From Deseret News archives:

'Nashville' not reality

Published: Friday, Sept. 14, 2007 12:16 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
It just doesn't seem that smart to start off a so-called "reality" show with a complete, total and obvious lie. And yet that's exactly what happens in "Nashville," which premieres tonight at 8 p.m. on Fox/Ch. 13.

Fox describes this as a "high-stakes, high-drama docu-soap" about a bunch of attractive young people trying to become country-music stars. Calling it a "docu-soap" is a way, apparently, of admitting this is fictional without really admitting it.

But that's obvious from the get-go. Tonight's premiere opens with country singer-wannabe Rachel Bradshaw and her famous father, Terry.

"People always told me, 'Oh, well, you'll only get somewhere because of your dad,"' Rachel whines.

"Listen, it's not my job to open doors," Terry says, completely disingenuously.

Yes, like Rachel would even be on this Fox show if her father weren't a famous, Super Bowl-winning quarterback who happens to work as a Fox football analyst. Of course she wouldn't.

But then "Nashville" comes to us from the producers of MTV's "Laguna Beach," and that show was long ago outed for fictionalizing reality.

Rachel Bradshaw is incredibly annoying — a spoiled brat who lies to her boyfriend and expects the world on a platter — but she's one of the few people in the show who isn't so bland she fades into the background.

Story continues below
The rest of the cast includes:

Chuck Wicks, who just signed with Sony/BMG; Matt Jenkins, who released a CD that didn't sell (and he was dropped by his record company); Sarah Gunsolus, Rachel's best friend who thinks she can social-climb her way to stardom; Jamey Johnson, who won a songwriter-of-the-year award; aspiring singer/songwriters Lindsey Hager and Jeff Allen; and Mike Combs, a coal miner's daughter with dreams of stardom.

Oh, and for reasons that are never adequately explained, Clint Moseley — an executive at his father's jet-sales company, who has no country-music dreams — is on hand to scam on and lie to various young women.

This looks like something that ought to be on a cable network, not Fox. Not that it would do well on cable — "Nashville" is a bore.

If you're fictionalizing reality and it's still a bore, you're not doing your job.

HERE'S YOUR SIGN: TBS has renewed "The Bill Engvall Show" for a second season — which is good news indeed.

Engvall, part of the original "Blue Collar Comedy Tour" with Jeff Foxworthy, Ron White and Larry the Cable Guy, is also set to host "Blue Collar Comedy: The Next Generation," a special scheduled to air on TBS on Nov. 27.

Recent comments

Thats the article I read by this stooge. Removing the only...

Chris | Sept. 14, 2007 at 2:55 p.m.

I agree about the reproduction thing - I also vote for the mandatory...

also me | Sept. 14, 2007 at 2:38 p.m.

Image
Michael Yarish, Fox

Sarah and Lindsey support Rachel when she breaks up with her boyfriend in Fox's 'Nashville.'

previousnext

Latest comments

Nebraska could now help TCU

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have heard it all before. One, two years away from the...

Don't expect Russia to sign treaties endorsing sanctions without covertly...

LA to submit bid to host World Cup

PLEASE DO IT!!! You Got Rose Bowl., La Coliseum which likely could be...

Utahn aiding poor

What a better world we would live in if everyone with the wealth of the...

U.S. gets favorable World Cup draw

2 teams and nations I love so much USA and ENGLAND meeting 1st!! Epic...

Does anyone else find this article humorously ironic? Dick is writing how...

Letters: Fundamentalist dogma

Good letter, Mr. Price. I couldn't agree more. A great way to make bad...

Hate not limited to 1 in-state rivalry

It grieves me to ruin your fantasy, but there are so many people in the state...

Hurry up you world marxists. If you don't pass something fast, you may not...

Letters: Applaud 'green people'

Are you talking about the Upah Lumpahs on Charlie and the Choclate factory?

Advertisements