Review : 'Nashville' : 'Guilty Street'

This is not the week to make Rayna mad. She might fire you. Here's what happened on the newest episode of ABC's Nashville.

You'd think pancakes with Luke would put Rayna in a better mood, but it's going to take more than delicious buttermilk breakfast items to soothe her soul. First, she's pissed at Tandy because her sister/CFO dropped the ball and Highway 65 Records is bouncing checks all over town. GET IT TOGETHER TANDY, Rayna says. Then he walks in on Scarlett and Liam invading each other's personal space at the piano. She first has a mom-esque convo with Scarlett and then fires Liam. What a day. Rayna complains to Luke. He offers to spot her some cash. She's like... no… I couldn't... get us... tangled… and he's like no, really…and she's definitely thinking about it.

Luke, basically.

The Bluebird Brigade could hardly be less interesting. Gunnar got them a gig at Mercy Lounge. Avery bails on rehearsal. Gunnar makes a crack about him having a rick girlfriend, and I walk out of the room when Zoe says, "Can we at least get through one gig without having a huge band fight and breaking up?" What a gross line. It's like it was written for some educational video on teamwork that's trying to be edgy.

The gig goes well. But what you, the viewer, need to understand if you're not from here, is that Nashville audiences are almost NEVER that excited about anything, especially a band no one has heard. They fold their arms and nod to the beat. Hopefully.

Layla's career is just about fried. Jeff is basically going to drop her. Will feels responsible for getting her ally Brent fired. He also feels bad because she's blaming herself for their bedroom troubles. So much guilt for Will.

Speaking of guilt, Deacon and Lady Lawyer Friend spend the night apart when he goes on the road. He gets tempted by a girl he used to know. She gets tempted by an emotionally vulnerable Teddy who has just discovered that Peggy was never pregnant. Deacon walks away from the situation and calls LLF, who is in the backseat of her car with Teddy not playing travel Scrabble.

Anyhoodle, Juliette is fielding offers from smaller labels post NYT piece. While at dinner, she and Avery have a short convo about who is going to pay. Avery's been feeling emasculated lately. Evil Bossman Jeff sends over an EXPENSIVE bottle of champaign and Juliette shakes it up and lets it explode on his table. He does end up making Juliette an offer to come back to Edgehill. She gets an imprint and a producing deal for Avery. Avery doesn't want it. He tells her Jeff is never going to respect her. And so when Juliette goes and asks Rayna if she can join Highway 65, it's like the biggest non surprise ever.

And of course the previews for next week make it look like the union will not last. DRAMA.

Stray Observations: 
+ Luke being weirded out by the giant portraits of Rayna's kids in the bedroom.
+ Big Machine got name checked three times. $$$
+ I want to know what favor the booker at Mercy Lounge owed Gunnar. Like, does Gunnar have a picture of him in culottes?

Review : 'Nashville' : 'They Don't Make 'Em Like My Daddy Anymore '

E'rbody's listening to fresh tracks as this week's episode of Nashville starts. Here's what happened in the wake of Lamar's transition to a new job as Lucifer's Executive Assistant.

Scarlett and Liam play her new song for Rayna. Scarlett, who has zero self worth, assumes Rayna will hate it. Of course, that's not true. Scarlett's going to have another rough episode as her unhappiness spills out everywhere. She has dinner with Liam and he, as they would say on The Bachelor, opens up to her about being a lonely workaholic. He hasn't really been able to work on his own stuff because he's hiding from his own music (3 cheers for self analysis!). Liam even shows her his lyrics. The thing you've got to remember, is that on Nashville, songwriting bears a certain intimacy. When Liam kisses Scarlett on the street, it comes as no surprise. Yet, she spurns him. Which is smart, but merely a delay because after having jealous feelings about her uncle and exes (and then crashing at the studio), she kisses Liam and it's like...

… this isn't going to end well.

Anyway. Juliette really loves the mix Avery did on her flip off ballad to country music. He tells her that some critic from the New York Times called her a "serious artist." She says he's the only one in Nashville who reads the New York Time. WELL.

