[S03.E09: Two Sides To Every Story]

I think Jonathan Jackson and Sam Palladio are probably good friends and clearly just love singing together, and with Clare Bowen, and it shows.

They are, and Chaley is Sam's girlfriend in real life, which I guess should make things even better - but Sam and Clare are just so damn good at selling their love story on stage, it can hardly be beat by anything.

[S03.E09: Two Sides To Every Story]

 I wasn't that interested in Terry's story line, but I like the idea of Scarlett as a manager. 

I just have a hard time seeing Scarlett manage anything apart from her own wardrobe, but then I remember that she's actually been pretty good to her relatives, so...

Jeff was actually not a jerk for once.  Who knew he had that in him?  

The writers love the redemption storylines, you know.

 

Well if the goal was to make the audience hate Rayna, they've succeeded with this viewer.

They've always written Rayna as an asshole and then they expect the viewers to like her anyway just because she's supposedly such a "strong woman". The issue here isn't the audience hating Rayna, the issue is the writers hating the audience, and men in general for that matter.

I liked Scarlet performing with the band, but someone really needs to help her with her, er, dancing? spontaneous movements?

I actually think she's extremely cute on stage and she has some mindblowing charisma.

I just want to burn all of Scarlett's clothes. I just want to set her entire closet on fire. Throw the wig in too.

*cough*... You do know that's not really a wig, though? :-D

Scarlett's gaunt face is distracting but seeing her back performing in the trio is the only time I enjoy her.

It seems almost everyone, including those who don't like the character, agrees with this. Scarlett happy on stage beats Scarlett moping around on the verge of a psychotic breakdown every day.

Clare Bowen rocked the scene on stage with Gunnar and Avery.  She was luminous!  Scarlett is so talented, she just had to get over her fears.

And I will be glad for Zoey to be gone.  She adds nothing and is in the way of Scarlett and Gunnar.

Co-signed, and co-signed. Though you know they will put other obstacles in the way of them, because according to Nashville's unwritten golden rule, no two characters who are truly in love may ever be happy together.

I thought they were ready to have a threesome on the stage with Scarlet. They all had such great chemistry.

Sheesh, I'd pay good money for that ;-D

 

For me, the show has a very different feel lately. It's the short scenes, which allow for more time with all the characters, and it's the zany moments that don't seem to fit with the Nashville I remember. And, again, I have to point out all the "y'all"s and twangs that seem to be coming from everyone's mouth that didn't seem to be there before. I think Gunnar and Scarlett always had an "accent", but it feels like everyone else is trying too hard.

That's because neither of them are even American so they've had to learn the Southern accent since the start of the show thus they have had more time to practice on it than anyone else, plus they have both got a very good ear for voices.

[Nashville Spoilers and Speculation]

I am sorry but I just had to share this...

 

I would like to draw your attention to a post I made in the S&S thread on Fanforum half a month ago:

 

So in the tradition of Nashville storytelling I will now do my best to spoil the entire S/G storyline for the remainder of the show.

Step 1. Zoey is eliminated via Baby Contrivance #3 in the form of Kiley/Micah. Kiley is then eliminated via Mistaken Case Of Father Identity #2.

Step 2. As a result Scarlett and Gunnar are parked in the Friend Zone for People Who Dated Each Others' Besties but become BFFs and start writing music together again.

Step 3. The show introduces a new romantic interest for Scarlett in the form of Regular Guy With No Background In The Music Industry (hereby referred to as "Gunnar Distraction #3" or "Teddy Wannabe #1".) He may be a male nurse that Scarlett meets during her stay at the hospital taking tests for Deacon's liver transplant, loosely modelled after Peter Petrelli in "Heroes".

Step 4. Scarlett pursues the relationship and confides in Gunnar who is playing the Cyrano character being secretely jealous while insisting everything is fine.

