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Nashville |OT| Britton, Panettiere, Khouri

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The Pilot is now available on Hulu!

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Wednesday 10/9c on ABC

Plot:
Music legend Rayna Jaymes reigns as the Queen of Country, but after two decades, her grip on the throne is slipping. Rayna refuses to be steamrolled by her record label as they present a new arrangement. And in the face of an evolving industry, Rayna is struggling to adapt and reinvent herself, which she must do if she plans to stay relevant.

Juliette Barnes is sexy, sassy, and trails trouble in her wake— she’s also the country’s #1 crossover artist. In her climb to the top, Juliette's public image is threatened by circumstances she struggles to control. And while she is determined to sit on Rayna's throne, Juliette refuses to deal with her difficult past.

Offstage, things aren't much smoother for Rayna. Her father, Lamar Wyatt, Nashville's most influential businessman, continues to complicate her life. Their strained relationship is defined by years of resentment and secrets that come to a head when Lamar and Rayna’s sister, Tandy, push Rayna's husband to run for mayor. For husband Teddy Conrad, this marks an opportunity to share the spotlight with his wife instead of continuing to be the man behind the woman.

The city of Nashville is the stage for many hopefuls: Deacon Claybourne, Rayna's longtime bandleader whose unrequited love for Rayna prevents him from claiming success if he went on his own. Scarlett O'Connor, the beautiful and gifted songwriter, who's here to support her boyfriend Avery's talent while still unsure of her own. Avery Barkley, a struggling alt-country musician, who can't help but feel left behind when his girlfriend Scarlett's songs have a chance to find an audience before his own. And Gunnar Scott, a wholesome up-and-coming crooner, who finds a musical soulmate in Scarlett, coming in between her relationship with Avery.

Nashville is Music City U.S.A. It’s where today's top recording artists lay down tracks while tomorrow's undiscovered talent fight to be heard. With the backdrop of a thriving contemporary music scene, and a tense mayoral race, "Nashville" takes us into the cutthroat world of music and politics, showing what it really means to become a star and stay one.
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Characters (from left to right):

Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere)
Nothing’s come easy to Juliette. With an absentee father and a troubled mother, Juliette basically raised herself. She’s damaged, but driven, and just three years after she left Alabama for Nashville, she’s become the #1 crossover artist in the country, with two sold-out tours and twenty million downloads under her belt.

But Juliette wants more: She’s looking for respect, bigger success and someone to fill that void in her heart. If her past success is any indication, she’ll get all three... just don’t get in her way.
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Deacon Claybourne (Charles Esten)
It’s hard to imagine Rayna Jaymes on stage without Deacon at her side. Twenty years ago the two teamed up as songwriters. She became a star and he became her band leader. At that time, they were also a romantic couple but there’s a reason that Rayna and Deacon couldn’t stay together: Deacon has demons that make a stable relationship impossible.

For the past twelve years, their partnership has been strictly professional, and Deacon has always been there whenever Rayna needed him. He’s loyal, talented and also self-destructive, unable to claim the solo success that could await... if he were ever to go his own way.
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Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton)
After two decades of topping the charts, Rayna Jaymes’ career has begun to wobble: Her last album tanked and ticket sales are soft. But Rayna is not ready to surrender the crown as the “Queen of Country.” Rayna’s going to try to reclaim her career, all while juggling the responsibilities of being a mom to Maddie and Daphne, and supporting her husband, Teddy, who’s trying to rebuild a career of his own.

Rayna remembers a time when it didn’t used to be this hard. In the early days, she and Deacon would write together, and within months those songs would ring out on radios across America. Those days seem distant now but she's not giving up. Rayna Jaymes has still got something to say.
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Gunnar Scott (Sam Palladio)
Hard working, wholesome and big-hearted—Gunnar's wide-Texas grin says it all. But don't let his aw-shucks demeanor fool you: behind those pearly whites is a mountain of talent, ambition and charm. This young man didn’t come to Nashville to just run the soundboard at The Bluebird Café, nor did he leave his friends back in Austin to spend three years knocking on doors without success.

Gunnar’s here to break it big, and with Scarlett he may have found his singing soulmate.

All he's got to do is figure out how to keep her.
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Scarlett O'Connor (Clare Bowen)
Scarlett grew up on a farm near Natchez. Miss., never dreaming she’d become a performer like her uncle Deacon. She instead gravitated toward poetry, and her love of writing earned her a scholarship to college, where she met her boyfriend, Avery. She then followed Avery to Nashville so he could chase his musical dreams, which Scarlett fully supports—in fact, she’s Avery’s #1 fan.

