S01.E01: Stop At Nothing

[DanaK]

Quote

MONARCH is a Texas-sized, multi-generational musical drama about country music royalty. The Romans are headed by the insanely talented, but tough as nails Queen of Country Music Dottie Cantrell Roman (Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon) and her beloved husband, Albie Roman (multi-Platinum country music star and three-time Academy of Country Music Award winner Trace Adkins). Dottie and Albie have created a country music dynasty. But even though the Roman name is synonymous with authenticity, the very foundation of their success is a lie. And when their reign as country royalty is put in jeopardy, heir to the crown Nicolette "Nicky" Roman (Golden Globe nominee Anna Friel) will stop at nothing to protect her family's legacy, while ensuring her own quest for stardom in the all-new "Stop at Nothing" series premiere episode of MONARCH airing Sunday, Sept. 11 (8:00-9:01 PM ET/5:00-6:01 PM PT live to all time zones) on FOX.

[DanaK]

Didn’t expect that ending

[junemeatcleaver]

A country music Empire?  I'm in.

[Lady Calypso]

So, it seems like FOX (at least in my area) screwed up the start of the episode, so I ended up missing the entire first ten minutes. Thank goodness they aired it again right after, so I could catch what I missed. And honestly? I'm not so sure I liked it, even with the screw-up. Maybe I found it hard to connect with any characters, maybe the editing of the premiere itself felt off, but I'm not so sure if I'll stick around. Especially with that big premiere twist.

Maybe it'll require me to rewatch again later this week, but I just felt a bit bored all throughout. Getting to see Susan Sarandon is, of course, the highlight of the series, and her portrayal of Dottie is really good.  But killing her off in the first episode? Not a fan of that.

I'll give it another shot, but this may not be the show for me. I didn't even think the singing aspects were that good. Maybe the one song at the CMAs where it was mostly focused on Dottie's expression, but that's it. 

I think I liked one other character, and it's not like the characters were necessarily bad; they were just hard to connect with and kind of bland.

[DanaK]

Even if the showrunner says it’s not a bait and switch to kill off your supposedly major star lead in the first episode, it sure feels like it, especially if Sarandon is only going to be in a few episodes this season

And I hate that the show started 15 minutes early. If you say you are starting after a sports thing and that thing ends early, then start on time and vamp with the sports thing until then. It’s a good thing there was a repeat afterwards and I decided to record it. It’s also a good thing that Fox is repeating the episode several more times this week

I haven’t watched the episode in full yet, so I’ll wait to comment further until I do

[JayDub1987]

I guess I should open with complete transparency: I am a diehard, fanatical country music fan. Nashville is one of my favorite TV shows in history (the first 4 seasons, at least. Those 2 weird CMT seasons...meh). I also love Empire. The idea of a show that kind of blends those two things had me hooked from the first ad. 

I'm just gonna own it. The first episode did nothing for me. Nothing. I'm gonna rewatch it today, as I'll concede, I was a bit pissy about the Packers game that had just ended, so maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind. But I just felt like the whole thing felt...disjointed. 

Additionally, I'm from the south. Those fake southern accents...oof. Somebody get these people a dialect coach before it gets much farther. Most of them seemed more like SNL actors doing a parody of a country music family than people who are from the south. 

For the most part, the lip syncing was absolutely terrible. No, wait. It would've had to get better to be terrible. This was especially pronounced when Gigi joined Nicky on stage for a karaoke-esque version of "How Do I Live Without You?". 

Using Nashville as a point of reference, how did this show not invest in finding some actors and actresses who could actually sing (ie: Nashville?). Furthermore, why was every song performed a cover of an old country song? Again, if you watched Nashville, you heard a bunch of original songs that songwriters and show-writers worked together on to create songs that fit the characters. All I heard was a bad version of "Family Tradition" a mind-numbingly terrible version of "How Do I Live Without You," and maybe something else (I'll check again in the re-watch). 

Finally, at the end when Albie (and yes, I love Trace Adkins) was burying a body, my eyes nearly rolled back into my head. It was like we tried to throw some Yellowstone (another show I freaking adore) into the mix. Am I really supposed to believe the "King of Country Music" is hiding a body on his own? C'mon now. George Strait would most certainly pay to have something like that done. 

Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe I was in a bad mood because my favorite NFL team looked like an inept Pop Warner team. Or maybe this show just isn't that good.

