Happy New TV Year! With the brief holiday programming pause about to be over, it's already time to say goodbye to one of last year's better series: the evocative second season of BBC America's Golden Globe-nominated The Hour. A ticking-clock deadline fuels the suspense in Wednesday's gripping finale (9/8c). With showtime fast approaching for a new edition of the fictional '50s TV newsmagazine, The Hour's co-anchors find themselves embroiled in controversy and peril.
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The official soundtrack for ABC's Nashville was released this week, and in case you haven't been keeping up with the series, we've put together a playlist to help you catch up before it returns in January.
"The music is as much a part of the narrative as the dialogue," according to creator Callie Khouri, whose husband, renowned producer T-Bone Burnett, is the series' musical director. (Check out ABC's accompanying On the Record web series for additional insights into the music from the actors and producers.)
And not to worry — though Nashville takes place in the titular country music capital of the world, its songs have mass appeal, even for...
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As two divas from different generations on ABC's Nashville, Connie Britton's Rayna Jaymes and Hayden Panettiere's Juliette Barnes steal the show's spotlight, both onstage and off. But as the series approaches the midseason mark, it's actually the men surrounding the two leading ladies whose story lines are keeping us tuned in every week. Will Rayna's husband win the race for mayor — and if so, at what cost? Will Juliette deflower her football player beau? Here, we break down the men of Nashville — including which ones have won us over, which ones we're keeping a wary eye on, and who we're still on the fence about.
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Hitting the 300-episode benchmark is an impressive achievement for any series, but by the standards of the Law & Order franchise, SVU still has a ways to go before it approaches, let alone overtakes, the longevity of the still-missed mothership, which clocked more than 450 hours before NBC's abrupt pulling of the plug two years ago.
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Though the TV season is already a few weeks old, tonight counts as one of the biggest rollouts of fall, with three high-profile premieres on three networks, including my favorite pilot of an admittedly anemic batch.
Even in a better season, ABC's Nashville (10/9c) would stand out, making beautiful music and juicy drama with its sensationally entertaining medley of backstage rivalries, family and political shenanigans, and enough sexy-sudsy twists to transform Music City into Sin City. Can you enjoy Nashville if country music isn't your thing?
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