Perhaps being the only Nashvillian who take the Times is a turn on because they hop into bed. Glen walks in and it's like COME ON DAD. He says some muckity-muck named Howie V (B?) wants to work with Juliette. The fly out to L.A. and this Howie guy is like the most insincere schmoozer you've ever met, like you'd have to stand in the shower for half an hour scrubbing furiously to get all the crap off. They re-record the song with strings and a brass section, and then he arranges a photo shoot that looks like something between Lady Gaga and Katy Perry's Grammys performance. When he references stripping the last little bit of twang out of Juliette, you just really hate him. Howie also treats Glen like dirt. Glen tries to step out of Juliette's way, but in the end she decides that she's just gotta do Juliette and not anyone else.

That's more than you could say for the Bluebird trio (Avery, Gunnar, and Zoe) who are basically going to be the Lumineers. They back Deacon at a show and then decide to be a band. Thus, the Bluebird Brigade is born. I will say, they do have some nice harmonies.

Backtracking, Teddy had to tell Rayna that Lamar died. He'll be wracked with guilt the rest of the episode that he let his ex father-in-law die, to the point where Teddy fesses up to Deacon's Lady Lawyer Friend. When the person you call in your darkest moment is someone else's significant other, and they turn up, you've got to wonder where that relationship is headed. Anyway. Rayna's freakily detached. Tandy's distraught. It all culminates with Rayna smashing up Lamar's study.

Bless her heart.

Stray Observations:

+ Loved Rayna's face when Daphne asked if Lamar was in heaven.

+ TV Guide has included Teddy on a list of TV characters that need to die. Also, Scarlett. Bless their hearts as well. 

Review : 'Nashville' : 'Too Far Gone'

Pour one out for Lamar.

In Nashville, we prefer to record to tape. Just know that.

Anyway, this week we kick things off with Juliette and Avery in the sack, looking for her phone, which is lost in the sheets. Much like her life the rest of the episode. Long story short, she wants to spend her life hiding out at Avery's apartment, microwaving toast and ordering him new furniture. ("Those pillows are unisex!") At one point Deacon, shows up to ask Avery to engineer his live album (We'll do it #analog, says Avery), and Juliette was hiding. I was kinda anticipating this:

No luck. But! Before she gets too clingy, she does decide to go watch Deacon record his album at the Bluebird.

Speaking of the Bluebird, Zoe is creatively unfulfilled. Will gets Brent fired because Gunnar says it's pretty obvious something's going on between them. Gunnar also writes Will a song that's a little on the nose and Will is like:

That's too bad because Gunnar is kinda the "it" songwriter and Will is in bad need of demoes for that album of his that's dropping on the same day as Rayna's. Womp womp. Also too bad is that when Jeff agrees to "take care" of Brent, he also promises to take care of Will, personally. Creepy. I'd want to stay as far away from Evil Boss Man Jeff as possible. Scarlett is popping pills. She looks like hell and acts like the Roadrunner. On drugs.

Everyone who runs into her raises at least one eyebrow. This includes Deacon, but for now he's too busy catching Lady Lawyer Friend squeezing Teddy's hand and then getting told by Avery to walk it off before the show.

But now that we're talking about Teddy and known associates, Lamar is out of prison. Rayna and the girls, plus Tandy (for about a second) have a little welcome home party. The girls sing. It's great. Later, Teddy turns up to tell Rayna that he suspects Lamar had tried to have him killed. He also mentions something about Tandy, which leads Rayna to ask Tandy what the hell is going on. Tandy confesses she was the witness and she did it because she found out Lamar killed their mother. SO. Rayna confronts Lamar, who says that by the time Rayna's mom crashed her car, she was already dead and he panicked. Then: "Did you try to murder the father of my children??"He does not answer.

Rayna banishes him from the kingdom. He goes to Teddy's office to confront him. (SO MUCH CONFRONTATION.) Teddy tells him Tandy betrayed him and Lamar friggin dies of a heart attack while Teddy watches and does nothing. Karma? You decide.

Nashville won't be back for a couple of weeks, but the next episode looks like a doozy. Stay tuned

Review : 'Nashville' : 'It's All Wrong But It's All Right '

On tonight's episode of Nashville, characters find themselves questioning what they're made of (we ask the same thing of the dish Juliette prepares in her kitchen at the end of the show). Here's what happened.

In case you forgot about that time Juliette was invited to join the Grand Ole Opry, the ceremony takes place this week. She's still having tons of trouble, but goes along with Evil Boss Man Jeff's instructions to beg for mercy. Jeff sits in the empty Ryman listening to her practice her mea culpa and says finally broke the filly.