ADDENDUM:

Apparently my local Fox affiliate botched the opening. I didn't realize that the show opened with original song for Nicky. So we're going to do some original songs and some covers. Hopefully we transition to more originals.

Edited September 12, 2022 by JayDub1987

[Irlandesa]

I appreciate these posts.  I loved Nashville.  I loved Empire (at least for the first few seasons but especially the first).  And I loved the too-short Filthy Rich (which I think thematically goes along with having a 'first family' but in TV evangelism instead of country music.)

But I can't stand Susan Sarandon.  And I'm not a fan of Trace Adkins who looked absolutely awful in the commercials.

So when I learned they killed off the Sarandon character, I did reconsider but sounds like I needn't bother.  Such a waste of a great show title.

1 hour ago, DanaK said:

Even if the showrunner says it’s not a bait and switch to kill off your supposedly major star lead in the first episode, it sure feels like it, especially if Sarandon is only going to be in a few episodes this season

Yeah.  Especially since this is becoming a thing.  Hiring a name actor, focusing your whole ad campaign around that actor, and then killing them off immediately is going to limit the marketing value of big stars. 

[JayDub1987]

I did catch something that caused me to pause in one of the articles about the show. 

https://tvline.com/2022/09/11/monarch-fox-premiere-ending-explained-susan-sarandon-dying/
"Dottie convinces Nicky to help her attempt suicide with a legal concoction of booze and pills."

Is Sarandon's character really going to die? Or is it going to be a botched suicide attempt. I won't lie, I'm a bit iffy on a female country music icon killing herself on a TV show so soon after Naomi Judd's death. I'm not one of those pearl-clutching, easily offended individuals, but I think this could lead to sponsors experiencing some trepidation. 

If Ol Dot really did head on to the big encore in the sky, it seems like a major bait and switch.

[BingeyKohan]

Agree with others here this was very lackluster - it doesn't seem to have any particular 'tone' it's going for. I've liked Anna Friel a lot in other things but I don't buy her as a country artist who's been around the business all her life. and this may be an unpopular opinion but I feel like Susan Sarandon has been phoning it in for YEARS. (except for Feud, which I actually did like)

[JayDub1987]

24 minutes ago, BingeyKohan said:

Agree with others here this was very lackluster - it doesn't seem to have any particular 'tone' it's going for. I've liked Anna Friel a lot in other things but I don't buy her as a country artist who's been around the business all her life. and this may be an unpopular opinion but I feel like Susan Sarandon has been phoning it in for YEARS. (except for Feud, which I actually did like)

I looked up her age, and she's 75. I guess I knew she was old, but I was shocked to find out how old. Maybe at that age, you just phone it in, but you're right. I don't buy her as the terminally ill Queen of Country music. 

[amarante]

5 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Yeah.  Especially since this is becoming a thing.  Hiring a name actor, focusing your whole ad campaign around that actor, and then killing them off immediately is going to limit the marketing value of big stars. 

I have no insight into whether she dies or after how many episodes but this kind of "stunt" casting accomplishes exactly what it intends to.

The critical part of launching a television show is buzz and having people sample it - so mission accomplish because it got buzz and maybe some people watched because of Sarandon

It is not inconceivable that an actress - especially of her age - doesn't want to commit to the grind of a one hour series for multiple episodes. The shooting days are very long especially if they appear in a number of scene. 

[HighQueenEB]

8 hours ago, JayDub1987 said:

Using Nashville as a point of reference, how did this show not invest in finding some actors and actresses who could actually sing (ie: Nashville?). Furthermore, why was every song performed a cover of an old country song? Again, if you watched Nashville, you heard a bunch of original songs that songwriters and show-writers worked together on to create songs that fit the characters. All I heard was a bad version of "Family Tradition" a mind-numbingly terrible version of "How Do I Live Without You," and maybe something else (I'll check again in the re-watch). 

I don't really have much to say about the premiere - my opinions mostly echo what else has been said here, however, I do want to point out that Joshua Sasse CAN sing - he was the titular star of Galavant which is one of my all-time favorite TV shows.  Having said that, it was very odd hearing him sing "Family Tradition" because country music is not where he cut his teeth, musically (London's West End and then Galavant, which was essentially Broadway for TV).

I adore old-school country (basically anything before the bro-down/mopey fake-folk shitfest that country music has become in the last 12-15 years) and all I gotta say about "How Do I Live" is "that's the best of 90s country female power ballads you could come up with?"  I really don't understand why we were being treated to covers of old country songs either.  But, they were doing the same thing with the lead-ins from commercial breaks, using old country songs, which makes me think the producers are trying to appeal to a certain age demographic.  Not that I think covering old country songs is the way to do that.  