Scarlett’s loyal and sensitive, but she’s also stronger than she looks. It's a strength she'll need, as she wrestles with her newly discovered musical gifts—a talent she didn’t know she had and isn’t sure she wants.
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Coleman Carlisle (Robert Wisdom)
For 11 years, Coleman has served on Nashville’s Metro Council. Through hard work and dedication he's built a strong political base, but Coleman’s biggest backer has always been Lamar Wyatt, who employed Coleman’s mother as a housekeeper and who paid for Coleman’s college and law school. Coleman saw Lamar as a surrogate father and never dreamed that Lamar would cut him lose—until Lamar did recently for questioning the soundness of a new baseball stadium for Nashville.

It’s a new rift that’ll test Coleman's resolve, character and family ties. It might also eventually cause him to turn on the mentor who made his success all possible.
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Avery Barkley (Jonathan Jackson)
Avery’s a dead sexy East Nashville hipster with tons of talent—and the swagger to match.

He’s been in Music City two years and feels like stardom is long overdue. Avery’s passionate and headstrong, and he writes alt-country songs that the critics will love—if they ever get a chance to hear them.

For now, music means grinding out local gigs and hustling his demos. It’s tough, humbling work, but thankfully he’s got Scarlett at his side. She's a supportive partner, and helps soothe his frustrations with a music business that doesn't yet know it needs him.
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Teddy Conrad (Eric Close)
Teddy and Rayna first met as kids, part of Nashville’s country club, cotillion crowd. Teddy’s family boasts a proud history of public service, but Teddy’s father faltered because of alcohol, and Teddy’s accomplishments have been scattered as well. While he’s had some success in business and real estate, his last land deal nearly cost the family their savings.

Today, Teddy’s looking to hit the professional reset button and shed the “Mr. Rayna Jaymes” labels. He’s down, but not out, and looking for a win.

He’d do just about anything to get one.
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Lamar Wyatt (Powers Boothe)
Industrialist. Philanthropist. Kingmaker. Lamar Wyatt is Nashville.

Some folks respect him. Others fear him. Lamar doesn’t care which you chose, just as long as you don’t get in his way.

Thirty years ago, Lamar’s wife died, leaving him a widow and single father to his two daughters, Rayna and Tandy. Today, Tandy works at his side and is the heir apparent to Lamar’s fortune and business empire. Rayna, in contrast, hasn’t seen eye to eye with Lamar in years, and to call their relationship strained would be an understatement.

Still, Lamar sees himself as a family man; and if he and Rayna have problems, it’s only because he’s tried too hard to protect her—his way.

In Lamar’s house, father definitely knows best.
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Media:
Hulu page
Trailer (Youtube)
Original music written by John Paul White of The Civil Wars, Hillary Lindsey of Lady Antebellum, and Elvis Costello
Interview with show creator Callie Khouri
Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere interview about Nashville

Stills:
as-rayna-james.jpg

hayden-panettiere-on-nashville.jpg

connie-britton-on-nashville.jpg


Episodes:
1x01 Pilot
Rayna is a country singer, who is very famous. Her tour is not selling as quickly as thought, so to save money, her company wants her to be an opening act for Juliette Barnes. Rayna's company tells her either to go on tour with Juliette or leave the label. Juliette is revealed to constantly be called on the phone by her mother, who is a drug addict and wants money to feed her drug needs. Juliette tries to lure away everyone close to Rayna, including snaking three songs from her, that were going to be hits.
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1x02 "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)"
TBA
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1x03 "Someday You'll Call My Name"
TBA
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There are ads for this all over the subway. They picked a really unflattering picture of Britton for them. She looks like she's trying to take a dump.

ABC-Nashville-Poster.jpg
 
Connie Britton is the queen of tv (recent emmy winners can move to the left) so I'll check this out. Seems like better material than AHS. That seemed too trashy for my beloved.
 
Dabanton said:
Nope. It's a great show.
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One of the worst things I saw on my TV screen last year. We can keep this going if you'd like, but there was absolutely zero appealing aspects of AHS besides some great casting and nice set design. A writing travesty. AHS: Asylum looks even worse.

I'm glad Connie is finally free from Ryan Murphy.
 
What bizarro world did I wake up in for AHS to be called a "great show"?

Nashville's trailer is better than that abortion of a show.
 
I don't like country music at all, but due to all the praise I will give this a shot. New drama shows have been disappointing this season, so hopefully this is a winner.
 
Just a reminder the premiere in on ABC tonight at 10/9c!

Of course if you watched any ABC over the past week then you would know that they have been advertising this pilot like crazy. Here's hoping it's a hit.
 
Sepinwall - Nashville

ABC didn't make additional episodes of "Nashville" beyond the pilot available for review, so I don't know if this team will be able to keep the series both sharp and sudsy, whether Burnett will be able to find enough new songs each week that sound like plausible country hits, nor whether the show will continue to humanize Juliette just enough that she's not a cartoon vixen. But this is a very good start. When you put Mrs. Coach onstage at the Grand Ole Opry, it would be hard for it not to be.