That's not very nice. Before she goes on stage, all kinds of well wishers turn up, but it's Maddie who seems to change Juliette's mind: "Bullies shouldn't win." So, instead of apologizing, she sings a song about how it's going to take a lot more to burry her under. The audience is unmoved. People backstage are like:

Glen, however, is all proud papa, so that's nice. Of course, Jeff goes to Juliette's dressing room and drops her from the label, calling her stupid. Juliette counters that "stupid" is losing your top two performers within a couple months. TRUTH. Later on, Glen tries to get her on another label, but has no luck. She squirts an awful amount of Ketchup into a dish and tells Glen she's kind of glad it's over because she's tired of fighting. Then she shows up at Avery's apartment with casserole and LUST. Not really. She basically finishes the confession she started a few episodes back. They kiss and it gets all Bachelor Fantasy Suite.

Anyway, looks like Luke's love language is buying crap, as he presents Rayna with her face on a race car. He also lets her join in on his concert for sponsors after a Nascar race. He basically does everything he can to help her connect with potential investors, including a Sam Walton-type figure whom she spends the episode schmoozing. At said concert, Rayna performs her new single and announces her album's release date. Jeff conspires to make sure she can't get shelf space. The old guy she's been schmoozing, however, offers to replace all of Juliette Barnes' album with hers since Juliette is a heathen. Maddie is like:

No worries. Rayna doesn't take the deal.

Speaking of deals, you know how Tandy made one for immunity if she testified against Lamar? She's hiding in a hotel, hoping he won't take a hit out on her. The best part is that she gets a text from THE US ATTORNEY'S OFFICE (like, she has them programmed in her phone?) that says "Turn yourself in now!" The FBI does comes busting into her room eventually, but she basically gets the whole case against Lamar thrown out because the materials she gave the Feds were technically obtained illegally.

Speaking of deals, (I'm totes out of clever transitions), Deacon is having regrets about his deal with Belcourt Records. They want him to do an album of duets with all the famous people he knows. He eventually decides he'd rather do Deacon Claybourne Live from the Bluebird because that's who he is, dangnabbit.

At least he knows. Layla doesn't. She tries to write a song with Gunnar and realizes she has nothing to say. I fail to feel bad for her. Similarly, I fail to feel bad for Scarlett, who refuses to open up to new producer Liam when he tries to get to know her. She pitches a fit like a child, he steals her notebook, they wind up actually recording an honest song about her life instead of the whiskey she doesn't drink and along the way she starts popping pills. Even after that come-to-Jesus last week with Rayna about how Scarlett is really going to have to WANT this career, she continues to act in inexplicable ways and make bad choices.

Stray Observations:
+ Daphne is getting way attached to Luke, right?
+ I'm predicting a drug talk from Deacon at some point.
+ Brad Paisley returns to Nashville!

Review : 'Nashville' : 'Just for What I Am'

This week on Nashville, we were making up and breaking down. Also, how many times can this show set an episode climax to an industry party? We shall see. Here's what happened.

Juliette continues to flame out. She even has to delete her Twitter account.

Then she starts finding out that her shows are getting canceled because her fans are turning on her, which sucks. What sucks more is how Evil Bossman Jeff shows up and tears her to bits, telling her that she's "an uneducated, mildly talented lie" and saying she's going to have to beg the country for forgiveness.

But you know how the previews lead you to believe that she immediately goes and overdoses or something in her bedroom? She was just temporarily passed out and when Avery busted in, she woke up and ran to the bathroom to puke. Folks, if you find someone who sticks around after they've seen you in your skivvies puking, KEEP THEM. As a remedy for her concerns about losing everything, he dresses her like a hipster and takes her downtown to busk. A giant crowd of people stop and throw money into his guitar case. This is a misrepresentation of the city. We don't stop for buskers because we wouldn't have any more money left. But still, she'll never have nothing as long as she has the music! Eh. After going to a deserted church to pray, she decides the best course of action is to write a song.

Ok. Everyone else is going to be at Luke, Rayna, and Gunnar's #1 song party. Stay with me and I'll get us there too.

First off, Rayna asks Deacon to write with her. They do. It goes well. Lady Lawyer Friend is skeptical. Deacon is contemplating signing a contract with Belcourt Records. He will. (Glad our local art theater is diversifying its revenue streams?) He gets some TRUTH about how much the industry stinks because the deal is not stellar, but considering there's a deal on the table at all…

Luke and Rayna have preliminary convo about being a celebrity couple. She's like…

… but then later on is like sure. You know it's love because she and Luke stand there complimenting each other for like five minutes.