[JayDub1987]

25 minutes ago, HighQueenEB said:

I don't really have much to say about the premiere - my opinions mostly echo what else has been said here, however, I do want to point out that Joshua Sasse CAN sing - he was the titular star of Galavant which is one of my all-time favorite TV shows.  Having said that, it was very odd hearing him sing "Family Tradition" because country music is not where he cut his teeth, musically (London's West End and then Galavant, which was essentially Broadway for TV).

I adore old-school country (basically anything before the bro-down/mopey fake-folk shitfest that country music has become in the last 12-15 years) and all I gotta say about "How Do I Live" is "that's the best of 90s country female power ballads you could come up with?"  I really don't understand why we were being treated to covers of old country songs either.  But, they were doing the same thing with the lead-ins from commercial breaks, using old country songs, which makes me think the producers are trying to appeal to a certain age demographic.  Not that I think covering old country songs is the way to do that.  

I'll gladly admit my mistake on that front. If that was him singing, that's great. However, the way that they had them lip-syncing made the whole thing look fake. Again, if you watch Nashville, it was obvious that they had people actually singing, and then fixed the audio around them. The people on Monarch were obviously just moving their lips, which was obvious if you watched their mouths in relation to the lyrics. Additionally, the way Gigi and Nicky hold microphones is a sound engineer's worst nightmare.

[HighQueenEB]

17 hours ago, JayDub1987 said:

I'll gladly admit my mistake on that front. If that was him singing, that's great. However, the way that they had them lip-syncing made the whole thing look fake. Again, if you watch Nashville, it was obvious that they had people actually singing, and then fixed the audio around them. The people on Monarch were obviously just moving their lips, which was obvious if you watched their mouths in relation to the lyrics. Additionally, the way Gigi and Nicky hold microphones is a sound engineer's worst nightmare.

Well, apart from Trace Adkins, the only actor on the show who I know has legitimate professional television singing experience is Sasse, so I didn't have any reason to think he wasn't doing his own singing.  If it wasn't, then the show got someone who sounded enough like what I would expect him to sound like with a country twang that it didn't make me say "oh, uh, no, that's clearly dubbed."  My bigger challenge was his "Southern" accent, because I'm so used to hearing him speak in his native British accent from Galavant and the "Southern" accent was off, lol.

[DearEvette]

I am not a huge country music fan, but I love messy soap operas and secrets and family drama.  And I adored the first few seasons of Empire and Nashville had read that that is what this show was going for.

My overall takeaway as I was watching this was the the writing for the show is terrible.  It isn't trying to be a story about these people and this family, it is setting up scenes for the audience to react to and I cynically feel they are trying to create artificial 'twitter' moments,

For instance, they are piling on the enigmatic mystery moments:  Susan Sarandon's character maybe burning someone alive in a barn, Trace Adkins' character shooting someone and then burying a body, The brother having an affair with his sisters' wife -- their entire conversation about 'it was a mistake' was a cliche -- and then for her to go up on stage to kiss her wife felt like it was all for audience shock, the Lothario actor husband in the bath with his outraged wife standing over him waving around a  plugged in curling iron.  Also who notifies their daughter that they need help with their assisted suicide with a throw away comment?  And why would the first thought of Gigi when she sees her sister standing over her mother with the pills be 'What did you do?'  Pills aren't a smoking gun.  Just everything felt badly executed and stale. 

Yeah the singing was ... not great.  I actually FF'd through the 'How Do I live' song.  I hate that song anyway, but this was painful.

On 9/12/2022 at 9:20 AM, JayDub1987 said:

Using Nashville as a point of reference, how did this show not invest in finding some actors and actresses who could actually sing (ie: Nashville?). Furthermore, why was every song performed a cover of an old country song?

LOL.  And here I was thinking they should have hired some who could act with a southern accent.  I thought they could of them could sing, for instance I know Beth Ditto can sing, but my God she is a bad an actor. 

What's the over/under that a love child of Albie and the caretaker who may or may not have died in the barn fire will show up?

[JayDub1987]

For the record, I do realize that I was wrong in my statement that the show hired people who couldn't actually sing. Apparently all of the actors/actresses playing singing roles do sing. Instead of deleting what I said, I'll just leave myself open to the possibility of being ridiculed openly on the internet by people that I don't know. The issue is apparently with how the audio is dubbed into the episodes. The lip-syncing is very pronounced, and these people who can sing in real life seem to have forgotten how to actually hold a mic during a live performance.

