Arrow

You should really watch Arrow on the CW. Why?

Do I really need to say any more? 

Oh, ok, fine, I’ll give you a little more than that. First off, I am not an expert on the Green Arrow. I don’t know anything about the comics and while I think I heard the character made an appearance on Smallville, I never watched it. So if you’re looking for someone to tell you how close the show is to the comic or any other such nerd babble, you aren’t going to get it here (for a change).

What I can tell you is that Arrow is a fun, dark, and compelling show about a man looking to atone for the sins committed by himself and his father. It’s on the CW, so sure, it’s full of ridiculously attractive people, but there’s more here than just your typical problems of the 1% (Gossip Girl, I’m looking at you). Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I love me some soapy drama, but this show has created layers of mystery that frankly surprised me.

From the CW:

After a violent shipwreck, billionaire playboy Oliver Queen was missing and presumed dead for five years before being discovered alive on a remote island in the Pacific. When he returns home to Starling City, his devoted mother Moira, much-beloved sister Thea, and best friend Tommy welcome him home, but they sense Oliver has been changed by his ordeal on the island. While Oliver hides the truth about the man he's become, he desperately wants to make amends for the actions he took as the boy he was. Most particularly, he seeks reconciliation with his former girlfriend, Laurel Lance. As Oliver reconnects with those closest to him, he secretly creates the persona of Arrow - a vigilante – to right the wrongs of his family, fight the ills of society, and restore Starling City to its former glory.

The narrative follows two threads. The main story takes place in modern times with Oliver fighting as his alter-ego to take down the villains who have corrupted, misused, and taken advantage of the people and resources of the city. No doubt about it, he’s a dark hero. He doesn’t hesitate to shoot and kill people when he has too which is honestly kind of refreshing for a “super hero” show. It also doesn’t take too long for him to trust someone with his secret which is another bonus. After all, you can only take a show so far when the main character can’t talk to anybody else about what’s going on in the plot. The secondary story consists of flashbacks to Oliver’s time on the island and how he learned all his ninja, archery, and other badass skills. Turns out he wasn’t alone on the seemingly deserted island, and there was another lost soul there to act as his Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The thing I really like about Arrow is how much mystery they have built into the plot. In Starling City nobody is as they seem, and everyone has a secret. There’s a lot of questions that I want to see answered, such as what did Oliver’s father actually do that was so horrible, what is his mother up to (because she is definitely up to something), what organization is John Barrowman working for (Captain Jack!), and what else happened to Oliver on the island? Although the first couple episodes have had the same problem that Revenge did last year—i.e. just watching someone work down a lit is kind of not compelling, I think once we get into things a little more the pace will pick up a bit. And every episode has awesome fight scenes.

I also get the feeling the writers have something in store for the love interest, Laurel (one of my favorite CW regulars, Katie Cassidy). She showcased some pretty impressive fighting skills in one of the episodes and I don’t want to hint too much at anything, but I’ve seen the name “Black Canary” bandied about on the internet. In any event, it indicates that she’s going to be more than just a lame love interest and will take a more active part in the butt-kicking in the future. Right now she’s one of the goody goody lawyers who do things like protect the weak and disenfranchised (yawn), but hopefully girlfriend will get in there and beat up some more bad guys soon. Oh, and she isn’t the type to fawn all over Oliver which I also kind of like. In fact, she hates his guts since at the time he was yacht-wrecked, he was cheating on her with her sister who died in the sinking yacht. Awkward. That doesn’t mean she isn’t attracted to the Green Arrow though as these things typically go.

In short, Arrow is a fine entry into the comic-book universe and if you’re a fan of action drama there’s a lot to like here. It’s like someone took Robin Hood, Batman, and the Scarlet Pimpernel (since Oliver plays the fool when he’s in his public persona) and mixed them all together with Revenge. It’s worth watching, if only for the pretty…..

Arrow airs on Wednesday evenings at 8:00pm on the CW.

Alphas gets an A

Do you all remember how excited we were during the first season of Heroes? Finally we were getting a fresh, contemporary take on the superhero's journey. As expected, we started with our heroes discovering their powers, setting off various chains of events that all converged in an epic boss battle. At the end, the heroes were collected together for the first time - IMHO, the obvious next step was for them to form a superhero team. This would allow them to explore their super-powered nature as an identity - one person with powers might be a fluke, two people might be a coincidence, but twenty, thirty, one hundred people? That's a subculture. Sadly, instead of moving these characters forward, the creative team of Heroes decided to hit a giant "reset" button and scatter the heroes to the wind. This is part of why the series fizzled, but not before churning out two more seasons of diminishing quality. 