B+
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Mo Ryan - Nashville

Perhaps "Nashville's" most surprising accomplishment is that it sort of invents its own genre: It's a high-class entertainment that takes its locale and its characters seriously and treats the audience to some enjoyable music along the way (and that's what you'd expect when the music supervisor is T Bone Burnett). Of course, this show could go the way of "Smash," which had a great pilot, but soon took several enraging left turns into Idiotville. The difference is that "Smash" tried to convince us that the low-wattage Katharine McPhee could carry a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe, while the ladies here (who sing their own music) are far more credible as performers and stars.

We don't know what the future holds for Juliette and Rayna, but like a singer on stage at the Grand Ole Opry, we should just enjoy this moment while we can.
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Poniewozik - Nashville

As a confirmed Smash detractor, you might think I’d be turned off by a show that, on the surface at least, is essentially Country Smash. There’s a rivalry between two singers, country veteran Rayna James (Connie Britton) and rising pop starlet Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere), who clash when the record label puts the slumping Rayna on Juliette’s tour as the opening act. There’s backstabbing and conniving, as Juliette aims to poach Rayna’s guitar player, contributing family entanglements and a city-hall subplot, this time involving Rayna’s husband and her estranged daddy, Nashville big-wheel Lamar Hampton (Powers Boothe).

But unlike the glitzy but stylized—and ultimately shallow—Smash, the pilot of Nashville quickly established a real and lived-in feeling that goes beyond the local landmarks. Whereas Smash’s Karen never became more than a generic heartland ingenue, Britton’s Rayna has soul, charm and the kind of earthy realism the actress gave Tami Taylor in Friday Night Lights.
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Tim Goodman - Nashville

All in all, it’s an entertaining hour of fine acting, writing and ambition. Even if you’re not a country music fan, the rest of Nashville is singing a different, intriguing tune.
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I just got around to watching the pilot from hulu/abc.com. That was some damn fine good television. The cover at the end is great.

They keep this up and I'll be hooked.
 
I definitely liked it. I'm from Nashville so it is admittedly pretty cool to see so many familiar places in the show. Connie Britton is pretty awesome too. :)
 
10 minutes into the pilot. It's very hard to watch. Not sure if that's because I'm from Nashville and know its laughable how they treat my city or if it's just bad. I'm tryin, folks. Seems kinda neat, but I am bias.
 
I liked it! The script was pretty run-of-the-mill, but I thought that the acting was quite good; it definitely elevated the so-so writing. Connie Britton is far better in this than she ever was in American Horror Story. Hayden Panettiere and Powers Boothe were also impressive.

The songs were catchy for the most part, and I could definitely see some of them as genuine country music hits. Britton and Panettiere's pipes are adequate, but clearly the real vocal star is Clare Bowen. She was really good.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the juicy, soapy storylines they set up will pay off down the road.
 
The older lad has been singing for 20 years and she doesn't have money put aside? let alone being able to buy her house outright?
 
Prologue said:
The older lad has been singing for 20 years and she doesn't have money put aside? let alone being able to buy her house outright?
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It sounded to me like her husband used their savings on a business deal that went south or something along those lines.

I thought it was great! In for Mrs. Coach alone really, but I thought the music was excellent (and I don't like country) and the storylines seem like they'll be pretty interesting. My fiancee thought it started slow and that they maybe introduced too many people too quickly but she liked the second half of the episode. I was sad for Bunny Colvin. :(

xtrasauce said:
I'm ashamed to say I never watched Friday Night Lights.
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It's fully available on Netflix Instant. Fix this. Immediately.
 
I kept wanting for the show to go full Friday Night Lights, as in documentary level camera work. Connie Britton's acting is so geared to expressing a full range of emotions that can be picked up by a camera lurking in another room, through a window, etc. Chip Esten I feel is comforable doing this too, based on his work on The Office. But in contrast, Hayden's acting (or perhaps the way she's chosen to play her character) is more suitable for close ups and soaps*.. super expressive and cartoonish, almost like caricature, i.e. not subtle. Two clashing styles, I think. Maybe that'll work for the drama, but for me it feels like the show is being pulled in multiple different directions .. not unlike many pilots - still feeling out what the core of the show is.

I think the heart of the show was maybe the scenes at The Bluebird Cafe. Too many close ups - the show's cinematography showing its lack of confidence - but it's like that bar/watering hole where all kinds of people in different stages and walks of life interact. Budding dreams and waning talent and people just trying to cash in. It's got potential. I hope the writers/showrunner(s) are willing to really shake things up and not stick to a well-worn road.

*Not to knock Hayden, her acting would be head and shoulders above soap actors.
 
This was worth watching just to hear Connie Britton utter "ya'll" on my tv screen again. *swoon*

Thankfully, there's an actual enjoyable show here, unlike the abomination that was American Horror Story, so i don't feel guilty tuning in mostly for Connie. Powers Boothe is going to be a great villain.
 
New episode tonight in 10 minutes!

1x02 "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)"
As Teddy's compaign progresses, Rayna must endure an investigation that reveals family secrets.
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