[ctlady]

On 9/13/2022 at 1:31 PM, DearEvette said:

For instance, they are piling on the enigmatic mystery moments:  Susan Sarandon's character maybe burning someone alive in a barn, Trace Adkins' character shooting someone and then burying a body, The brother having an affair with his sisters' wife -- their entire conversation about 'it was a mistake' was a cliche -- and then for her to go up on stage to kiss her wife felt like it was all for audience shock, the Lothario actor husband in the bath with his outraged wife standing over him waving around a  plugged in curling iron.  Also who notifies their daughter that they need help with their assisted suicide with a throw away comment?  And why would the first thought of Gigi when she sees her sister standing over her mother with the pills be 'What did you do?'  Pills aren't a smoking gun.  Just everything felt badly executed and stale. 

You pretty much summarized the entire episode in one paragraph? Too much crammed in.  As soon as Dottie asked Nikki to help her open the pill bottle and then with the glass of water, I was screaming, "FINGERPRINTS!!"  Maybe Dottie knows deep down that Gigi is the true talent and was setting Nikki up for murdering her own mother to cause a scandal?  And I'm just gonna guess that the woman Albie had an affair with was in that barn when it burned.  His saying, "after the barn fire, I never saw her again" was too predictable.

I like the brother running Monarch and now he'll have his mother's voting shares.  

What was in that envelope Dottie handed to her attorney?  Who has she been paying off all these years?

I like Gigi and she has a great voice, but having her be gay with a wife (who lapsed and switched teams for a heated moment and had sex with Gigi's brother) just appears to be forced to check off the diversity/inclusiveness box.  But if they do groom Gigi to be a star, I'm curious to see if there'll be nasty stories and headlines about her weight.  I mean - looked how they trashed Ann Wilson of Heart back in the 80s when she rapidly gained weight.  

I'm interested enough to see the fallout from Dottie's death/assisted suicide/possible murder, who Albie shot and buried, if Gigi's wife leaves her for her brother, if Nikki dumps her gold digging, cheating, actor husband with the intelligible Australian accent and whose been being paid off all these years

Edited September 14, 2022 by ctlady

[DearEvette]

5 hours ago, ctlady said:

I like Gigi and she has a great voice, but having her be gay with a wife (who lapsed and switched teams for a heated moment and had sex with Gigi's brother) just appears to be forced to check off the diversity/inclusiveness box.

I headwank Gigi and the wife are both possibly bi (I know Beth Ditto is bi in real life, not sure about the actress who plays the wife).    I wish the show had spent some time establishing who these people are before jumping feet first into so many plot spirals.  As it is I am not invested in their relationships because the show just presented who they were in those for buzz purpose only scenes.  

But I know pilots can be rough so I will check out the second episode to see if they do better.

[Bulldog]

This was not very good, but it was very watchable.  I'll stick with it for now. 

Sarandon with the scarf wrapped around her head gave me Thelma and Louise flashbacks.   I was surprised that she apparently kicked the bucket in the first episode.  This ain't Game of Thrones.  I would like it if it was some kind of fake out and in true soap fashion, Dottie's evil twin sister, also played by Sarandon, shows up to stake a claim to the Monarch label. 

I'm surprised they made Luke a company executive and not the singing talent.  Of the three siblings, I think he would have the best chance of a successful music career in real life.  He's got the look and the talent.  Nicky, nobody is going to get their big break at 40+ these days.  And Gigi, as unfair as it may be, I just don't see you breaking out in a big way. 

What are the odds that Luke is not Albie's son?  He clearly loves his two daughters, but seemed to barely tolerate his son. 

As one of maybe three people who watched every episode of both Galavant and Pushing Daisies, I was glad to see Sasse and Friel in something new. 

Edited September 14, 2022 by Bulldog

[hilaryvm]

4 hours ago, Bulldog said:

As one of maybe three people who watched every episode of both Galavant and Pushing Daisies, I was glad to see Sasse and Friel in something new. 

I must be the other person. Man I loved Galavant and Pushing Daisies was so good. I like Anna Friel but this is not the role for her. 
The show definitely wasn’t good so I don’t know if I’ll keep watching. Maybe I’ll give it one more episode. 
I assume the actors did their own singing but they were so clearly lip synching to their studio recorded voices that it was distracting. 