From Heroes to Zeroes.

Weep no more, my fellow Heroes fans - SyFy's Alphas is here to save the day. This show picks up where Heroes dropped the ball. It focuses on a group of super-powered people (known as Alphas) who have been recruited by the government to form a task force that investigates crimes perpetuated by similarly super-powered individuals. Their leader is actually a non-Alpha who also serves as a psychiatrist, and the team doubles as a support group. This is an elegant little set-up - we have the perfect structure within which to explore these people's superpowers, their basic humanity, and how the two an play against each other. 

Alphas also does something that Heroes never did - it imposes limits on particular powers, by trying to make them fit within known biological frameworks. Often it's a bit of a psuedo-scientific stretch, but it's interesting nonetheless. More importantly, it means that there are significant downsides to various powers. My favorite character is a man who can see electronic signals and other sonic wavelengths, who also has high-functioning autism. It doesn't hurt that he's played by one of my favorite Bones alums, Ryan Cartwright (aka Vincent Nigel-Murray). The first season also had a couple of cameos from sci-fi standard bearers/fan favorites Summer Glau and Brent Spiner - squee! 

The internet scuttlebutt is that Alphas has about a 50/50 shot at renewal, and that the actors will be told by Thanksgiving. In light of this, I urge all you Heroes fans to check out this series - TiVo it, rent it, buy it, watch it TODAY. The entirety of the first season is available on Netflix Instant Watch, and five episodes from the second season are available on SyFy Rewind. And keep your fingers crossed for good news later this month! 

Non-squee Glee

I think it comes as no surprise that I really want to like Glee. It should also come as no surprise that this is not always easy - when you profess to be a fan of this show, people enjoy looking down their noses at you. As if an opinion can be wrong. The fact is, I'm not a music purist so I don't mind if someone remakes a song. And while I do watch some television shows with a critical eye, I have chosen not to do so with this particular show. Glee is never going to be 'critically acclaimed' - the best it can hope for is 'fan favorite.'

As a fan of the show, therefore, I feel like a traitor for saying that this season so far has definitely not been a favorite. With many of the characters (Kurt, Mercedes, Santana, Puck, etc) graduating, the creative team was faced with a choice. Do they follow the post-graduation life of their most popular characters (Kurt and what's-her-name) OR create new characters for us to fall in love with? Unfortunately, they decided to do both - with fairly disastrous results. 

Storyline number one involves the new students back at McKinley, including a love story between the Rachel stand-in and the Puck stand-in that is already boring me. The one saving grace of the McKinley storyline is Unique, the transgender transfer student from Vocal Adrenaline. If Kurt and Mercedes invented a time machine and had a child 15 years ago, Unique would be this FABULOUS offspring. 

Speaking of Kurt, storyline number two involves the adventures of Kurt and the short brunette in New York City. I'm sure that the plot around the Jewish girl is actually quite fascinating, but every time she comes on the screen I have a micro-seizure. To be honest, this could probably be a show unto itself. As much as I hate to admit it, Glee should probably have ended when this generation graduated, and Kurt and so-and-so should have gotten a spin-off series.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not jumping on the Glee-hate bandwagon. I will still watch the show, still love the characters I love and still love to hate the characters I hate. Besides, JANE MOTHERLOVIN' LYNCH. Need I say more?

New episode of Glee airs this Thursday, 9pm on FOX. 

Spartacus: Vengeance

You've probably noticed that we went a week without posting here on TV Sluts. In case you hadn't heard, there was a hurricane over here in the DC area. Unfortunately, that really has nothing to do with it since none of us lost power and I even got two days off of work. Basically, we are all lazy. Sorry about that.

Let's get back to our regularly scheduled blogging:

AHHHHHHH VENGEANCE!

(mild spoilers below)

Spartacus' second season (but technically the third after the prequel season Gods of the Arena) picks up a few months after the events of the first season. Spartacus and his former-slave cohorts have massacred those in the House of Batiatus who formerly forced them to fight in the arena, and they are now waging a guerrilla war on the Roman soldiers that have been sent to subdue them. Spartacus is still out for the blood of Praetor Claudius Glaber, the man who originally enslaved Spartacus and his wife, and the season deals with each man trying to defeat the other. 