Gunnar runs into one of the guys from Rascal Flatts and they do a co-write that afternoon, which means that Gunnar has to bail on meeting Zoe's friends. Again. (I thought she just moved here, when did make all these friends?) They will have one of THOSE fights later on and she will refuse to attend the party.

Scarlett, meanwhile, is friggin falling apart because work is TOUGH and she's SLEEPY. She resists everything Buckey tells her she has to do, like basic tour promotion. She brings her bad mood to the party where she has lots of awkward conversations, like the one where Gunnar tells her that the "thing" that happens between them when they sing is just business. She also finds out that her uncle and Rayna are writing together and when Rayna walks into the bathroom, she finds Scarlett pulling a Moaning Myrtle. Scarlett tells Rayna some nasty little things about how she can't have those kinds of weird relationships with her exes and how when Rayna says "jump," Deacon says "how high." Scarlett apologizes the next morning, but yowzer. Rayna does give her a talking to, however, about how badly she's going to have to want all this if she wants to succeed– she's going to have to love the music more than she hates the other stuff. Not bad advice. Scarlett is like I do want it! I'm like…

Oh, and Teddy figures out that Lamar PROBABLY had something to do with Peggy's murder.

I'm going to go busk now and make $$$. See you next week.

Review : 'Nashville' : 'I'll Keep Climbing'

Let's cut to the chase. The opening scene of tonight's episode of Nashville was real weird. I mean, Juliette's torso floating against a background of clouds? I think the Conrad/Jaymes clan was cuddling on the couch at some point, feeling crappy about Peggy's murder, but I was more concerned with whatever out of body experience Juliette was having. ANYWAY. I'll go light on her because she's having a helluva week. Despite the fact that cheating is as familiar to country music as the 10-gallon Stetson, Juliette's attracting a crowd of protesters with a Westboro-type crazy streak. An out-of-context video clip of her seemingly saying that there's no God, leaks online and everything just gets worse. On a scale of "bad" to "Glee slushie," Juliette is in a world of problems. But how much will Layla's stellar, though hard-bought defense via press conference matter? We'll see next week. BTW, everything is stilted and awkward with Avery after she showed up at his apartment at 2 a.m. to confess her love.

Now take a moment to remember how much you hated Juliette last season and question how you got to this new place of sympathy.

Speaking of sympathy (or really, the lack thereof), Deacon's got to crank out some new material. His buddy from the music business tells him that he needs to dig deep. After a montage of Deacon unsuccessfully writing hits at his piano (a montage that also resembles me at my computer circa 2007 trying to write a paper on Hamlet)…

his Lady Lawyer Friend shows up with lots of good will and support. He proceeds to treat her like crap because she's a LAW-YER and she doesn't understand creativity. I have no patience for that fool. After considering jumping back into the bottle, he sits down Lady Lawyer Friend to tell her he's too happy to write music because he's always written from a place of pain. SOUNDS LIKE NOT HER PROBLEM, YA DIP WAD. Whatever. He does manage to write a song with Maddie later on, so I guess there's that.

On the Bluebird front, it appears that no one pays any attention to Will since it takes days for anyone to notice he's been missing. Gunnar finally tracks him down in the wilderness… somewhere. Will is in full on meltdown mode. It's actually pretty sad. He's disgusted with himself. He admits to Gunnar he thought about killing himself and Gunnar get PISSED and tells him they're friends and YOU NEED TO CALL ME if that kind of thing happens again. This is all well and good, but Gunnar's hardly been a friend in the past, so I don't really know why he cares or excepted Will to have reached out to him in a moment of crisis. He also delivers a pretty half-assed speech about how this is the 21st century.

I feel like the show has the chance to make a thoughtful exploration of what it could mean for a male country artist to come out as gay in an industry that's traditionally conservative and rather attached to its gender roles, but I don't necessarily think the show is capable of it.

The next morning, Will seems to be over what was ailing him and Gunnar (whose hair looks remarkably good for having spent the night and most of the preceding day outside in a hoodie) gets phone messages from Scarlett saying that Kelly Clarkson wants to record their songs.

