The wonderful thing about television is that there is a show for every occasion. Not every drama has to be a complicated mediation on the meaning of life and loss, and while it’s fun to spend an hour on the edge of your seat terrified about what might be coming next, there are also evenings when what you most want to do is watch beautiful people argue tempestuously before solving their problems through the power of song.
As anyone who struggled through Smash can tell you, combining superior soap opera and music is not an easy trick to pull off. Nashville, however, which recently started its second season on More4, makes it look easy. What’s its secret?
The acting
After Heroes left our screens, Hayden Panettiere was in danger of becoming a punchline. She was pretty, perky and blonde, but could she actually act? Nashville proves the naysayers entirely wrong: as Juliette Barnes, a Taylor Swift-style country-music starlet, Panettiere not only showcases a fine pair of lungs and a nice way with a one liner, she pulls off the rarer trick of making you sympathise with her character even when she’s doing wrong. It helps that the other female lead is played by Connie Britton – once of Friday Night Lights. Rayna James is a country queen on the slide and desperately clinging on. She’s a wonderful mix of fire and ice; as capable of dismissing you with a look as of caressing you with her voice.
The writing
Nashville is created by Thelma and Louise writer Callie Khouri, which ensures that if ever a TV show was set to pass the Bechdel Test it’s this one. Rayna and Juliette might be rivals but their rivalry feels rooted in a believable conflict – they’re capable of lending each other support in times of trouble, but have very different ideas about what works in the industry. Yes, it’s soapy at times: the season one finale in particular was so over-the-top (Car crashes! Paternity secrets! Dead mothers!) it was more Spanish telenovela than prime-time US drama, and there have been suggestions that the gap between what Khouri wanted to do and what the network ABC demanded is a wide one. Yet, for all those creative tensions, that mixture of smart dialogue and detailed characterization with histrionic plotting is a large part of the show’s appeal.
The music
Dial down any anti-country prejudice you may have, because Nashville’s musical arrangements are gorgeous. Yes, there’s some standard Carrie Underwood-style stuff, but there’s also something like Scarlett and Gunnar’s beautiful cover of the Civil Wars’ If I Didn’t Know Better or the precocious Stella Sisters covering the Lumineers Ho Hey. The first season’s music maestro (and Khouri’s partner) T Bone Burnett is currently busy being moody and magnificent on the True Detective soundtrack, but this season’s soundtrack from Buddy Miller, who has toured with everyone from Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch to Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams, is equally smart and surprising.
The costumes
What’s not to love about the endless sequins, big hats and over-the-top stage costumes? But if you really don’t go a bundle on either cowboy boots and decorative shirts or tight, very short dresses, the folksy Scarlett tends to the less glitzy end of the dressing spectrum with an array of floral dresses and long cardigans, perfect for winsomely wrapping yourself up in when its all going wrong. Nashville may not be for every occasion, but it certainly has something for everyone.
Nashville is on More4 on Thursdays at 10pm.