There's just as much blood and violence this time around, but surprisingly not as much sex (boo). I mean, don't get me wrong, you still get a lot of nudity, but most of the sex is consigned to the background. This season is more about, unsurprisingly, vengeance, and the characters don't seem to have as much free time to get sexy.

There's also not quite as much political maneuvering. The previous two seasons were almost entirely set in the House of Batiatus, and felt almost like an R-rated Upstairs, Downstairs or Downton Abbey. This time around Spartacus is on the move and concerned with freeing more slaves to add to his army, keeping that army from tearing itself apart, and staying a step ahead of the Romans. Instead, the scheming comes from the secondary characters such as Glaber and his most-awesomely tricksy wife, Ilithyia. I confess that I love their plotting almost as much as the fight scenes and I'd glad to see their return to the show after an absence from the season season prequel.

If there's one quibble with Spartacus: Vengeance, it's that Spartacus' storyline became the least interesting. Liam McIntyre steps into the title role after Andy Whitfield's most unfortunate death due to cancer, and while he does a solid job (and certainly holds his own in the fight scenes), I think he lacks that essential star quality that Whitfield possessed. Spartacus may be concerned with avenging his wife, but he doesn't seem to do a lot more than brood and give semi-rousing speeches. I was hoping for something a little more dynamic this time around.

Despite this minor complaint, I still enjoyed the hell out of the season. Those crazy Romans don't seem to do anything but scheme and have sex, and that's fine with me. The characters introduced in Gods of the Arena made a very welcome addition to the cast, and the season ended with a lot of surprises, twists, and an extremely satisfying finale episode. There are some awesome battle scenes, some truly gross and creative deaths, and even some welcome girl power. Turns out former lady slaves have even more of an axe to grind then their male counter-parts...and they will grind it in your face.

Next season Spartacus takes the fight to Rome and the scope looks even bigger than before. He's going to have to step up to the role of general....and it's almost enough to make me regret not signing for Starz.

Sigh, it's going to be a long winter of waiting.

Recapping AHS: The Perfect Storm

Starting in the present, Teresa is hiding in the cell watching Bloody Face carve up poor Leo before he comes for her as well. Bloody Face’s efforts are thwarted by a frustratingly alive (but still arm-less) Leo, who plows into him allowing Teresa to make a run for it. Bloody Face follows, pulling a gun and shooting Teresa in the head and Leo in the chest. At which point we see that there are two Bloody Faces who pull off their masks to reveal a couple of fraternity rejects who are getting a kick out of killing newlyweds who like to boink in abandoned asylums. Or something. The faux Bloody Faces wonder what could have torn off Leo’s arm when they are approached by a third Bloody Face from the shadows coming at them menacingly.

Act I! In the asylum, Sister Eunice reports to Sister Jude that Hurricane Sandy a big nor’easter is about to blow in while at the same time slipping her an old newspaper from 1948 that has an article about a young girl killed in a hit and run. No surprise, it’s the girl that Jude ran over. In his lab, Dr. Arden examines the alien bug he pulled from Kit’s neck. Jude apparently has a stress baking problem, because she heads to the kitchen to knead bread and/or guilt as Dr. Thredson tries to convince her that maybe Skinnerian psychology would be a better approach, or at least a less creepy one, to treating the inmates. Jude is “a beacon of compassion” and to prove it she’s gotten permission to show The Sign of the Cross to distract the inmates while the storm blows in. Thredson wants copies of the possessed boy’s files, saying he must have died of natural causes. Jude is all, yeah, right. 17-year-old with a heart attack. Totally natural. Eunice informs the inmates that they’ll all be together in the dark to watch a movie about the death of Christians and won’t that be fun? (Sidebar, I kind of like the demon’s sense of humor.) Kit and Grace plan to escape during the storm, but Kit is called to Arden’s office who suspects that Kit was planted in the asylum to spy on him by the East Germans, the Jews, the mafia, the Illuminati, the cast of Jersey Shoreand every other offensive stereotype. Eunice brings Jude some communion wine, saying someone’s been drinking it before taking a long swig herself. Jude demands to know why Eunice is wearing bright red lipstick. Eunice says it’s “Ravish Me Red” and that Arden told her it was Jude’s favorite color. Demon: 2. Jude: 0. 

It's actually "Berry Sunrise", but hey, demons lie, right?

In her cell, a Mexican woman who recognizes that Eunice is possessed cries and prays as Eunice comes to her, demanding that they pray together. Eunice suddenly stabs her with a pair of scissors, spilling blood everywhere. Eunice throws the Mexican (Seriously, that’s what they call her. No other name.) into the woods to be eaten by the creatures there. Eunice is no longer afraid of them, but that’s possession for you.