Gunnar and Scarlett perform for Clarkson and do their sad eyes thing with each other, and when Clarkson asks them to write for her, Scarlett decides she can't do this. I want to tell her than if the Civil Wars could get their shit together for a second album, she can too. And if Stax Record's Sam and Dave (who reportedly hated each other) could suck it up and act like professionals, she can too. THINK OF THE MONEY. Scarlett's also bummed because she is a wee bit of suspicious of Juliette turning up at Avery's. Not sure where this is going since Scarlett's going back out on tour and Avery left a message with Juliette that she could come over anytime, day OR night.

Meanwhile in Nashville's mayoral office, Teddy is convinced that there's more to Peggy's murder than the investigators think. He is probably right. There's no way Lamar isn't behind this.

Apart from comforting her grief-stricken ex, Rayna is busy launching her label Highway 65. Nevermind that NO one down here uses the word "highway." Manager Buckey says they've got a website, though!

The rest of Rayna's drama revolves primarily around whether she should trust the market research that says her album has no single. Liam is like TRUST THE VISION. All of a sudden, Rayna understands money. She decides she needs to write a new song.

SO WAIT. Both Rayna and Deacon are having songwriting issues? Wonder where this is headed.


Stray Observations:
+ Zoe loves Gunnar. Erin doesn't care.
+ Maddie and Deacon's song tonight was one of the better ones of the season.
+ Also wondering how long Scarlett and Avery will last now that she's jealous and they've both acknowledged they've changed.

Review : 'Nashville' : 'Tomorrow Never Comes'

I bet you spent all week in knots over who wasn't going to make it out of the mid season finale. Turns out we might have a two-for on our hands. Here's what happened.

The episode centers around the Music City Music Festival. As everything gets underway, the story about Juliette and Charlie that that little weasel Layla spilled breaks and you can't swing a cat without hitting the paparazzi. Juliette gets increasingly wound up about figuring out who leaked the story, and what to do about it.

But then she kind of realizes it was Layla… like, really. Who else would it be? But in confronting the life-size Bratz Doll, Layla is too bitchy for even Juliette. Evil Boss Man Jeff overhears that Juliette thinks it might be Layla and I just stopped caring mid sentence. Dear reader, it's like we're in homeroom  and I'm catching you up on what went down in study hall while you were out with mono. Whatevs. There's no proof so far, but Jeff puts Layla on notice. Charlie pops up a couple times. Nothing interesting happens. When Juliette finally takes the stage, however, the crowd is… vocal? A smidgen hostile? Sure. Juliette sees a GIANT banner that says "Homewrecker" and partially melts down, slinking over to Avery who picks up the slack on the vocals and does the equivalent of a mountain climbing guide telling you not to look down. KEEP YOUR EYES ON ME JULIETTE.

Afterward, she yells at Glen. DAMMIT GLEN. ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS BRING ME THE HEAD OF THE TRAITOR ON A PIKE. Once again, Avery talks her off the ledge. He should really charge a retainer for emergency psych support. After one last chat with Charlie, similar to last week's where she and Will talked about how the person you're with should make you the best version of yourself, Juliette turns up in a STATE at Avery's front door, ready to confess her love, only to see that Scarlett's there because she lost her pants and friggin cannot find them.

Oops. 

Speaking of Scarlett, let's just get that out of the way real quick. She's mad at Gunnar and Zoe.

Okie. Whilst talking to Luke, Rayna finds out that Jeff is still planning on releasing that awful greatest hits album that basically should be titled Buy My Record Because I Almost Died. Talks with Tandy reveal that there is a way to come up with that $20 million if Tandy kicks in $3 mil to be a business partner, and Rayna sells everything except her hair products.

She relays this back to Luke who "doesn't get it" and my family has decided he's definitely dirty– the Wormtongue to Jeff's Saruman, if you will. SORRY. The Hobbit comes out Friday. Anyway, Jeff presents Rayna with some market research saying that focus groups of her fans aren't totes digging the new material, plus there's not really a single on the album (What about that one song about hitting ground? Remember that?). Oh. But all that's after Rayna shows up at Jeff's place to confront him and he happens to be naked in his pool with a girl. Awkward. Also awkward is how Luke gives her the old "I'll see you when I see you" after realizing they won't be touring together to promote that duet from last week.

All this brings us to Deacon and (sort of) Gunnar. When Deacon finds out that he's been taken off the lineup, and Gunnar finds out that the showcase Jeff promised him is next to a line of portable toilets, they team up. Deacon, being the suave, well-connected, urbane gentleman he is, knows a guy who owns a nearby parking lot, and they decide to play a show there. Deacon makes the arrangements, Gunnar tweets about it. Teddy is pissed. Maddie is stoked. Rayna is back to giving Deacon longing looks.

