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Nashville, which originally aired for six seasons on ABC and, later, CMT from 2012-2018, has arrived to Netflix. The series, which co-starred Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere as rival country music stars of different generations dueling for popularity, was created by Callie Khouri and, for the first season, all of the music on the show was executive produced by Khouri’s husband T-Bone Burnett. The show’s many storylines were pure melodrama, but with much of the music written by some of pop and country’s best songwriters, the show was elevated and invigorated by its catchy sound.
NASHVILLE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: After a long montage of some of Nashville’s most iconic landmarks, the show officially opens on country music star Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton) chasing her daughter Daphne (Maisy Stella) down a hallway in their enormous mansion with her husband and older daughter in tow. Rayna has curlers in her hair and is getting ready for a performance at the Grand Ole Opry.
The Gist: Rayna Jaymes is a 40-something country legend who’s an amalgam of the biggest women in country: thinks Faith Hill, Reba McEntire, Bonnie Raitt. The daughter of a local millionaire named Lamar Wyatt (Powers Boothe), Rayna comes from privilege, but still manages to be down-to-earth and sensible, although her ego is bruised as the series begins, because her stadium tour isn’t selling, nor is her latest album.
After her performance at the Opry, Rayna’s record label execs sit her down for a hard talk with two terrible options: cancel the tour, or combine it with the tour of the hottest young performer in Nashville today, Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere). Not just combine the tour: Rayna would be opening for Juliette. Barnes is the It Girl of country-pop crossover music at the moment, but if you’re looking for comparisons to Taylor Swift, you’re out of luck. As played by Panettiere, Juliette is delightfully wicked and opportunistic. She has no respect for the path that Rayna paved for her, witheringly taking a dig at Rayna’s age when they meet for the first time by telling her that her mother was a big fan. Juliette also resents Rayna’s wealth, having come from much more humble beginnings, and struggles to keep her distance from her addict mother.
While the pilot episode sets up the dynamic between Rayna and Juliette that will ultimately push them together as unwilling, unhappy tourmates, we also meet the ensemble that feeds all the B and C stories (and who will all eventually become main characters as the seasons move along). There’s Deacon Claybourne (Charles Esten), Rayna’s longtime touring guitarist that Juliette wants to poach from her, and who has had a romantic history with Rayna — the two are still flirty, but married Rayna knows she needs to let him go. Deacon’s niece, a poet named Scarlett (Clare Bowen), has recently arrived to Nashville with her boyfriend Avery (Joshua Jackson) and works at the famous Bluebird Cafe with another aspiring musician, Gunnar (Sam Palladio). We’ve also got Teddy Conrad (Eric Close), Rayna’s husband who is about to become the political puppet of her father Lamar when Lamar convinces Teddy to run for mayor of Nashville. Rayna, who basically hates her father, opposes Teddy’s decision, but Teddy is your classic emasculated husband of a more-successful wife and wants to get out from behind Rayna’s shadow. We’ve also got Rayna’s daughters, Maddie and Daphne (real-life musical sisters Lennon and Maisy Stella), who eventually pursue their own music, and pretty soon we’re going to learn that Maddie’s not Teddy’s biological child which is going to really muddy things for everyone.
The pilot sets up a complex and complete world of intertwining characters, and then, over the course of the show’s six seasons, it allows them all room to grow and change: villains become heroes, good guys turn bad, and for the most part, much of that feels earned and satisfying, but as with any nighttime soap, expect a fair amount of near-death car wrecks, plane crashes, stalkers, questionable paternity and murder-suicide.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Nashville came up during an era that was chock-full of melodramatic musical series, including Smash, Glee, and Empire which all came out within five years of each other. Though they all depicted very different musical styles and settings, it’s very much a show of that time, using music to push forward the melodramatic storytelling.
Our Take: I watched nearly every episode of Nashville when it first aired (although I believe I missed a few from the final season after Connie Britton departed the series), and I was a true superfan back then. I thought Britton and Panettiere’s rivalry was playful but cutting, the music was impressive, and because the show was filmed on location in Nashville and often featured actual country stars, there was an air of authenticity to it. Upon rewatch, I’m even more impressed by just how well-crafted the show is in every way, smartly setting up about a dozen significant plot points in the pilot that come to fruition later in the season in a big way.
The series obviously features some A-list talent, and while Panettiere and Britton are not the world’s best singers, they absolutely sell their performances, making us truly believe they’re some of the biggest stars in the music world. But if you’re looking for real-deal musicianship, it’s performers like Sam Palladio, Clare Bowen, Charles Esten and Lennon and Maisy Stella (and eventually in later seasons, Will Chase, Laura Benanti, and Rhiannon Giddens) who truly impress. The show’s crew is similarly stacked with talent: Callie Khouri, who may be best known for penning Thelma & Louise, created the series and its showrunners are all TV legends: Dee Johnson, Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick helmed shows like The Good Wife, My So-Called Life and thirtysomething. Which is to say that these are people who know a thing or two about how to invent a believable world inhabited by realistic characters, and that’s exactly how it feels watching the Nashville pilot; it is understood who these people are and just how the stakes are changing now that they’re all in each other’s orbit. A show about two powerful women bickering while on tour would get old quick, but with a vast pool of charismatic and talented characters to draw from, there’s a lot happening in Nashville to hold our attention.
Screenshot via YouTube Photo: YouTube/ABCSex and Skin: At one point we see Juliette covered only by a sheet after having had a quick romp in bed with her music producer. In another scene. she climbs on top of Deacon (full clothed) to hook up.
Parting Shot: Scarlett and Gunnar take the stage at the Bluebird Cafe’s open mic night and start to sing a song based on one of her poems, called “If I Didn’t Know Better,” a haunting ballad about making bad decisions. And in a montage, we see several people doing just that. Juliette, having invited Deacon over to write songs, straddles him and they make out. Rayna is seen dressed in a conservative dress and pearls as she walks onto the stage where her husband Teddy has just announced his candidacy for mayor. Rayna smiles at the crowd, but when she spots her sinister father in the crowd, a look of regret washes over her; she knows better than to get tangled in whatever these political plans are.
Performance Worth Watching: While Panettiere really stole the whole show with her often funny portrayal as Juliette, as far as supporting characters are concerned, when Clare Bowen and Sam Palladio perform their stunning duet at the end of the pilot, the dynamic between them is electric and they overshadow all the Rayna/Juliette drama.
Memorable Dialogue: “It wasn’t that long ago that I was the future of country music,” Rayna laments to Deacon as she seeks comfort from her old lover.
Our Call: Like many great shows, Nashville‘s popularity waned after a few seasons, especially when it changed networks from ABC to CMT and Connie Britton departed the show. But we shouldn’t let that overshadow just how good the show, those early seasons especially, really were. They were truly addictive television and this is one show that was made to be binged. STREAM IT!
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.
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