piratewench

Ick. I saw tons of friend chemistry between Deacon and Juliette, but I always squirmed every time they were in bed together. She really was young enough to be his daughter. I don't disagree that being the first woman after Rayna would be a hard place to be. I liked Jessie with Deacon though because they seemed more evenly matched, at least at first. One of the things about the Deacon/Rayna dynamic was that Rayna was clearly the alpha of that relationship. Deacon said it - they lived in her beautiful house with her daughters and she called all the shots. Yes, she loved him, but it was just the balance of power was never shifted towards Deacon. With Deacon and Jessie, it was a little more evenly matched and, in fact, it gave Deacon the opportunity to be the leader, so to speak. I went back and watched that scene again with Ilsa and I still thought it was awkward and random and saw no chemistry at all. But I think it's pretty safe to say she wouldn't have been the one either. I think it was going to take Deacon a while to get past what he had with Rayna and I'm okay with that.

I actually kind of liked an idea Chip threw out once, that life just goes on and new people inhabit the Nashville world. Kind of a nod to new blood as the old blood walks out of the Bluebird. I would keep Deacon though, as the wise label head and sometime performer, who continues to dole out his Deacon Man Wisdom. Maybe Daphne would stay around, because she's new to the label. I'd really like to see fresh, new characters, those people Rayna wanted to nurture. It would be a way for Deacon to carry on her legacy and keep her spirit alive but keep moving forward. I'd like him to have a new love interest too. Maybe someone in the music business, but not an artist. A songwriter is who I imagine him with. Someone who speaks his language, but doesn't have to be out front. Someone a little closer to him in age.

I thought there was some chemistry with Jessie, but I definitely agree on the blonde judge and Rachel Bilson and the other lady friends Deacon had. She wasn't a bad character, just because you think she was. Maybe she was needy and whiny. That doesn't make her a bad character. She had a purpose, even if you didn't see it. You didn't seem like you really liked anything about the show, though, based on all your posts, so I guess it doesn't surprise me that you found it all "bad". Why were you watching?

One final observation - I have noticed this everywhere. The people who actually thought Deacon had chemistry with the judge always prefaced it with the fact that they didn't like Jessie. So I have to assume the only reason they saw chemistry in that weird, random snippet of a scene is because they were just glad it wasn't Jessie. I liked Jessie, but was fine with them not ending up together. I had said initially that I thought Deacon needed more time and that he seemed a little pushed by Scarlett, primarily, to get back in the game. So hopefully he takes some more time to just let himself grieve. Like maybe four or five years. Then find someone more like him.

That is very hard. Tami and Coach presented a great married couple thing and I liked their dynamic, but Deacon and Rayna had that sexy thing going that, for me anyway, puts them in the lead.

I chose not to be critical about everything. It made for a more enjoyable experience, rather than spending lots of time getting angry about things I couldn't control. The writers were never the best, throughout most of the series. I always felt like each one kind of wrote from his/her own perspective and didn't tie it into anyone else's episode. And the showrunners didn't really seem to have an overarching plan, especially seasons 3 and 4. But I decided I would just go with it and enjoy the performances and the music and watch for local places I knew and pretend, when I was living in Nashville, that they were too. That I could walk around the corner and there would be Scarlett at Crema or the boys at Barista Parlor. Or I could go see Deacon at the Bluebird (I did do that!) or Rayna and Juliette at Bridgestone. I'll miss the show. Every bit of it.

My point is really that I never understood why that particular plot point was so important. There were so many other times throughout the series where they actually revised previously introduced backstory - and I'm not just talking about the last two seasons. Of all the dangling plot points to get worked up over, that one just didn't seem like the one to get all worked up over. Daphne didn't seem to mind. I was more annoyed at how many times they changed Deacon and Rayna's backstory. And that extended back to season 3.

Oh, I get it. I just continue to be surprised by the level of drama surrounding that whole thing. And particularly by people who probably weren't Teddy fans when he was actually on the show. It's just interesting to me that he's the one they can't let go of.