After the show, Rayna talks to Teddy for a second about her upcoming departure from Edgehill and they have another weirdly amicable moment together… right before some guy walks up to Teddy and tries to shoot him. There's a struggle, the gun goes off, and when everyone checks to see if his bathroom buddy is still there, the camera shows Peggy dead on the ground. I'm battling some serious schadenfreude here.

But that's not the craziest thing that happened. The fact is, we know Peggy's dead, and I honestly can't imagine anyone is too hung up about it. But what about a more likable character, a big-hearted but sexually confused puppy dog of a person, perhaps? This episode, Will struggles with staying in the closet. Brent finds out the guys Will beat up were the guys harassing him and his then-boyfriend. Will spends his performance looking between Layla and Brent. After, he actually winds up in bed with Brent. But when Layla comes home, she finds nothing but rumpled sheets because Will's somewhere out there about to step in front of a train. We hope he changes his mind before the season starts back up Jan. 15.

Stray Observations:
+ Deacon should sing more.
+ I don't like Peggy, but offing her in a parking lot is a pretty lazy way to get rid of a character who is clearly not going anywhere… but that seems to be show policy.
+ So, does this mean Teddy is going to be back in play? Because Rayna has stuff partially started with him, Deacon, Luke, and Liam. #Playa

Review : 'Nashville' : 'I'm Tired of Pretending'

I think I've seen this scene before...

On tonight's episode of Nashville, Rayna sported the worst hat ever. And then a bunch of other stuff happened. Let's get to it.

When I think about how unlikeable Juliette was once upon a time when she was the teen tart flavor of the month, it's ridiculous how much I rooting for her to put Layla in her place. When Layla gives herself  an encore on night, it starts a tic for tac mini war between the two that involves flipping sets, scheduling revenge duets, and then cutting in on that duet. Point, set, match, Juliette. Still, JB can't seem to win since she comes off like she's picking on a child. Juliette also tries to sort out what the heck to do with Charlie, who shows up around EVERY FRIGGIN' CORNER. She wonders if he's serious. He divorces his wife. So, there's that. But here's the thing, Juliette hasn't been persuaded. When the tour breaks and Juliette et al. go back to Nashville, she has a serious talk with Charlie, telling him that he doesn't really love her. He loves the challenge of her. He should get back together with Olivia. Probably true. Of course, if you think that's the last of it all, you're wrong. Layla calls TMZ and tells them that Juliette is the reason why "Charlivia" split. Crazy child.

Meanwhile on the Bluebird side of the tour, a super weird 4-way phone scene where Scarlett is talking to Avery while she's standing near Gunnar, who is talking to Zoe, who is standing near Avery back in Nashville, results in Avery and Zoe road tripping it to St. Louis to see Scarlett. Scarlett spends the whole visit picking up weird vibes and feeling like she's lost her place in the group. The best part is the conversation between Gunnar and Avery that goes like this, "So, you and Scarlett…" Yup. Long story short, Scarlett catches Zoe and Gunnar smooching and then holds her breath until she passes out whilst clutching her rag doll.

Will's best moment this episode is where he gets super drunk at a bar and stage dives onto the floor.

That's basically all you need to know on that front, other than something is bound to happen with Brent. Whether it's a hook up or back stabbing, I do not know.

 Speaking of hook ups and back stabbings, let's talk about Rayna and the Jaymes/Conrad clan. Most of the tension this week surrounds Maddie wanting to spend more time with Deacon (like taking guitar lessons from him) and Teddy getting prickly about it. Maddie invites Deacon to her kiddie open mic show thing performance at Two Old Hippies, and Teddy is all WHY IS HE HERE, even if Rayna could be saying that about Peggy, who insists on hugging her like they're BFFS. Maddie calls Deacon up on stage to sing with her, and Teddy gets WAY pissed and confronts him on the street.

Rayna has to sit the boys down and instruct them to share. Deacon looks remorseful, Teddy just goes back to the office and removes his rival from the lineup at the Music City Music Festival. Mature, Teddy. Real mature. Even Peggy was all WTF was that squabble about? When Peggy is not the least rational person in the room, you've got BIG problems.

