Yay! My favorite prime-time soap returns tonight!
Will Rayna live? (duh) Will Deacon stop drinking? (probably) Will we see more of the girls? (yup – series regulars now) Will Lamar get a subplot worthy of him? (rumor has it) Will Scarlett be any less annoying? (probably not)
Woo hoo! Who else is psyched?
I am! However since I no longer have cable or a DVR, I won’t be watching the premiere until tomorrow night. I did read a brief snippet (in EW maybe?) that sounded promising.
I mainly watch for the music, not the soapiness, but it’s become a guilty pleasure. Can’t wait!
Loathe country music - but actually like this show.
Yes, it is a drippy soap opera of the highest degree, but it is still a great little guilty pleasure with a nice mix of the ridiculous along with some nice touches of character insight.
So far, the writers have been balancing their stories perfectly - let’s just hope they keep the pacing up as they have so far, and don’t go off into bizarre territory (terrorists/aliens etc.) like some of these soaps like to do when they have run out of ideas.
Man, I like the nice brisk pace of this show. Less than an hour into the season, Rayna’s out of the coma, Deacon’s out of jail, and Juliette is being her usual manipulative self. Plus some interesting other stuff set up to happen, I’m guessing, equally briskly – the girlfriend lying about the pregnancy, the in-denial gay guy’s potential love interest working for Juliette, Lamar under investigation (though I don’t think they usually reopen accidental death cases 40 years later), etc.
blissful sigh
Fake baby, potential past spousal murder, and a coma. They’re not pretending that it isn’t a soap anymore, are they?
They’ve apparently changed Scarlet’s backstory (last year, she & Avery were new to town and she hadn’t seen her uncle in a while. This year, he practically raised her and she’s got a friend who’s known her since 1st grade) but not made her less pathetically annoying.
The makeup crew did an awesome job with the flashbacks.
I was amazed (and pleased) that Connie Britton allowed herself to look so haggard and raw-faced in the hospital scenes. Usually when they show a woman in a coma, she has eye makeup on, and her condition of illness is indicated by paler-colored foundation and lipstick. Britton actually looked the way people look when they are hospitalized.
Yes- I’m always amazed how they can make a person look younger. Probably because I know nothing about makeup.
I had to laugh when Juliette was harrumphing in bed, uncomfortable and frustrated while watching TV, and new errand boy pops up from under the covers. Apparently he wasn’t making much of an impression on her down there.
I enjoyed it - the quality of the music remains solid with the new head of music after T-Bone Burnett left. Good songs for Avery, Hayden’s character and Scarlett and Gunnar.
The soap opera seems fine. Having Hayden’s character focused on herself while Rayna/Connie was in a coma, to the point of pursuing Rayna’s daughter to get inside, was well done. Hayden’s character (Juliet, right?) is supposed to be like that…
Wait?! They pretended they weren’t a soap at some point? 
I enjoyed it very much so. I love shows that just own what they are and don’t pretend to be anything different and Nashville just gave that to us again - when even a fake pregnancy to the mix! We just need an evil twin, and we’ll be set.
Can someone remind me of Rayna and Todd’s (her husband is Todd right?) marital status? Are they divorced, or are they getting divorced? I can’t remember if it’s a done deal or not.
Nice job making Connie look younger in the flashbacks – less successful with Deacon, but then again he was living hard. Him not remembering the proposal was a nice (and heartbreaking) development.
Teddy. I believe they are divorced, but it may just be legally separated…
Just legally separated, I think.
This is definitely a show that doesn’t believe it’s possible to have too many plotlines. D’ya think the the gay cowboy went with the tycoon because or in spite of the the tycoon’s assistant? Greed or self-knowledge in going for mainstream success?
And the perky new young thing – boy, Juliette’s not happy about that.
(And is Juliette’s father really dead, or is he going to emerge from prison or … somewhere?)
Avery’s song was really pretty – loved the mandolin on it. Where’s his career going to go this year? And Scarlett’s black BFF who appeared out of nowhere – are she and Avery going to become friends? writing partners? lovers?
It is embarrassing how much I enjoy this show.
Isn’t that guy named Gunnar? I thought Avery was the emo guy following Julliete around like a puppy.
And my take on gay cowboy was that he wanted to take the fastest easiest route to becoming a big star since he realized he had no talent at songwriting.
And my prediction is he will sorely regret it when he is blackmailed or outed by the “nice” guy, and dropped from that agency like a hot potato - but Rayna will be the nice person and sign him back anyway.
They have more sub-plots spinning in this show than plates spinning on sticks at a circus act. Still, they keep up a dizzying pace quite well.
Oops, yes, you’re right. I keep confusing her two exes – or their names anyway.
Oh, I remember the other thing I wanted to say – where the hell is Deacon’s AA sponsor? Are they only allowed to have one black character per season?
I think there was some screwy continuity in this episode. New record exec invites Rayna et al to his place for a party “tomorrow night”; next night Cowboy is at the bar listening to Gunnar’s new song, compliments him on his writing prowess, then beats it outta there. Next shot, daytime and Cowboy shows up at the party in the same shirt. Is Cowboy a time traveler?
I thought last night’s ep was pretty good. I liked Gunnar’s super smooth line… “Wow…I didn’t know you could look that good.” She did!
“Was that supposed to be a compliment?”
“It was… supposed to be.” 
I’ve never liked Rayna’s producer.
Really? Why not? He seems like a good guy.
Wonder what’s going to happen with Avery now – will he really leave Juliette’s band again?
And did the cowboy (I’ve got a block on his name – is it Will?) take Gunnar’s song without permission? That was a little unclear to me.
I look forward to seeing what the new record company pres. is going to do – he’s shaping up to be an interesting villain.
How long will Peggy be able to keep the fake pregnancy going? Teddy isn’t stupid.