Act II! Eunice tells Arden that the creatures are getting hungrier, but Arden says they just have to make it through the winter. It take Eunice/Demon all of two minutes before she starts with the sexy talk, hiking up her skirts and offering herself to Arden in graphic terms on his desk. Arden slaps her and calls her filthy, but is clearly shaken. Eunice just laughs and leaves. In the common room, Lana approaches Thredson and asks him to get a message to Wendy. In the kitchen, Shelly asks Grace if she can join in the escape attempt, saying she wants out so she can go to France where they’re more open about sex. Jude meanwhile confronts Arden about the red lipstick. Arden says he believes that Eunice has been corrupted by the asylum and specifically by Shelly. Jude believes Arden is using the newspaper and the lipstick to drive Jude from her position so he can take over the asylum. Back in her office, the phone rings and it’s the voice of the dead girl who taunts Jude saying she just left her there and didn’t even get out of the car. Jude sobs and notices the dead girl’s shattered glasses somehow on her desk. In her misery, Jude reaches for the bottle of wine that Eunice left earlier, despite saying she’s sworn off all spirits.

Act III! Jude has officially fallen off the wagon, drinking by herself in her office. Add a little Sex and the City and basically this would be a modern liberated woman’s standard Friday night. A very tipsy Jude heads to the common room to introduce the inaugural movie night (“either a beloved tradition or just another bitter disappointment” – I seriously love it when Jude gets existential) as the storm begins. Everyone’s accounted for except the Mexican. Jude then quotes Carousel at them and tries to be inspirational, but it’s like when your crazy drunk aunt tries to be poetic at Christmas dinner and then Jude has a breakdown remembering the girl she ran over, which honestly is also kind of like your crazy drunk aunt. Thredson tells Lana that he went to Wendy’s house, but she wasn’t there though there was blood on the floor and he now suspects that Kit may not be Bloody Face at all. Grace and Kit get out of the common room by saying they have to use the bathroom which is basically every high school kid’s excuse ever. Lana uses a scene of a woman bathing naked to do the same, arguing that the scene is counter-productive to her treatment. Points to Lana this round. Jude prowls the asylum looking for the Mexican when something moves in the dark and an alien suddenly comes out of the shadows. Arden, meanwhile, finds a white statue of the Virgin in the asylum vestibule and decorates it lasciviously with the red lipstick before calling it a whore and smashing it. Lana finds Grace, Kit and Shelly and apologizes to Kit, offering to help them escape. First they have to get past an orderly, which Shelly volunteers to…um…distract. Blowjobs commence. Lana, Kit and Grace make it to the chute and escape outside while the storm rages. Shelly attempts to follow but is discovered by Arden.

Act IV! Lana, Grace and Kit run into the forest before discovering the Mexican’s half-eaten body as well as the things doing the eating. The creatures, which look a lot like the undead, chase them back into the chute. Have to say, I think the asylum is preferable actually. 

WE HAVE ZOMBIES, PEOPLE!!!

In the common room, Eunice is getting particularly into the movie as it approaches the scene where the Christians all get eaten by lions. Heh. Arden throws Shelly into his lab and begins to take off his pants. Shelly sees what he’s packing and starts laughing in spite of herself. Not smart, Shelly. Arden knocks her out. Eunice finds Jude in her room, though she doesn’t remember how she got there. Jude shuts down the film after hearing that inmates have gone missing. The inmates are upset the movie isn’t over, but Jude is all whatever they all die spoilers. Lana, Kit and Grace have made it back to the room, though, so who are the missing inmates? In Arden’s lab, Shelly wakes up strapped to table as Arden tells her that everyone thinks she’s in the woods. Shelly begs him to let her walk out of here, but Arden says that’s not possible and reveals that he has amputated her legs below the knee to keep her from running away. OMGWTF!!!

Recapping AHS: Your Mother Dances for Soldiers in Hell

We begin where we left off last week with Teresa being chased by Bloody Face through the chute underneath Briarcliff. Teresa runs back to Leo, but Bloody Face is close behind. Bloody Face begins stabbing Leo repeatedly while Teresa cowers in the cell. Back in 1964, Wendy is talking with her fellow lesbians, vowing to break Lana out of the asylum while “Wishin’ and Hopin’” plays in the background. Nicely done with the irony there, show. Later that night, while showering, Wendy finds an open window in the house. When she goes to investigate, as all horror clichés do, she is attacked by Bloody Face.