Since we're on the topic of big problems, Lamar is still in jail, in case you forgot. When Tandy fails to show up and testify on his behalf that he wouldn't flee the country if they allowed him to go on house arrest, Rayna ends up taking the stand… to no avail. It does feel like Rayna's going to find out about Tandy, though, and soon.


Stray Observations:
+ Re: Mid-season finale. "SOMEONE WILL DIE."

+ I had my first Nashville cast member sighting this week. Avery ventured into the Brent'hood and for about five seconds, I tried to remember which class I had with him at Belmont. OH WAIT. Not former classmates.
+ I am so Team Juliette lately, it's dumb.

Music from 'Parenthood' : Big Deal, Night Beds, Josh Ritter

11/21/13

This is week it's "Election Day" on NBC's Parenthood. Here's the rundown on the stand out tunes from the show.

First up, we've got "Little Dipper" by Big Deal off their recent album June Gloom playing during the awkward doomed relationship chit chat Ryan and Amber had about Chinese food and being late.



While Kristina and Adam voted (woo for democracy or something), we got to hear Nashville's own Night Beds, specifically "Cherry Blossoms." Speaking of Night Beds, if you're in town, they're playing at the Stone Fox on Dec. 11.



Finally, you probably didn't have to Shazam the last song. "Joy to You Baby" by Josh Ritter played out Kristina's bid for mayor of Berkley.



That's all I've got, folks.

Review : 'Nashville' : 'Hanky Panky Women'

Cozy, no?

This week's episode of Nashville highlighted two important sides of the music industry: disillusionment and legal problems. I'm going to try and keep it brief this week since I've got an early morning, loves.

As Rayna packs for a weekend with Luke Wheeler at his tour stop in Tampa, her girl talk with Tandy about Liam v. Luke gets interrupted by the fuzz looking for her masters at the behest of the Evil Boss Jeff Fordham. As she goes to the safe, we wonder where that pyro Avery is when you need some masters burned or something. This will be the beginning of the terrible, horrible, no good, bad day.

Everyone is in Tampa since Scarlett and Gunnar joined the tour (Scarlett was totally like So.... what're you doing on this bus?). Deacon even shows up to deliver his niece her pillow. Rayna spars with Jeff, Jeff psyches out Scarlett, and ultimately it leads to Scarlett freezing on stage. She'd been complaining about her monitors being screwed up and the sound guy wouldn't fix it. Within seconds, the arena crowd starts chucking crap at her (does that happen?) and Rayna has to grab her by the hand (not for the first time that night) and drag her back out there and chastise the audience. I feel like between Rayna's defense, and Deacon's front-row-sitting-pillow-delivering self, they're basically parenting the pink-haired waif. Oy. Afterward, Scarlett melts down big time, as you would. Rayna gets into another jam with Jeff, who wants to release her album with some hideous album art (which is totally a bluff). Anyhoodle, all the stress and fighting interferes with Rayna and Luke having sexy times. But then they hear Gunnar and Scarlett singing together outside by the pool (remember the time Gunnar and Scarlett had an important convo by a pool that moved along their relationship before everything got real weird? No? Okay.) Gunnar's been struggling to write for Luke, whose fans are apparently only interested in songs about beer and trucks...

Sounds about right. 

That's right folks, once you get to do what you want to do, you don't get to do it the way you want to.  Life lessons from Nashville. Luke and Rayna like the song, though. They learn it for the next night's show and perform it. It's not bad, even if the phrase "ball and chain" is a little tired. Speaking of the next night, Scarlett somehow (probably because of beaucoup pep talks from EVERYONE) manages to come off like a seasoned professional instead of a child's torn dress, drifting down the street in the wind after a tornado demolishes a neighborhood. (Sorry.) Later, Scarlett will curl up alone on her hotel bed. The upshot of the duet is that Rayna is able to strike a deal with Jeff. He can have that duet, which will be massively successful, if she can have her masters back and he's like Ok. Maybe they'll be BFFs now since bullies WANT to be stopped, according to Rayna.

As for Juliette, remember last week when Olivia Wentworth showed up and kissed her on the mouth? Turns out the Wentworths are into threesomes.

Scandalous. 

Juliette is like Hell no. Later on, Avery is like CAN I B FREND?? TELLZ ME Y U SAD. She does, and the biggest surprise is how he doesn't tackle him into bed after he delivers one of his signature Avery Barkley Feel Better Speeches. She tells the Wentworths to shove it. Later, Charlie shows up and says he might be in love with her.