Step 5. Gunnar Distraction #3 turns into Zoey Copycat #1 getting paranoid over Scarlett and Gunnar's songwriting connection and eventually calling her on it. Scarlett, in an angst-filled epiphany, realizes her true feelings do not lie with Teddy Wannabe #1 but with Gunnar, and breaks up.

Step 6. Gunnar and Scarlett marry and the series is cancelled.

I wonder if I called it?

 

http://www.fanforum.com/78632318-post212.html

Now, posted two days ago on TVLine:

Nashville Adds Hot, Mysterious Doctor in Season 3 — But for Whom?

http://tvline.com/2014/11/11/nashville-season-3-spoilers-new-doctor-juliette-avery/

It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

[S03.E06: Nobody Said It Was Going To Be Easy]

I still think it's odd that people think it's so natural to make out with your future stepbrother.

 

I think it's odd that people think it's odd.

 

This is a cute boy/girl that you've met two or three times whom you have no biological connection to. Then your parents are going to get married and suddenly all thoughts about "wow, I'd really like to hit that" go straight out the window? I don't buy it, and these things happen all the time.

[S06.E06: The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get]

It's not about friend-zoning nor even has to do with whether one of them murdered another's friend and everything to do with Stefan taking advantage of Caroline's feelings for him so he could continue in his vein of being selfish and wallowing. Then when he got his brother back and he was all, "whee, let's go back to the way things were before!", Caroline was perfectly within her right to tell him to piss off.

Well, then I am perfectly within my right to point out that the only reason she's that annoyed over it is that she's in love with him and the guy can't seem to get a hint.

It doesn't matter anyway. Simple plot contrivance to make them end up banging each others' brains out.

[S06.E06: The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get]

I've been wanting the writers to take advantage of the Caroline/Stefan chemistry since season 2. That said, while I'm pretty sure Caroline wants to be more than friends, I'm glad she told Stefan to take a hike. He's been a real shitheel to her and if he wants her forgiveness (and more!), then he needs to earn it first. He can start with some nice groveling.

Bah. Caroline is "so hurt," I hear around. Come on, what show are you watching here? This is Mystic Falls where people forgive each other all the time for murdering each others' friends and family. Caroline was just pissed off at Stefan for friend-zoning her.

[Nashville Spoilers and Speculation]

You have to remember we've been fed a steady stream of crap lately that doesn't make much sense and I feel most people will just be happy they get rid of "Ruke" and have J/A marry.

[Nashville Spoilers and Speculation]

Has Deacon's illness been shot or can we hope that they just might dump that idea? I hate how they worded it seriously ill. If the spoiler had said Deacon is ill I would feel better.

I have a hard time imagining that they would not go through with the stuff since that's like, well, the basic idea of the story arc of the show, and there haven't been many people who have complained about it.

[Nashville Spoilers and Speculation]

Had the episodes already been shot when the info was leaked?

[Nashville Spoilers and Speculation]

So what are the spoilers??

Juliette marries Avery and they are very happy. Luke doesn't marry Rayna. Deacon gets seriously ill. I think that covers it.

[Nashville Spoilers and Speculation]

Yeah, it was literally everything verbatim. Definitely unprecedented--it gave away all major plot points/cliffhangers of the winter finale!

I thought it could be intentional to keep people watching, but when a couple of people from the show tweeted the link they were very quickly shut down and the tweets were deleted. Now said people are denying the spoilers are true.

Who knows?

Yes, a lot of the hardcore fans of the show have been extremely disappointed with this season's general direction, and I feel that the criticism is warranted. It felt like "hey, please stop, we're getting away from it."

 

However the real problem the way I see it isn't so much Rayna marrying Luke or the show putting contrivance after contrivance in the way of Scarlett and Gunnar to get any meaningful relationship - even if I hate how they are doing it - as much as the completely unfocused storyline and the staggering amount of recurrings that become nothing but distraction.

[Nashville Spoilers and Speculation]

As much as I love spoilers, I'm a little uncomfortable with the amount of privileged sides information that has been leaked lately.