[eyelash]

On 9/13/2022 at 9:31 AM, DearEvette said:

Also who notifies their daughter that they need help with their assisted suicide with a throw away comment?  And why would the first thought of Gigi when she sees her sister standing over her mother with the pills be 'What did you do?'  Pills aren't a smoking gun.  Just everything felt badly executed and stale. 

Any self-respecting butt-kicking Queen of Country Music would handle her own suicide.  Why would she need her daughter to hand her the pills she obviously had full access to anyway?  I kept thinking big mama was testing the daughter to see if she would actually help bump her off, and would laugh it off at the last moment.  But apparently it was just another clunky, unrealistic scene to allow for a blackmail/suspicion story line between the sisters as they try to one up one another in show business.  I'll give it another couple of episodes, but I hope it gets more sensible.

[JayDub1987]

7 hours ago, eyelash said:

Any self-respecting butt-kicking Queen of Country Music would handle her own suicide.  Why would she need her daughter to hand her the pills she obviously had full access to anyway?  I kept thinking big mama was testing the daughter to see if she would actually help bump her off, and would laugh it off at the last moment.  But apparently it was just another clunky, unrealistic scene to allow for a blackmail/suspicion story line between the sisters as they try to one up one another in show business.  I'll give it another couple of episodes, but I hope it gets more sensible.

My wife just got to watch the entire premiere yesterday, and she had the same overall sentiment. Everything was just too stereotypical soap opera for her. I'm giving it another couple weeks, but she has checked out after the premiere. I know we have the female face of soap operas in the lead role of this thing, but it was just a bit to nonsensical in a lot of ways.

[Keywestclubkid]

I’m 10 minutes in and the songs are bad the lipsyncing is horrible.. it’s like a really bad knock off of Nashville and that was already NOT the best 

[Shermie]

On 9/13/2022 at 1:31 PM, DearEvette said:

I actually FF'd through the 'How Do I live' song.  I hate that song anyway, but this was painful.

Well, at least they pronounced it “How Do I Live” and not “How do I Leave” like most covers? 

This was very very soapy. I’m not a country music fan, but I love a good twisty soap. This was more like soap-on-a-rope - sudsy but a little tryhard. I’m meh about Sarandon, but I assume she’ll turn up in flashbacks sometimes. Assuming she’s actually dead. Agree that the sister accusing the other just because she’s holding a pill bottle does seem a bit presumptuous. Also agree that the son probably isn’t Albie’s given the “you love your daughters, but ignore your son” trope.

[Maverick]

 Count me among the underwhelmed.  Shame, too as I was looking forward to this.   As I was watching I was thinking Dotty could have been much less Jane Wyman's Angela Channing on Falcon Crest, the runs (and manipulates) the family business, and the family itself ruthlessly dealing with any threats.   Saradon could have brought it but the writing needed to be a lot better.  Moot, though given the mid boggling decision to kill her off.   I'd have to play the odds this will be like Filthy Rich and be a one and done.  

[scruff]

Just    another   Prime Time  show  that is   yet another   example of  a show  that   promotes,   encourages,  excuses,  justifies,  rationalizes,  glorifies  and  Romanticizes   ADULTERY/INFIDELITY ...

How  sad,  Cliche  and Unoriginal .

One can only   hope   that   this  show   gets  CANCELLED and  cancelled FAST

[JayDub1987]

40 minutes ago, scruff said:

Just    another   Prime Time  show  that is   yet another   example of  a show  that   promotes,   encourages,  excuses,  justifies,  rationalizes,  glorifies  and  Romanticizes   ADULTERY/INFIDELITY ...

How  sad,  Cliche  and Unoriginal .

One can only   hope   that   this  show   gets  CANCELLED and  cancelled FAST

It's a soap opera about country music. If you weren't expecting adultery and infidelity, I'm not sure what you were expecting. If there's two things we know about soaps and country, it's that cheating plays a big part.

[DanaK]

A few thoughts:

Definitely overstuffed and confusing, but that’s usually par for the course with many pilots

Unlike some, I actually liked the “How Will I Live” performance as a good emotional moment in the show

Trace Adkins was pretty wooden

I don’t exactly care for certain choices Sarandon made outside of acting, but I like her acting and I thought she held the center pretty well. So to kill her off in the pilot seems dumb to me if she’ll only be in a few episodes this season since I don’t see any of the other characters being able to be the anchor of this show

[CharlizeCat]

 I am disappointed. I was really looking forward and it fell very flat. I like Anna Friel, but even she couldn't save it for me. I agree with the poster who said this isn't the right show for her. She needs to go back to playing U.K. psychos! LOL!