Well, she could go stay with Maddie in her place. Scarlett and her husband could still watch her. Or she could travel with Deacon. Or stay with a friend. And it's not that her father doesn't exist, but he doesn't live in Nashville and he doesn't want to come back. LOL

That was the one part I really didn't care for. The woman judge flirting with him seemed random and awkward and there was no spark there at all. I was glad it was not brought up again and she was nowhere to be seen in that final scene before he went onstage at the Ryman. As I imagine Deacon in the future, it's definitely NOT with her. I liked him with Jessie and I still, as I imagine how things might play out for everyone in the future, could see them maybe crossing paths again.

So the show is over. It will feel strange for a while, not having it there. I am not one of those people who stops watching a show because of a storyline. If, in my opinion, a show gets too crazy, I'll stop watching. I never did with Nashville. There were certainly storylines I wasn't crazy about - the whole Rayna/Luke thing that went on so much longer than it should have, Maddie's emancipation, Teddy's fun with hookers and back office shenanigans. Some characters tried my patience - Maddie at times, Scarlett at times, Rayna. Other characters were magnificent in the depth they brought to their characters and to every single storyline they were part of, no matter how ridiculous or weird - Deacon, Avery, Juliette. I got annoyed with all the times they changed backstory to suit a current storyline - Deacon and Rayna's most of all. But I stayed with it, suspending belief when I needed to, feeling all the feels when they touched my heart, letting a less exciting storyline just play out in the background. For all its ups and downs, I really loved the show and what it evoked. I'll miss the music. I have had a love/hate relationship with country music most of my life. I'm a rock 'n roll girl, through and through. But I loved the music. I loved it from every single character that delivered it. I didn't care if it was a 'rando' and I never got caught up in counting how many songs each character got. I felt like this was the part of Nashville, the real city, that the show got right. There are always people out there trying to make it. The barista at your Starbucks, the person who serves your dinner at The Southern, the busker in the McDonald's parking lot in Bellevue - they all have a story and a song and they're all trying to make it and if they flitted through our show, sometimes taking longer residence than others, than so be it. That's how it is in the real Nashville. The real Nashville isn't about 6 or 7 people, it's the whole rainbow of music that gets made there. I liked how they ended it. I think it allows each person who watched it to imagine what might happen to the characters after we leave them. Maybe Deacon stays single for the rest of his days, never able to find anyone who can fill that hole that Rayna left behind. Maybe one day Juliette will go back to making music, but in a different way. I loved the finale song and all the people who came back and even those who were part of the crew getting to celebrate that. I love that I got to actually experience what it's like to live in Nashville for four years. To see the real Nashville. That was amazing. Oh, and in my head, when Teddy got out of prison he decided he could never actually come back to Nashville, because of his disgrace. So he and Deacon worked things out, with Daphne, that allowed her to stay with Maddie and Deacon. Because Teddy didn't want to separate the sisters. And Daphne visited him, wherever he landed, regularly and talked to him often, but we weren't bogged down with the minutiae of all that, because, seriously, if it wasn't important to the characters on the screen, what difference did it make? #sorrynotsorry And Marshall did confirm that Hayden had contractual parameters that dictated how much she participated in the show. So the lack of Juliette was because that was the way she wanted it, no matter the reason. That disappointed me, because Juliette had been a favorite, but it is what it is.

So true!!

He's not Deacon on everything....

Wow. I'm not sure I know how I want it to end, but I can say with 100% certainty that I do not want any form of "it was a dream" to be a part of it. I don't care how bad people thought it was or they thought different storylines or characters were, but to render any aspect of it as not real because it's a dream is not acceptable.

I actually listened to what he said and it was "hey, you still a renegade?" Closed captioning isn't 100% and I've often seen it be completely wrong. But if you listen carefully - and it's a little hard because the camera's not on Brad's face the entire time - he says "hey, you still a renegade?" So yes, he said "renegade", but it's not a label or in reference to one. Luke's label was Wheelin' Dealin', by the way.