Act 1! Sister Jude is leading a surprise search of the asylum. Pepper has a food violation hiding bread in her room. Shelly notes that she also has a cucumber, because why hide from any innuendos now? In Lana’s room, Jude finds notes that Lana has been taking about the conditions in the asylum. Jude confiscates the notes, but Lana says she has an excellent memory. Jude approaches Dr. Arden about using shock therapy for Lana as a therapeutic measure to help her get rid of her lesbian memories. Dr. Arden is surprised, saying that Jude has called shock therapy “barbaric”. Jude has prayed on the issue since then and has to come to a new appreciation of God’s tools. Lana is strapped down and the charges placed on her. Rather than perform the shocks himself, Arden asks Jude to administer them. She does, but seems conflicted about it. Maybe her humanity isn’t totally gone. We meet Dr. Thredson, sent to evaluate Kit by the state. Kit insists to Thredson that his wife is still alive and that the aliens have her. In the woods, Arden finds Sister Eunice feeding the creatures. Eunice wants to know more about them, but Arden defers and offers her a candy apple instead. Eunice refuses saying that indulgence is a sin, but Arden insists and she gives in, only slightly erotically. In the common room, Kit tried to get Grace to tell him how to get out of the asylum. Thredson tells Sister Jude that he’s appalled by what he’s seen here and that the conditions are less than, say, enlightened. Jude is all, whatever, I have to meet with a new family with a crazy son who is probably a chronic masturbator. Said family’s son actually has a much worse problem; the son has been seeing things not there and yesterday they found him in the barn covered in blood, having eviscerated a horse and eaten its heart while speaking a strange language. The staff confronts the son, Jed, and he immediately turns into Linda Blair.

Whatever else you do, don't let him get too friendly with the crucifix.

Act II! In the hydrotherapy room, Lana and Grace have been locked into the hot water tubs. Grace breaks them out and the two ladies are conveniently naked. Lana tells Grace she knows a way out of the asylum, but she needs help. In the kitchens, Shelly tries to get Arden to sleep with her in exchange for a few minutes outside where she can feel the sun. We learn that Shelly was only committed to the asylum after she lived a rather promiscuous life and her husband caught her sleeping with two Navy sailors. Arden is not impressed with her “it’s a man’s world” speech and calls her a whore. Meanwhile, the exorcist has been called for Jed. Monsignor asks that Thredson join them for the exorcism. In the common room, Kit helps Lana hide her notes as the orderlies send them all to bed early. Lana doesn’t trust him, believing that he is a murdered of women. The exorcism begins with Sister Jude barred from the room, despite her insistence that she’s strong enough to stay.

Act III! Arden is home setting up for a nice romantic dinner…with a prostitute. He tries to interest her in Chopin and a fine wine, but she begs off saying she doesn’t drink on dates or kiss on the mouth. Arden menacingly orders her to sit and then grabs a knife and begins to carve a roast all the while mentioning that she must be relieved that the local killer has been caught. Back at Chateau d’Pazuzu, Jed is getting demon-y. Jed taunts them, ending with the exorcist being lifted into the air and thrown against the wall. Monsignor rushes the exorcist to the infirmary and orders Jude to watch after Jed. Jed seems lucid, screaming for help and luring Jude into the room. Once she goes in, the demon attacks, calling her the smartest person in the room who’s worthless because she’s a woman and a slut, mocking her “red knickers” and the 53 men she’s had in her time. Flashback to a younger Jude singing in a nightclub for army soldiers in the war. She comes on to men, but goes home alone. Drunk, she accidently runs over a young girl with her car. Back in 1964, Jed is suddenly the little girl calling Jude a murderer. Jude snaps and attacks Jed and OH HELL YES do I want to watch Sister Jude bitch-smack a demon back to hell. 

Damn. "Hey Jude" indeed...

Thredson attempts to sedate Jed and in the process all the power in the building goes out. In the women’s war, the doors rattle then suddenly open by themselves. The women recognize their opportunity and Grace and Lana make a run for it, but Kit wants to come with. Lana yells for the orderlies saying that they’re escaping. The orderlies catch Grace and Kit, beating them. Back in Jed’s room, he’s going into cardiac arrest before sitting upright and then suddenly dying. As he dies, he stares directly at Sister Eunice who suddenly, ominously, falls backwards at the same time as the crucifix on the wall falls to the ground.

