I wasn't planning on watching this given my dislike of Country music. But I've read a few articles and they made it sound like it's worth at least giving it a shot. Besides, I love Connie Britton in everything she has done. So, why not. Premieres tonight.

This is definitely going to be a straight up Soap Opera. I don't have a problem with that, I like Soaps when they are done right and the Pilot is off to a good start. Connie Britton is great, so is Hayden Panettiere. The character archetypes are interesting and the fact that it's set in the music business world, even if it is Country, is what intrigues me the most. I'm still not a fan of the music for the most part so it will be interesting to see just how far I can ride this series in spite of it. I did kinda like the song that closes out the episode. I'm on board with Nashville for the time being.

So are you watching the show for the story or more for "I know where that is"? You have Nashville, I had Veronica Mars.

There is a line of dialog in a particular scene that pretty much sums up the musical climate and lack of knowledge on current "music fans" where 3 "fans" are kissing Rayna's (Connie Britton) about how much they love her music and one of the fans says she should put out a new album, Rayna tells her that her newest album just dropped and the fan's response was "Is it at Starbucks?" Oh, brother.

Okay, now for the rest of the episode. They did a great job detailing why Pop Music singers at large just absolutely suck. Just watched the video shoot of Juliet (Hayden Panettiere) at the beginning of the episode and you will see a by-the-numbers-manufactured-radio-song-with-no-soul track and then compare it to the final song at the end of the episode sung by Rayna and Deacon (Chip Esten) and you will see what has longevity. It's all about how you choose to sing a song that makes it one for the ages. Hell, just look at the song that Juliet and Deacon wrote in the back of the truck and then her demo of the same song in the studio. Night and day. The acoustic one was way better, the polished, countrified one, although a bit more soulful, didn't do it for me.

Anyway, this was a fantastic episode.

I wonder what the logic is for Juliet to shoplift, knowing that there are fans watching her. Is it that she is trying to give herself the 'bad girl' persona, or is it a way to make sure the news stays on her and keep her mother and her drug use out of the press? I think it's the latter. I'm still not able to shake Connie Britton as Tami Taylor just yet.

Well, based on my prediction last week about what was the motivation for Juliet to shoplift, I was wrong. With the ending of this episode, I would say it was a ruse just to get Deacon to have sympathy and compassion for her to hook him into her clutches. Well played, ma'am, well played. Another great episode. I knew Juliet's interview with Robin Roberts would blow up in her face. There is so much juicy stuff on the show that it's flying by super fast. Even the political campaign just got a hell of a lot more interesting now that they are hinting at something happening between Teddy (Eric Close) and Peggy (Kimberly Williams). Yes, it's obvious they had a thing and the writers are trying to get us to think 'affair'. But I think it's gonna go deeper. Deep like 'illegitimate child' deep.

Another great episode. I don't know which story I'm liking more. There's the whole Deacon and Juliette arc that's running. There's the Gunnar, Scarlet and her slimeball boyfriend Avery "love" triangle with him constantly trying to undermine her chance at succeeding where he has constantly failed. And there's the Teddy for Mayor campaign that is getting dirty and leading toward something dark. The ending definitely is setting up a blackmail scheme. How it plays out is anybody's guess. Nashville looks like a fun place to visit. I never once thought about visiting there, even when I was a huge Elvis fan.