Nashville - Season 3 Premiere - Recap: And I'm Crazy For Lovin' You

Part of my reasoning for disliking this as much as I did mostly stems from the feeling that, at some arbitrary point, Nashville became more about feeling sorry for people we couldn't possibly feel sorry for. I like Hayden Panettiere, and have always admired what she's been able to accomplish with the Juliette Barnes character, even when the writing wasn't always strong enough to support her. But I'm not sure why the show is asking me to feel sorry for Juliette, or to root for her and Avery (Jonathan Jackson) to find their way back to one another, if indeed that's what the show is intending (and, at the very least, that's the impression that I got -- that we should somehow want Avery to forgive Juliette, to understand as much as we do how regretful she was about sleeping with Jeff Fordham). Yet I can't bring myself to shed one tear over Juliette's situation, because those kinds of B.S. mistakes are Juliette's calling card. Instead of flipping out about Avery's connection with Scarlett (Clare Bowen) last season, she could have spoken to someone about it, or written a song about it, or done any number of other things that didn't include letting Jeff Fordham take her into a closet. Yet she chose the worst possible path, because she's Juliette, and this is apparently what she always does, even when the previous episodes prior to that point suggest that Juliette is on a path of self-awareness.

Credit: ABC

Worse, now I feel downright stupid for being relieved last season when the show didn't ultimately go with having Juliette become pregnant by Jeff in the aftermath of their hookup. Apparently, a new season doesn't necessarily mean we have to pick up several months after the previous season's finale, as "That's Me Without You" pretty much starts just a few hours after "On the Other Hand". Thus, the show is still at a point in the narrative where Juliette can still conceivably be pregnant, since not a whole lot of time has passed. And whaddya know? That's exactly what the show does. After Juliette has one of her customary nervous breakdowns, chopping at her hair with a pair of scissors after Avery tells her he can't stand the sight of her, she discovers from her doctor that she's pregnant. Because of course Juliette is. She's Nashville's punching bag. If there's anything awful that could conceivably happen to one character, it's going to happen to Juliette before it happens to anyone else. I love Juliette, and I love Panettiere, but my GOD am I sick of Juliette being a hot mess all the time. There's a good character underneath all the craziness they saddle her with, and I wish the show would give us a chance to just have a normal Juliette storyline that centers on the business. I loved her stuff last season with Jeff (well, the non-hookup parts) in which she looks for a new record label while attempting to redefine herself in the music industry. THAT was an interesting storyline, because it dealt with Juliette's agency over her own life and career, creating drama that had nothing to do with whom she was dating or sleeping with at the time.

Credit: ABC/Mark Levine

I was optimistic, early in the episode, that the show would be giving Juliette a more career-oriented storyline, as she auditions for the lead in a Patsy Cline biopic. Her performance of "Crazy" for the audition is one of the best moments of the entire episode, as Panettiere imbues the vocal with pain and genuine feeling. It was so good that I didn't even mind that the show attributes Juliette's acting talent in the audition to heartache over her breakup with Avery. But I should have known things would go haywire once her manager got the call that the casting director loved Juliette and wants to screen test her for the role: no good things come her way without a taste of harsh reality, and it's just moments later that she learns about the pregnancy. Is there any way it isn't Jeff Fordham's? Is there any chance we can somehow get out of this storyline and pretend it never happened?

Credit: ABC

Similarly to Juliette, the show seemingly wants us to feel bad that Deacon (Charles Esten) gets his marriage proposal rejected by Rayna (Connie Britton) in favor of Luke Wheeler (Will Chase). But even while I've been shipping Deacon and Rayna for two whole seasons now, I'm not sure I can bring myself to side with Deacon anymore. How many chances has he had? And how many has he blown due to decisions he made while perfectly sober? Sure, it was a huge blow to learn the truth about Maddie (Lennon Stella), but he has the option of not choosing to throw away his sobriety just to drink away his problems. I get that addiction is a disease, but Deacon should also be capable understanding that Rayna will never feel completely certain with him, because no matter how much he swears he's changed, there really is no guaranteeing that this time will ever be different from all the other times. As Rayna once told him, in rationalizing why she didn't wait for him all those years ago, "How was I supposed to know the fifth trip to rehab would take?"

Yet Deacon continues with his emotional manipulation: when Rayna comes to his house to formally reject his proposal, he refuses to take no for an answer, kissing her hand and then her arm, and then trying to get her to admit there's still something there between them. Connie Britton does a tremendous job in illustrating how torturous this is, since she does love Deacon, but knows she can never be sure that things have changed with him. There's just such a look of heartbroken emotional torture on her face that I pitied Rayna and resented Deacon. Tandy (Judith Hoag) is right when, early in the episode, she complains about the audacity Deacon has to ask Rayna to marry him after she's just accepted a proposal from another man. It's to the point where I feel like Luke is right to track Deacon down at the Blue Bird to give him a punch in the mouth. "Why can't you just let her be happy?" Luke asks him. "Why can't you?" Deacon responds, yet it sounds so hollow coming from him.

Credit: ABC

The rest of the episode is fraught with similar complications. Gunnar (Sam Palladio) ends up accidentally going on a road trip with Scarlett and a drunken Avery, as he tries to talk his ex out of moving away to escape all the bad press surrounding her nervous breakdown last season. This results in plenty of drunken shenanigans from Avery, as he vents about Juliette and nearly gets into a bar fight. Meanwhile, Will (Chris Carmack) and Layla (Aubrey Peeples) decide to get a divorce, since Will can't change his sexuality. They also want out of their reality show contract, but this proves difficult, as their TV producer blackmails the couple into staying on the show by revealing that they have footage of Will confessing his homosexuality to Layla. I'm sure there's a decent story in here somewhere, but this took such a sharp turn away from the compelling analysis of sexual identity it was last season, to simply being another instance of an evil producer manipulating otherwise good people. The sole bright spot in all this is Maddie and Teddy (Eric Close) reconnecting as he takes her to watch Deacon's performance at the Blue Bird. On the subject of the Blue Bird, that was another bright spot on tonight's premiere: the live performances that bookended the show. We opened with a live performance from Chris Carmack, in character as Will, and closed with a performance by Charles Esten, in character as Deacon. These live cut-ins were as close to seamless as they possibly could be (save for a brief hiccup in the audition transition into the next scene, as Deacon is shown to be waiting outside while Will's performance continues live, yet we're at a different part of the song when we cut to outside). The show then wraps up with a duet between Charles Esten and Florida Georgia Line which I enjoyed, for the most part. I hope the show actually does this more often, as it's an interesting gimmick that doesn't detract from the show at all. If anything, it enhances it with a unique experience that only live TV can provide.

Credit: ABC

But even that live experience couldn't save what was a pretty dreadful premiere. I'm still hopeful that the show will find its footing as the season continues and move on from some of the stories that have marginalized these characters. If you want us to root for Deacon and Rayna to be together, let us see Deacon EARN it, instead of being good for a few months and expecting this will erase years of broken promises. If you want us to root for Juliette and Avery to be together, quit writing her like a tempestuous dolt. Let her be a woman who doesn't need a man, who can be an individual who owns her mistakes and eventually finds the good sense to stop making the same ones all the time. These are all issues that can easily be fixed as the season rolls on, and I hope they all are, because I love Nashville. Even though it doesn't seem like it.