CMT'S Nashville

[EricMontreal22]

Nashville has long been a very guilty pleasure--but one I stuck with. But as most of you know here, my all time fave network tv prime time writers are Herskovitz/Zwick who worked on Family, created and ran thirtysomething, co-created and ran My So-Called Life (a show that meant so much to me as a 13 year old) as well as Once and Again and they were hired by ABC to be Nashville's new showrunners--and then it was canceled. And then picked up by CMT. I just watched the hour "preview" (the full two hour premier airs Jan 5) that aired tonight, and I have high hopes that they take a fun show, but one that moved way too fast and had way too many WTF moments, and make it into a great show.

 

It's still much more "soapy" than, say, Once and Again was--but that's being true to the show--but their mandate in interviews has been to ground it more in character based drama, and slow it down--and this was an expert example of not dropping plot lines but wrapping some up or adjusting them into a different direction in an organic way. I do wonder how they will deal with writing a soapier show and one that's about people with far more money than even their usual upper middle class characters..

I also was very pleased to see a great tv writer who I've corresponded with, Richard Kramer, who wrote the infamous thirtysomething "gay episodes" as well as the adaptation of the first Tales of the City series and a great novel, as a producer on the show, which I assume means he's part of the writing team.  I noticed on Wiki it said that the third episode is written by Winnie Holzman (the main creator of My So-Called Life)'s daughter, who co-created the one year fat-camp series, Huge with her mother.  I never watched that, but I wonder how much of the writing team is new.
 

I'm excited to see more--

[KMan101]

I never got into the show but I might now. I'm hearing good things about it being slowed down, seems like the core fanbase is loving it. There's an extended trailer out now. It looks like the show will be just fine.

[YRBB]

I'm definitely excited. I think she show could benefit majorly from not being quite so frenetic within each episode, with a little bit longer scenes and such. Of course, I'm still catching up, so it might be a little while until I get to season 5.

[EricMontreal22]

It became something of a joke how every episode would have like not just a car crash, but a car crash and someone falling off a roof, etc.  The first episode was largely dealing with what happened in last year's finale but they seem to have things on the right track--already the various characters are interacting much more in an organic way--last year, especially, I often forgot that some of them even knew each other.

 

I was also concerned that they might drop the gay storyline due to some idea about a new audience at CMT, despite Herskovitz/Zwick always being groundbreaking with their gay storylines on all their past shows, but, while not featured in this first hour, from the trailer and the new cast hires (Murray Bartlet from Looking and GL has been hired as a gay photographer, there is also a trans actress hired as an agent, I believe) my fears seem to be unfounded.

[Soapsuds]

Murray Bartlet was featured in the previews. Looks like he makes the moves on Will rather quickly.

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah, it looks like they're going for a love triangle--which may seem cliche but I'm all for.  It's about time they did more with Will than a very slow coming out story...  And I'm glad they kept Kyle Dean Massey (three gay regulars on the show?  wow) who I've been a fan of ever since seeing him in Pippin

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[Soapsuds]

Too bad Kevin wasn't featured in the previews. Although Will was barely seen too in the special preview episode.

[EricMontreal22]

I think they had too much to wrap up with Juliette etc.

[Gray Bunny]

I haven't seen this preview, but I like hearing that they will slow things down this season. That is definitely something I have found annoying in recent years, even as long ago as when 90210 was rebooted on The CW. The pacing of serialized dramas is SO fast nowadays that too much happens too quickly and they burn out of story (plus it dilutes the shock & awe of big twists 'n turns). It's what burned out Revenge so quickly, but I'm happy Nashville is living on past a 4th season. 

[EricMontreal22]

In one of the video interviews floating around, Marshall Herskovitz says (well he seems to be guarding his words, but basically says...) that ABC pushed Nashville to increasingly fit into their "Shondaland" mode of soap opera--which makes a lot of sense.  Funny as their previous showrunner, while she started at Melrose, was also a main writer on The Good Wife which, while I never watched it, I gather wasn't too gimmicky...

[CBRVA83]

Here's the full extended trailer for the fifth season of "Nashville" (Will and his boyfriend Kevin is in this one)!

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[vetsoapfan]

I absolutely adore Herskovitz/Zwick and their style of storytelling, and watch everything they write. The only time I felt their material was not completely successful was when they wrote the web series QUARTERLIFE, but everything else of theirs has been first-rate. I look forward to seeing how they will handle NASHVILLE, which I have always felt needed to be more character-driven and less sensationalistic.

[Paul Raven]

I have watched faithfully until the last few episodes of last season.

 

Never went back to them,but will give the new season a chance,

 

Rayna needs to be less perfect and Juliette on permanent self destruct was too wearing.

 

And please get Rayna a housekeeper and Juliette an entourage.

 

It was too much like a daytime soap in that regard,with these mega rich celebrities having no employees.

[YRBB]

The first episode of Season 5 is up early on Hulu. Of course, I'm still on Season 3 (which I'm enjoying A LOT), so all this is irrelevant to me, but please enjoy, because it looks good -- and please, NASHVILLE, don't mess up your gay characters/story!