Nashville

Perhaps the most talked about series of the fall season has been this ABC Country Music Drama. Centering around the Nashville music and, apparently, political scene the two main characters are Tami Terrell, er....Rayna James, a 40 year old country music superstar played by Connie Britton.

Her adversary in the show is a young, poppy country star, you can fill in the blank as to who this character might be modeled after, named Juliet Barnes. Played by Hayden Panettierre, who rose to fame a few years ago in the show of the moment Heroes, as the show begins Juliet is easy to dislike.

Powers Boothe who I will always remember for his performance in the early eighties miniseries on the Guyana Massacre, his role as Jim James earned him far reaching acclaim. In this series he plays Lamar Wyatt, Rayna's father who is a major figure in Nashville politics and could be considered, at least initially, as the J R figure, the master manipulator.

With Connie Britton as the star this show might have one of the largest advantages of any show starting out this year. She is without a doubt the most likable actress in television today. She is wonderful. Still the setting from Friday Night Lights to Nashville is quite different and one can be sure that ABC will not be satisfied to have a critics darling in this series. They are looking for ratings.

As I watched this show my opinion changed a couple of times. In the first fifteen minutes I about wrote the show off. Watching Panettierre snarl her way, as her role needs, as a very unlikable character and my dislike of soap operas I was reading to walk, my wife said however I should give it a chance and she was correct.

I am still not convinced that the show will keep my interest. If I was to bet my guess would be that it will not. It will be more a matter of personal preference on my part and not a denigration of the show. Britton and Boothe are tremendous, of that there is no doubt, I just do not know what the market is for a soap opera set in the country music scene. If one can succeed there is every reason to bet on this one however.

Seeking a Friend For the End of the World

Friday evening my wife and I, as well as her sister went to see the new Steve Carell movie. Carell is surely one of the more likable comedic actors these days and I thought the premise of the movie looked good.

The movie begins with Carell's character Dodge driving with his wife when a news bulletin comes on the radio advising that efforts by a space shuttle mission to divert the asteroid known as Matilda has failed. This intones the announcer was the last chance to prevent the asteroids collision with Earth.

As they sit there, stunned, Dodge's wife gets out of the car, evidently deciding that spending the last 21 days of her life with him is not what she wants.

One might expect the world would go crazy, and they would be right but for Dodge he just continues. He goes to work, selling insurance. Eventually even the silliness of this is apparent to him. He goes to a party at a friend's house. His friend's wife played by Connie Britton wants to fix him up. The woman is very willing but Dodge cannot make himself spend the last three weeks of his life getting to know someone. This scene is actually quite funny. With the world coming to an end there are no limits. The party progresses, the children are taught to drink alcohol, we hear someone say, " Hey everyone we are going to do heroin." In short a dark but funny view of the end of the world.

After Dodge arrives at home he sees a young lady out on his fire escape. As he opens the window the young lady embraces him in tears. He invites her in, she introduces herself as Penny who has just broke up with her boyfriend, they lived upstairs in the building.

Penny would like to get home to see her family in England, Dodge decides he would like to revisit his first love. Over time they develop a friendship. The truth is for a movie about the end of the world not as much happens as you would expect.

With all that however the movie is very sweet. I thought it was one of the movies that was just understated enough to be more than the sum of its parts. Penny, played by Kiera Knightly , accompanies Dodge as he travels back to find his lost love. Kiera Knightly has been in many movies, I cannot think of any of them, but I must say that I found her in this role to be very attractive and likable. Perhaps Carell's likability rubs off on her. In any case Penny is a joy.

Another fine part of the movie is when Dodge goes to see his father. His father, played by Martin Sheen, had left the family when he was a boy and he had not seen him since as he wanted no part of a reconciliation. After some talk it is agreed that sorry is sorry and they reconcile. The scene of them having dinner is more heartwarming than would be expected.

Eventually as they approach the current home of Olivia, the first love, Dodge realizes that his true love is right there with him. This is why he took her to his father, who has a plane and can fly her home to her family. After placing her asleep in the plane he goes home to his apartment. Soon thereafter however Penny appears, knowing that she only wants to be with him in this time.

By this time the end is near. They lay on the bed and as they speak of their love they hear the sound of the asteroid coming in and then the screen goes white.

My wife liked the movie, my sister in law could not get over the difference in the ages of Dodge and Penny. Seems kind of silly to me, with the end of the world weeks away I do not think an age difference really matters.

I liked this movie very much.

American Horror Story

This new series on FX debuted last week too much fanfare. Brought to us by the producers of Glee and being aired on FX one assumes the show will be on the edge, certainly not network fare.

The cast is strong led by Connie Britton, Dylan McDermott and in a deliciously nasty role Jessica Lange. The show is over the top. You cannot look at something else, you will miss something. My wife had bad dreams and was up in the hour after watching this.

That said it is kind of campy, it is not slightly scary it is over the top scary all the time. The first episode did a good job introducing much of the plotlines. We see two boys killed in a house twenty five years ago. We see an East Coast couple suffering through a found out about affair. Next we see the family moving into the house.

We see weird neighbors, little children with down syndrome telling people they are going to die. We see a young man with violent fantasies being treated by a psychiatrist played by McDermott and befriending his daughter who has her own issues.

This show is weird. It is scary. You cannot take your eyes off it. Connie Britton is wonderful in everything she does. I joked with my wife that Coach Taylor is going to be awful upset when he finds out what she is doing.

FX has the ability to give a show some rope to succeed. This show should for awhile though the history of shows like this is that they burn out fast. Watch now so you can say you were there at the beginning.