OH. And then Peggy bought a tub of pig's blood or something and faked a miscarriage after Teddy said he wanted to go to the doctor's office with her.

THANKS FOR THE IMAGE, NASHVILLE. 


Stray Observations:
+ "Steel is forged in fire."– Inspirational thing Rayna said that Watty said. WHERE IS WATTY, ANYWAY?
+ "I ain't dead and I ain't done." – Inspirational thing Deacon said about himself
+ "I might not be cut out for this." – True thing Scarlett said

Review : 'Nashville' : 'She's Got You'

If your pea-picking little heart missed watching Nashville last week, this week's episode had all the ridonkulous drama that's feeding your addiction. (Or at least, I assume you're addicted at this point, because I'm not even convinced I would have stuck with it if I weren't A) from here B) TOTALLY committed to writing your recaps, loves. Let's get started.

Rayna may or may not be leveraging her *ahem* emotional grip on Luke Wheeler, shall we say, to makes sure Scarlett gets a spot on his tour. Once the papers are signed, she says she'll go hang with him. Business first, booty later, folks. Remember that. So, she ships Scarlett off and has to deal with the fact that Teddy, a breathing loaf of Wonder Bread, is getting married the next day and wants Maddie and Daphne to sing. Maddie doesn't want to. Teddy and Rayna have a scuffle. Maddie continues to harbor some serious stress about the whole I-have-two-dads thing. God bless. Teddy is not nearly creeped out enough that Peggy is insensitive to Maddie's reluctance because COULD JEOPARDIZE CONGRESS. Also, every time Peggy says something like "We can be a real family" and references their non-existent baby, a crayfish dies. And in case you didn't know, they are endangered and indigenous to Nashvegas.  Anyway, Rayna visits Deacon and basically tells him Maddie's been asking for him and no one needs to get hurt here, especially Maddie, so fly straight. The next day, Rayna goes to hang out with Luke on his massive tracts of land and talk about exes getting re-married and sharing custody. He offers advice: You need to find a coping mechanism. Quick cut: They're shooting guns at beer bottles, you perv. Gosh. The pillow fort shenanigans come later. Meanwhile at the wedding, Maddie decides to sing after all, but still feels sad watching Teddy dance with Daphne. She calls Rayna to come get her. She asks her mom if Deacon will ever look at her the way Teddy looks at Daphne.

Me, basically. 

Rayna apologizes for all the pain and vows to make things right. Maddie seems assured, for now at least.

To back track a bit, Deacon had a crap morning the day before. He walked into his own friggin kitchen to find Avery sitting there, having recently banged his niece and polished off the last of the milk. Deacon gives him a look that vaporizes Avery...

and we never have to worry about him again. Well, not really. Later on Deacon enlists Avery to play guitar for him at an open mic at some dive in Murfreesboro. They practice together. Avery sort of helps.  I just don't think the writers totally know what to do with him, so he keeps turning up places. Long story short, they find out that Shotgun Sally's is now a comedy club, but that's okay because Rayna calls about Maddie and everyone winds up a the Bluebird. Deacon performs and then gets to chat with his daughter. She feels better. He feels better. The Bluebird feels better. I feel better.

Over to Juliette. I've never liked her more. Upon launching her tour and having to deal with sketchy radio people, she does right by the female population. There's a creepy dude nicknamed Santa (don't ask) who likes to grope starlets. She explains quite fervently the situation (being female is not easy in a world of jerks) to Charles, who has surfaced once again and he gets Santa fired. Juliette wants to fight her own battles, but figures out a way to let Santa know that she controls his employment status so he better not be feeling up any more girls. Then the weirdest thing ever happens. Charles' wife shows up and says the following: "I know you're sleeping with my husband, what I don't understand why you're not sleeping with me." And then kisses her.

Also:

And:

I am drained. Rabbits Gunnar and Zoe apparently don't leave the house. Jeff still wants Gunnar's song. Gunnar makes a desperate fool of himself in front of the label head, trying to get a deal. He gets offered a mentorship with Luke (which puts him on the bus with Scarlett) and a chance to perform at the Music City Music Festival. So, basically intangible stuff and no money. Will gets into a fight with some jerks who were bullying Brent and his boyfriend in the hotel bar/restaurant. Then he goes and sleeps with Layla who is A GEM. Not really.

GOODNIGHT CLEVELAND. I'm out.