Nashville: The Complete First Season

Set in the big-business capital of country music, this drama is a full-blown nighttime soap opera with a superb soundtrack. Created by Callie Khouri (writer of Thelma & Louise), Nashville is a series dominated by women, most notably Connie Britton's Rayna James, a savvy star whose marriage to mayoral candidate Teddy Conrad (Eric Close) is on the rocks, and Hayden Panettierre's country pop tart Juliette Barnes, a fiercely competitive, career-minded shark with more talent than she's given credit for. Sandwiched amongst the sometimes tiresome parade of affairs, betrayals, blackmail, and back-stabbing career gambits are some terrific original songs, thanks to the involvement of musical producer T-Bone Burnett. Clare Bowen, Jonathan Jackson, and Sam Palladio play attractive young up-and-comers; Powers Boothe and Robert Wisdom are political heavyweights locked in campaigns of smears and dirty tricks; and Charles Esten is an amiable veteran guitarist and recovering alcoholic whose reckless past complicates much of the narrative. Nashville is a minor success, but that is largely thanks to the music and the strong leads. Compiling all 21 episodes from the 2012–13 debut season, extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, and bloopers. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)