This is no "Empire" or "Dallas" (yet.) It's more like "Filthy Rich," just substitute country music for a scam ministry. 

I will watch the second episode now that we have the gist of a few storylines but I don't have high hopes. 

[SunnyBeBe]

I’ll give it one more try, but I struggled to get into the first episode. How is that possible?  I love Sarandon, but this didn’t grab me.  And for her to be sick?  Nooooo….. I’m disappointed.  

[Thumper]

The only two actors I knew were Susan Sarandon and Trace Adkins(barely).  Heard he’s done other acting, but not impressed with him so far.  Could be the writing.

We thought the dialog was so campy and soapy, so we had some giggling and eye-rolling going on in our house.  I’m up for watching more just for the giggles and escapism.

[Nessa]

I think I was expecting it to be a little Nashville-y.  I'm finding it a little hard to follow at times, as to who is who etc.

I think it'll only last one season.

[JayDub1987]

15 hours ago, Nessa said:

I think I was expecting it to be a little Nashville-y.  I'm finding it a little hard to follow at times, as to who is who etc.

I think it'll only last one season.

I was expecting the same. Instead, I got All My Children with a couple guitars. 

[Nessa]

I dunno if I'll continue to watch or just look up the ep summaries, but I'm intrigued to know who the body is.

[Sweet-tea]

On 9/13/2022 at 8:32 PM, JayDub1987 said:

For the record, I do realize that I was wrong in my statement that the show hired people who couldn't actually sing. Apparently all of the actors/actresses playing singing roles do sing. Instead of deleting what I said, I'll just leave myself open to the possibility of being ridiculed openly on the internet by people that I don't know. The issue is apparently with how the audio is dubbed into the episodes. The lip-syncing is very pronounced, and these people who can sing in real life seem to have forgotten how to actually hold a mic during a live performance.

Something did seem off in the music numbers. I couldn't tell if they were lip synching or if the arrangement was just bad. One thing I really liked about Nashville is there was so much talent on the show--acting, singing and writing.

I like Trace Adkins as a singer but he seems wooden here. Hope he loosens up some. I don't really buy him as Susan Sarandon's husband either, although I had no idea she was 75! Looks like she's had a very good facelift and probably some other excellent work. 

In Nashville, I absolutely loved many of the musical performances and could see myself buying the songs. The one problem I had with it was Connie Britton. Although I really like her as an actress, I didn't think she was a good enough singer to be such a country queen like Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, etc. 

Nashville had a more authentic feel with the sessions at the Bluebird and all the original music. This first episode of Monarch was clunky to me--music, acting and writing. I'm willing to give it a few more episodes though to see if it improves. Maybe they haven't found their groove yet. 

I was uncomfortable with the assisted suicide scene. I wish they hadn't done that. Why put that burden on the daughter? Why even show it? If they were going to have her kill herself, they could've just had someone find her the next day. But as someone else said, it was too close to Naomi Judd's death. It unnerved me. 

[JayDub1987]

3 hours ago, Sweet-tea said:

Something did seem off in the music numbers. I couldn't tell if they were lip synching or if the arrangement was just bad. One thing I really liked about Nashville is there was so much talent on the show--acting, singing and writing.

I like Trace Adkins as a singer but he seems wooden here. Hope he loosens up some. I don't really buy him as Susan Sarandon's husband either, although I had no idea she was 75! Looks like she's had a very good facelift and probably some other excellent work. 

In Nashville, I absolutely loved many of the musical performances and could see myself buying the songs. The one problem I had with it was Connie Britton. Although I really like her as an actress, I didn't think she was a good enough singer to be such a country queen like Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, etc. 

Nashville had a more authentic feel with the sessions at the Bluebird and all the original music. This first episode of Monarch was clunky to me--music, acting and writing. I'm willing to give it a few more episodes though to see if it improves. Maybe they haven't found their groove yet. 

I was uncomfortable with the assisted suicide scene. I wish they hadn't done that. Why put that burden on the daughter? Why even show it? If they were going to have her kill herself, they could've just had someone find her the next day. But as someone else said, it was too close to Naomi Judd's death. It unnerved me. 

Oh, if you were bothered by that scene in relation to Naomi's death, just wait til you see Episode 2.