Dorlcote Δ Mill

So. Having seen all 15 aired (so far) episodes of Nashville, and having caught the first episode of Game of Thrones Season 3, I'm buzzed on great ladyfest TV moments.

At the moment the ladies in both Nashville and Game of Thrones are  coming into their own, especially the young ladies. I've always suspected that how much power the women have in Nashville (TV) and how much men like, respect them and work for them is exaggerated, that perhaps there's an element of positive fantasy here. But it works for me. Rayna's finally gotten a divorce from her weird marriage to the mayor (musician and mayor? what would they have in common in the real world?). But almost more importantly, her eldest daughter is finally growing some balls and becoming a teenager. After being denied out after school because her mum says she has 'homework' (homework!? i hate 'homework' parents) and her dad's coming for dinner, she replied cooly, 'you can be a real bitch sometimes, mom, no wonder dad left'. And then she's grounded more (grounded? what kind of shit punishment is that? i hate 'grounded' parents.)

To be fair, Rayna had it coming, because she'd just told maddie to do what she said because she was 'the mother' - ugh. Anyway, maddie went out anyway, sneaked in a packed Juliet Barnes concert and had a great time until a shelf fell on her head, and then she was still fine and her parents were nice to her and her mum gave her a guitar.

Question - why hasn't her mum given her the special guitar yet that belonged to her mum in turn? She's a talented 14ish? year old songwriter. Other bloggers also wonder whether she will have felt 'crushed by pressure' at this moment. I would say... I dont know. It really depends on how good a mum and dad she has. But having musical parents normally makes you much more likely to play and persist with music anyway. So I say, yes Rayna probably did quite well there to encourage Maddie to express her feelings through music, just as she herself needed to once.

Scarlett, scarlett, scarlett, scarlett, scarlett. She's slowed down by her male musical counterparts it seems.  I originally liked the idea of Scarlett and Gunnar's musical partnership, but it seemed a bit too rigid an arrangement to work on a permanent bass for such young artists who didn't know each other that well. I recognise how hard it is for scarlett, you know, it's easy to stand back and say why is she putting up with that shit but she wants to succeed in a sea of middlemen here, who turn the switches and press the buttons and give you access to the studio.

She's very young, a newbie to Nashville still, she has yet to prove herself with success and fame aka Rayna James, where being a woman on a pedestal suddenly makes things a lot easier. She doesn't seem to have any female friends, esp any female musical friends. I'm sure Rayna and this new record deal will be good for her, this relationship should have developed much earlier. But yeah, basically Scarlett needs some ladies to give her a break, or she's always having to submit to and then fight angry men and it takes up too much energy.

Also Scarlett needs to grow some balls here - i simply do not believe that women who make it in music are the type to defer to men all the time and be very friendly and passive with everyone. Does Dolly Parton seem that type to you? Does Emmylou? No! They're not homegirls, they're adventurous. Scarlett must have it in her, the actress playing her obviously has that toughness in her. You don't get anywhere in music by being pushed forward by various men and not knowing what you're doing. She's a songwriter for Christ's sake.

I never liked Gunnar since he aggressively accused Scarlett of being loose for kissing someone after she broke up with Avery. He never apologised. Actually, SHE APOLOGISED - this was the worst moment of Nashville really terrible antifeminist, anti women moment. Then a few episodes later Gunnar's brother died and, frankly, that was too much, I was ready for his brother to come into the show a bit more and stuff. It was too devastating for him to die, it didn't work, Gunnar's life would be too crushed after that, surely? My concern is that Gunnar's character doesn't match the depth of his struggles here, he's not dark enough. When he came out in a hoodie, he looked so English suddenly it was weird, I could imagine him wearing it at his drama college. So Sam Palladio's cornish roots blazed onto the screen.

And Juliet is having some interesting counselling with her mum, and managing herself musically still. Her counsellor is a bit of a lightweight seeming. He has no qualifications, officially - weird? And no job, because he can come on tour with Juliette at the drop of a hat. Juliette's character is a bit annoying, i find hayden pannettiere a bit annoying. I feel Juliette could have been more sympathetic, less of an idiot. How could she really be an idiot if she's that famous, is my question? That's it - she's portrayed as too much of an idiot. I feel she should be a bit cleverer. I liked her more at the start of the series. She really is the most admirable character of the lot, she's built all this herself despite her horrible upbringing. Very admirable. With the catchiest songs of the series too. I do like Juliette really, no one takes her seriously but she's a badass to the bone.

So Game of Thrones - i always sympathised with Sansa once she got to King's landing. She really fucked Arya over in the first series, but she got more than her just rewards. I wished she'd pushed joffrey off the ramparts though in season 2. Sansa got a lucky escape by not marrying Joffrey, seriously lucky, so so so so so lucky. Now lets see what she hatches for herself. She's found out to her happiness that Arya's alive. She has hope. She has a lot to answer for, getting her dad killed and everything. I wonder she's not racked by an all consuming guilt, actually. At the moment she mostly sits looking at ship because reality is both boring and terrible. Let's see what she gets up to soon though, fed up of seeing her sit around, she should be doing shit.

Go new wife of Joffrey - she's very very good. She's going to sneak Joffrey's power from under him. Cersei smells a fight. Cersei's kind of fucked. Threatened on every level. Poor Cersei, she's had an unhappy life. And imagine having a song like Joffrey - a life of torture. Also note that Joffrey did a really good job of acting baffled, very funny.