I love “Nashville.” It’s my favorite show on TV, and I watch it weekly with my husband (who is a musician) and my 10 year old daughter who is an aspiring musician.
I’ve blogged before about the reasons why this show is so great: female protagonist, female supporting roles, complex/ realistic relationships between women, women who are defined, first and foremost, by their professions not love interests, a 40 something woman in her career prime is lusted after by multiple hot men, and the music is great. But I have to do one more blog about this show, because after we watched it last night, I said to my husband, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a female mentor another female on TV.” I’m so used to seeing women stereotyped and pitted against each other. It’s one of the reasons the whole Minority Feisty thing upsets me so much, females are continually isolated from each other– an old, effective tool for domination. I’m not saying women should stand in a circle and sing kumbaya. Not only is that boring, it’s not realistic. But in “Nashville,” you see women work through conflict and then come out on on other side in ways unpredicted and unexpected. It’s really inspiring to watch. If you didn’t know, Callie Khouri of “Thelma and Louise” fame writes the show. It’s great and I encourage you to watch it with your kids (I recommend for age 9 and up, if they know about sex. There are no graphic or long sex scenes but there are brief ones and sex is alluded to.)
Reel Girl rates “Nashville” ***HHH*** (up one H this season to highest heroine rating)
I just started watching Grey’s Anatomy (nine seasons on Netflix) and there are *tons* of great female characters, including some women mentoring other women. The key relationship so far is a friendship between two women. There’s also an affair and although it seemed like the “estranged wife” and “new girlfriend” would be pitted against each other, it’s been far more nuanced than that. I’m tremendously impressed so far, just a few episodes into season 2.
Oh, ack, I have no idea why that says “real writer” after my name, but I can’t seem to delete it. Sorry about that! It must have been a reference to some previous post on another blog.
Hi Jenn,
That’s great to hear (wish ‘real writer’ spontaneously appeared after MY name : ) )
Margot
I wish Nashville were better than it is because I know Callie and Connie have spoken about gender issues and the kinds of female characters they want to portray. I just don’t think they do it that effectively. Hayden’s performance is fantastic and the show has produced some great music but for the most part it has been about pitting female characters against each other and paying tribute to the glory of Saint Rayna.