NASHVILLE | TV

*possible minor spoilers* 

Is it just me who's noticed this or are musical TV shows all the rage at the moment. This time ABC has jumped on the bandwagon with it's newest show Nashville, that stars Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere as a pair of country singers who find themselves pushed together by their record label.

Before the show aired it was deemed country music's version of Glee or Smash with the cast randomly bursting into song at any available moment. This however couldn't be further from what this show is about, instead it is very much drama centred giving you an insight into the industry with songs placed at appropriate times for an added entertainment factor. 

The first episode of the series focused heavily on Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton) who is a mom, a wife and a very successful country singer who is now deemed as becoming 'irrelevant' by her record label. They feel the only way her time at the label can continue is if she joins onto the tour of Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere) who is a extremely popular 20-something country pop singer. We discover that Rayna isn't happy about opening for Juliette and that she feels she sounds like 'ferel cats'; she is however the number one selling artist of the moment. 

Panettiere's character is very much the mean girl, passing out her orders and acting like a spoil brat; that is until she is around the male characters whom she seduces one after the other taken or not.  It is implied though that this behaviour stems from her childhood brought up with a drug addict for a mother. Britton's character however is that of a strong woman who knows what she wants but isn't the diva her younger rival is. We even see a scene in the episode where she puts hers and her fathers differences aside to support her husbands bid to be Mayor. She is very much certain that she is not becoming irrelevant and isn't afraid to tell the label that. 

The episode as a whole opened doors to various possible story lines - one being the inevitable love triangle involving Rayna's guitarist, Deacon (Charles Esten), who we learn could actually have been her soul mate before she chose her current husband. Another interesting storyline we see involves Deacon's niece, Scarlett (Clare Bowen), who works at the cities famous Bluebird Cafe and writes poetry in her spare time. It isn't until it is pointed out that her words could be lyrics and we see this in action during a duet between her and the cafes sound guy. This opening doors for an interesting story and one that I'm certain will be explored in great depth. 

I really enjoyed the first episode of Nashville and couldn't recommend it highly enough, even if you aren't a fan of country music, you will definitely enjoy the developing story lines and the brilliant relationships that are forming between the characters. If you do watch, or have already, let me know what you think!

Emma xo

follow me on TWITTER and instagram at iamemmawilde

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ABC'S SCANDAL

I have just finished watching the new ABC drama Scandal and I was a bit reluctant to write about it because it has caused quite a bit of upset due to it's time-slot and circumstance. Basically, Shonda Rhimes had two shows; Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice, which both centre around doctors (Private Practice being the spin-off to Grey's). She now has another show - Scandal - which has replaced Private Practice in the 10pm Thursday time-slot right after Grey's Anatomy. 

Now for all those avid Private Practice fans like myself, this is the worst possible situation; our favourite show is battling with dropping ratings and now a new (and less than great) time-slot. Now you see my reluctancy to write about Scandal? Many are boycotting it in the hopes this will make a stand for Private Practice and initially this is what I had planned on doing, but then I thought, that won't make the slightest bit of difference and so this evening I watched the pilot to Scandal. 

Scandal is basically about a non-law firm who deal with crisis management for I suppose you could say, 'scandalous' situations. The show centres around Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) who is a former White House operative turned crisis manager working with a team of 'gladiators in suits' as they put it to fix wealthy peoples situations. The thing that confused me though is, at the start of the episode Olivia is perceived as this almighty force of nature not to be questioned, but then in the second half of the episode she turns into a weeping, defenceless woman crying over her **SPOILER** affair with the married president. 

Also, this show very much revolves around Olivia's gut. Whatever her gut says, goes as far as she is concerned and the other characters simply act without any real personality in the background to her ever increasing gut instincts. Okay so I'm going to stop dissing Olivia now and go onto last nights episode more. The main guest star was Wes Brown (also a guest star on Private Practice; Shonda Rhimes never lets us down with her continued re-use of guest stars; also including Jeff Perry!), who was a military soldier accused of killing his wife. Now we do find out if he did it or not but we never actually see the ending result of the case. It's although once their work is done that's it, they just pass it onto the authorities to deal with. We all want to know what happens! 

These are my initial thoughts and are solely my own opinion, I have only watched one episode and I would like to continue watching to see if the show gets better. I just found that I didn't like Olivia as a character and with her being the main star, I then found it difficult to enjoy the show. It might get better, it might not, I'm just finding it hard to understand the real purpose of the show...Remember, those are only my opinions so all you Scandal fans out there...don't hate me! haha

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