Act IV! Arden has made his prostitute dress like a nun. Oh Lord. As the whore gets ready, she stumbles across his personal collection of sexy photos, which involve a lot of women tied up and possibly even hurt and bloody. Arden throws her to the bed and tells her to get with the sexy but she kicks him in the groin, running for the door. The next morning, Arden visits an unconscious Eunice in the infirmary as she recovers from her “fainting” spell. She’s still meek and mild as ever, apologizing for being only in her undershirt. He leaves and she lays down, throwing the covers off her, as the crucifix on the wall shudders. In her office, Jude tells Lana she’s proud of her and has a treat for her - she brings Kit and Grace into the room and Lana gets to decide on the size of the riding crop that Jude will beat them with. Lana selects on size, but Jude chastises her for picking such a small one. Selecting the larger crop, Jude goes to beat Grace before Kit takes the fall for her. Jude spits that Kit seems to think that Grace is much better than she is before lashing Kit as Lana and Grace watch on.

Next week, there’s something about (sister) Mary (Eunice)…

Nashville

Uh-oh. I was all set to give Nashville a glowing review (it had the best pilot of the Fall season), but then I watched episode 3...and I found myself getting bored. So here is what is going to happen. I'm going to spend most of this post talking about all the good things about the show, and then at the end I'll just make a quick note of the things that started to get to me in episode 3. The take-away from this is that Nashville is a really good drama, and probably one of my favorite new shows of the Fall (my absolute favorite, Arrow, we'll get to next week).

You don't need to be a country music fan to like Nashville. I'm not (some Dixie Chicks albums are as country as I get)*. It's kind of like with Friday Night Lights, I could give two shits about football in real life, but while watching that show I was riveted. Oh, and I will watch anything with Connie Britton because she is amazing.

From wiki (because ABC.com is blocked at work...lame):

The series stars Connie Britton as Rayna Jaymes, a legendary country music superstar, whose stardom begins fading. Her producers offer her a joint tour with the up-and-comer Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere),  the young and sexy future of country music. But both singers are pursuing their own goals.

There are other subplots swirling around our two stars, of course. Juliette wants to seduce Rayna James' band leader away from her (literally and figuratively) to head up her tour, and wants to be taken seriously as a singer and songwriter. Meanwhile, Rayna's Dad (Powers Booth--from Deadwood in a brilliant casting choice) is a millionaire up to no good, and convinces Rayna's husband to run for mayor as Nashville, for reasons that aren't exactly clear yet. There's also some other nonsense about someone's niece and the guy who is crushing on her trying to cut a demo but whatever. Drama!

Two things the show is doing really well: first, making its leading ladies interesting and substantial. They aren't just stereotypes or modeled too closely after celebrities in the real world. Sure, the "rising country music star" brings to mind Taylor Swift, but it's pretty clear Juliette isn't just a Taylor rip-off. Same thing with Rayna.  The "fading star" thing has been done before, but these ladies feel like real women with all their conflicting motivations and even inconsistencies. I don't think it hurts that Connie Britton is a wonderful actress and Hayden Panettiere has matured her acting way beyond Heroes.  They are both decent singers as well and it appears everyone on the show does their own singing.

"I want to be, like, respected and stuff. I can write songs too about boys and love and you know, other things that are super important."

The second thing that I really like is the hints of backstory. We know that Rayna and her father have had some epic falling out related to something in their past, but we don't know what. We also know that he is using her husband as a political puppet, but again, the reasons why aren't clear. Rayna and her band leader used to have a relationship, and there are hints that they still have feelings for each other. Even Juliette has a crack head Mom who pops up now and then, but I think there is something else going on with that story as well. I want to keep watching to fill in the story, and that's a good sign.

What isn't a good sign is how I felt after episode 3. Even though we are still in the beginning of the show, some of the plots have begun to stall. I get that Rayna and Juliette are going on tour, either together or separately--is that ever going to actually happen? I get that Juliette wants to steal away Rayna's band leader...but are they just going to keep dancing around that? Nashville has set up some really good plots, but they need to get the show on the road, maybe literally.

Despite these problems (which could disappear with next week's episode, who knows?), Nashville is a sold entry into this Fall's tv season and provides a welcome shot of estrogen of the awesome leading lady variety. You should give it a shot, even if you don't like country music. There's a lot here to love and I for one will put on my cowboy boots and sequins and enjoy the ride.

Nashville airs Wednesdays at 10 on ABC.

More sequins!

*Full disclosure--I really like bluegrass.