 

Now I don't really know but the huge leak that came out to spoilertv was unprecedented... Many people have speculated that it was intentional on the show's part?

[S03.E06: Nobody Said It Was Going To Be Easy]

I think it'll be a random new person.

Of course it will be. I mean, Nashville surely hasn't got enough recurrings :)

[S03.E06: Nobody Said It Was Going To Be Easy]

This, exactly this. That, and I think Callie was really enamored with Will Chase/Luke Wheeler, so whatever reconciliation story might have been there got shelved.

No. It was never about reconciliation. Precisely after the Big Lie blew up in her face, they had the car crash because Rayna should not ever have to deal with her own duplicity in any way.

[S03.E06: Nobody Said It Was Going To Be Easy]

She's really lying to herself, big time. Wonder what, if anything, will force her to come clean? Or will we just find out that Luke's a jerk and have Rayna go back to being everybody's queen without batting an eye?

Do you really think Nashville will ever make Rayna say she's sorry about anything? Treating the men around her like shit is just another way of her being a Strong, Enabled Woman.

[S03.E06: Nobody Said It Was Going To Be Easy]

That murder plotline, which pretty much everyone who watched that show hated, was one single soapy ridiculous storyline on a show that was otherwise brilliant. And I'm just like...if she was bugged by the murder on Friday Night Lights, I can't help but wonder what the frak she thinks about this nonsense. And I don't understand why she doesn't have the sway to try to fix it. But maybe either she doesn't care or I overestimate Connie Britton's pull.

It's just what you said. The murder was one single storyline. The bad writing on Nashville encompasses all the show.

[S03.E06: Nobody Said It Was Going To Be Easy]

 

Telepath: The thing with Scarlett and Gunnar was so strange, not because it never happens (record labels are somewhat notorious for trying to pull lead singers out of bands), but because it made absolutely no sense. Scarlett and Gunnar's music is gorgeous together. There's no way anyone would listen to them and go, "Hmmm...yeah, the girl rocks but that boy is a loser." So yeah, contrivance.

Yeah, it was strange on so many different levels.

 

First you have to assume that Scarlett, who has never shown herself to be a fame whore on any level, would be okay with ditching her songwriting partner, who she just managed to hook up with after a fair bit of trouble; a guy she is quite obviously madly in love with.

 

Second you have to assume that Watty White (?) endorsing them as a duo would mean absolutely nothing, as well as all the other people who were practically dropped flat by their performance at the birthday party for Deacon.

 

Third the thing that he did not show up to the meeting after his brother had just been murdered would suddenly be a deal breaker and would certainly not merit a reschedule.

 

Like I said, I could buy all the storylines on the show up to that point. This is where they really jumped the shark.

[S03.E06: Nobody Said It Was Going To Be Easy]

MisterS: it's definitely gotten worse. I started rewatching from season one in an attempt to figure out why in the world this show is still on and I still watch it, and back them, it really was good! I'm only on about episode eight, so I'm not sure when it all goes to hell, but I really think it wasn't until last season sometime. Maybe it was the pork blood? Or the murder? Or when they committed to Luke? But at the beginning, it truly was good, a character-driven drama that didn't drown in cliches, had great music, had well rounded characters, was well acted, and was interesting. And I actually cared about all the main characters! They've really blown it with this show. What a waste.

They blew it the instant they decided to have Edgehill offer Scarlett a solo contract behind Gunnar's back. That was the most ridiculous plot contrivance you could ever think about, and it destroyed their dynamic, followed by a complete character assassination of Gunnar over the next episodes in order to create synthetic drama. That was the point where they apparently decided that pointless soap clichés were more important than having the couple generating by-far-and-away the best material staying true to character, staying together and keep doing just that.

 

I watched the show with my friend a few weeks ago up to and including episode 14 of season 1. Afterwards he said, "well, that was actually really good." I haven't been able to stomach showing him any more episodes after that one.