If you're not watching this show, shoot yourself in the foot. Seriously, it's that good! But for those of you who have been hiding under a rock and don't know what this show is about, have no fear for I am here.

Nashville is a new original show on ABC about the exciting, drama filled world of country music stars and how they handle their careers, love, family, and everything else under the sun.

Now, before you go rolling your eyes, hear me out. Yes, it focuses on country music and while there is nothing wrong with it, sometimes it's not everyone's cup of tea. However, speaking as someone who has very little experience with country music, the songs on this show are completely phenomenal. They will have you singing along with 'em, going onto iTunes or wherever you get your music to put it on your media player. Because they're that good.

The show revolves around two major players, hence the picture above, which is Rayna James played amazingly by Connie Britton, and Juliette Barnes played surprisingly by Hayden Panetierre. (I'll get to the reason why it's surprising a little later.)



Rayna James is country music's star. Her career has always been clean and her music has charmed music lovers everywhere. She conducts herself in a very lady like fashion, she doesn't treat her band members as just her employees, and with that sweet Texas drawl, she still knows how to get what she wants without stepping on anyone's toes. This doesn't mean that she's some pushover. If things get tough, Rayna is more than capable of handling herself. But what makes Connie so perfect for this role is that she's able to bring a certain charm to this role. She's a middle aged country music star who hasn't really lost public affection. With anyone else, it would be too sweet or too charming. Like drinking too sweet lemonade. It just makes your teeth hurt and makes your eyes cringe.

On the other hand, you have Juliette Barnes. She represents everything new and shiny. She's the new money to Rayna's old money, if you want a Great Gatsby reference. Ha! A lot of critics have been referencing her to Taylor Swift, just because she's young, with a good voice and music that people actually want to listen to. She has a legion of young female fans who once camped out during a video shoot because they loved her that much. The surprising point comes in that it's Hayden! She's always had this sweet girl persona and Juliette is anything but. Juliette is a spoiled, entitled, delusional young woman who thinks she's bigger than she actually is. And that's what makes it so entertaining to watch! I think it was a very smart casting choice to put Hayden in this role. And I think she took it because she wants that clean girl image to go away. She wants to be taken seriously as an actress and the way to do that is to take a role such as this one.

And what a role it is! Juliette represents everything young. She loves her life, she loves boys, she loves to have sex, she loves to sing, and she doesn't care who she has to step on in order to get what she wants. And it makes for great TV. I'm completely enchanted by Hayden's choice to play this character the way she does. Juliette has come from a broken home, with a drug addicted mother, and she fought and scrapped in order to get on top. So in a lot of ways, her behavior is understandable but it's not excusable. She thinks that a woman of her caliber deserves to have everyone bending over backwards to win her over, companies should fight one another to sponsor her and have her be the face of their products. She also thinks it should just come naturally without sweet talking the execs first and it can get pretty heated when people tell her that that's not the way the industry works.



The hook of the show is these two ladies going at it. Rayna is a queen in her own right but her sales are way down. It's not enough that moms and select older women are buying her albums. She doesn't have a foothold in younger audiences the way that Juliette does. And on the other hand, Juliette has gotten completely out of control. It's gotten to the point where her manager doesn't know how to reign her in anymore. She's become this uncontrollable diva who needs to be put in her place. And by the crux of season 1, the owner of Rayna's company puts Rayna and Juliette in the same tour hoping to get Rayna a new fan base and for Rayna to show Juliette that she doesn't have to kick and scream her way to the top, she can arrive gracefully if she dishes out more sugar than vinegar.

What I would have wanted more from this show is just more interaction between Rayna and Juliette. In the very first episode, it's clear who these characters are and how it's going to be between them. Juliette is forced to talk to Rayna after her time on stage and Juliette tells her that her mom used to listen to her music while Juliette was still in her belly. That was a jab at Rayna's age as well as two jabs at her career. That is was dated and it was only for moms or people who love a classic country music song. That alone just tells you how icy the relationship is, but then they didn't really interact with one another besides very brief moments and not until the middle of the show when they had to co-headline a tour. With this much rich material to choose from, I would have liked there to be more moments where they clash heads. There was a moment when they were trying to pick a song to play and ended up writing a completely new one that was particularly memorable, it was still not enough.

Obviously, I could go on and on about just the dynamic between these two characters but there are other characters. Usually, I like my shows with a finite amount of characters so that it's one central story. If there are so many characters and storylines to pay attention to, I feel like it takes away from the show. However, there are a bigger number of characters than what is usually accepted. It's not overwhelmingly big, you can still pay attention and keep track of everyone's story, and I like that.



First and foremost, there's Deacon Claybourne played droolingly by Charles Esten. I don't know where they found him, but thank the TV gods that they did. Deacon is this scruffy, delicious guitar player who has been Rayna's rock since the dawn of time, and they are fantastic together. Rayna sings, Deacon plays. But their chemistry on stage is what draws most of the awe's from this fan because they just work so damn well. The way they look at each other as they're making music, it's hard to imagine that they're not together in real life. There's one thing I can say about this show is that it's full of delicious drama and most of that stems from Deacon and Rayna.

Rayna and Deacon used to date. But like a musician cliche Deacon was addicted to drugs and it brought them down. He checked himself into rehab and Rayna left him. Mean and cold yes, but she had her reasons. And she went off to marry Teddy Conrad played by Eric Close and don't even get me started on that man just yet! But ever since then, they'd been dancing around each other. Deacon never got into anyone else because he still loved Rayna. Now that's devotion! And though Rayna doesn't want to admit it, Deacon will always be her number one love.

But then here comes Juliette. Ever since the first episode, Juliette has done anything she could to steal Deacon away from Rayna. She's bought Deacon a guitar, offered him big money, bought him a dog, threw him a huge birthday party, slept with him, and he finally went over to the dark side, unfortunately. But  still, she went through a lot of trouble to get her claws into him. Deacon plays at this famous cafe where he used to play with Rayna and Juliette's biggest dream was to play with him. But....I'll let you watch this show what goes on there!



What I Don't Like:

Then there's Teddy. He's a giant axx and I'm sorry to Eric Close, he plays him so well that I just cannot like his character. Critics were asking themselves if his storyline was even necessary. And I have to agree. He has this separate political storyline where he runs for mayor, gets in league with Rayna's estranged father, and then goes head to head with a family friend with dirty politics, and all kinds of other things. It was all a little too much and really uncessary. With just Rayna and Juliette alone, they have enough material to last at least 10 seasons.



There's also a completely different sideline story with two young musicians who fall for each other. There's Gunnar Scott played dreamily by Sam Palladino (who's really British!) and Scarlett O'Connor played by Clare Bowen. A lot of people have been saying that they don't like their storyline and they think that it's not necessary and that they believe Scarlett's voice is annoying. I completely disagree! (however her voice can get a little grating just a little.) But I like that this show not only shows what happens when you try to stay on top or try to stay current, I like that it shows hopefuls trying to break into the industry and how hard it actually is. And they're so adorable together! Don't you just love young romance?



And finally, there's Scarlett's ex boyfriend, Avery Barkley played by Jonathan Jackson. While he is sorta cute, I find absolutely no use to him. He was mean to Scarlett and he broke into the industry and he learned the hard way of just jumping in with a new manager and contract because they wanted to change his sound. I get that he's the bad side of the industry, but I still see no use to his character. And I'm that first to say that I don't like useless characters. Hopefully, this upcoming season they find something for him like going out with Juliette. That would be something!



Welp, there's another review for you. I'm sure the first season is available on Netflix or Hulu and season 2 is coming up soon so now that you're done reading, go watch it! Have a great day!