, Lamar Wyatt (Powers Boothe), a man determined to control all he sees, and if that control requires the use of Rayna's down-on-his-luck husband Teddy (Eric Close), then so be it. Never the family breadwinner, Teddy is no longer pulling his weight, meaning that Rayna's career crisis is as much financial as it is emotional — they have the big house to maintain and two young daughters.

It's also more fraught than perhaps even Rayna realizes. Young Juliette, plagued by demons of her own, isn't just young and ambitious, she's vindictive. Using her feminine wiles, as well as her bottomless bank account, she makes a play not only for Rayna's producer but also Deacon (Charles Esten), Rayna's bandleader, best friend and general man who got away.

Mirroring the Rayna-Teddy-Deacon triangle is a trio of young folks working their way up through Nashville's famed Bluebird Cafe: Deacon's niece Scarlett (Clare Bowen), a songwriter-waitress; her current beau, the country hipster Avery (Jonathan Jackson); and the man and musician she should be with, Gunnar (Sam Palladio)

"Nashville" is big, bold, wildly ambitious and great fun, with top notes of Robert Altman's "Nashville," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "All About Eve." More important, for all the plaintive twangs and knowing references to the Bluebird Cafe, there are moments of bare-naked and universal truths.

Art, no matter how folksy, is power, demanding a single-mindedness that easily slides into cruelty, and when we chose to live among the people who know where the old breaks and soft spots are, even unintentional cruelty can prove lethal.

But if the music lasts and the show is this good, what does that matter?

 
COMMENTS
Be the first to post a comment!


Post A Comment:




  • It's 2020! Start booking roles in commercials, fashion, films, theater and more with The Agency Online!

  • NEW WORKSHOP with Barbara Barna & Sean De Simone!

    Hi Everyone and Happy Summer! Sean at Sean De Simone casting and Barbara Barna are teaming up for a super informative and fun Hosting for Home Shopping workshop. A great opportunity for established or experienced TV Hosts and Experts interested in learning how to get noticed and how to get in....
  • MASTERCLASS W. Robin Carus & David John Madore

    A Special Offer for the Agency Community, from one of our favorite NYC Casting Directors! EMAIL FacetheMusicWithUs@gmail.com Or Eventbrite To Sign Up! Class Size is Limited.
  • Don't Fall Into The Comparison Trap

    Hi Everyone! As the second installment in an ongoing series of features by the Agency's amazing community, here's some sage advice from our own Regina Rockensies; a humble (& awesome)veteran we've had the pleasure of working with for a long time. Have an excellent week! : ) - The Agency....
  • One Model's Agreement

    Hi Everyone! As the first piece in an ongoing series of original articles by the Agency community, here's a short reflection on some of the values of professional acting & modeling that we can all keep in mind for our next casting. Good luck on your castings &shoots this week! : ) -....




 
home       castings&news       privacy policy       terms and conditions      contact us      browser tips
Official PayPal Seal