Best Performances of the Week: Revolution's Charlie and Nashville's Deacon

Welcome to the second edition of Best Male and Female Performances of the Week. This is a weekly update that will occur, for the most part, on Thursday’s – or shortly thereafter – once I’ve finished watching and reviewing the past week’s worth of episodes, where I will single out one male and one female performance that I believe merits special attention for the week. This, like my reviews, will be based solely on my opinion of the shows I watch in a week, and if you don’t like to whom I’ve picked, well that’s mighty big of you, for picking on someone’s opinion.

This week I had choices from fourteen separate series (and if you don’t know which series’ those are, go check out my reviews from the last week). For all those not caught up with this week’s episodes of Revolution and Nashville, please kindly step away from this blog. This is my weekly update of Best Performances of the Week, and there may be spoilers pertaining to the two aforementioned shows. I repeat, THERE MAY BE SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

Best Female Performance of the Week:

Tracy Spiridakos as Charlie Matheson in this week’s second season premiere of Revolution. This may be a bit of a controversial choice, being that I know a lot of people didn’t like Charlie last season on Revolution, but I really liked the strength she showed in this episode. Last season she was very much this naïve, yet strong-willed person, but this year she’s been through a lot, and that’s chipped away at her and made her an intriguing character. She almost seems to be a bit dead inside, and coming back from that will prove to be no easy task.

Last year was about saving her brother, and now that he’s dead, it seems this year will be all about finding and killing Monroe, seeing as he was what caused her brother to be killed. From the previews for next week, I can already see that this will come to ahead, and I’m just incredibly excited to see where all of this goes.

Damaged characters, I find, are people that can bring the most compelling storylines. Everything Charlie has gone through just elevates the places in which she can go. And Spiridakos has already proven that she can go there. Her acting has greatly improved over the course of just a year, and I’m very much looking forward to following her along through the rough edges she pours into this character.

Best Male Performance of the Week:

Charles Esten as Deacon Claybourne in this week’s season two premiere of Nashville. Despite how well James Spader performed in the premiere of The Blacklist, it was Esten that stole this week’s performance for me. The amount of anger this man poured into his character, and the size of guilt we could see in his interactions with other characters was remarkable. I was really able to see his transition from defeated, to that slight glimmer of hope he had when he learned Raina had survived.

I don’t expect this quality from week-to-week, but I was happy to see where he had come from last year’s season finale, to this weeks premiere. The struggle this man has with alcoholism was evident to an extreme last year, as well as in the memory flashes Raina had while in her coma. I liked being able to see the glimmer of happiness in this man in the moments when he was with Raina in her memories, to the almost deadness he felt while speaking with his lawyer. The very moment when he sold it for me, was when he screamed at his niece for calling him a father figure for her, bringing to the surface the guilt he felt in being the cause of the crash, despite not driving.

Not having seen Esten before Nashville, I look forward to seeing his career throughout this series. The man has an effable ability to really become his character. The transitioning between emotions, and gruffness he brings to Deacon is just wonderful. As someone not a fan of country, I can see why some people adore the men. This character, and actor, is definitely someone to watch.

That’s all this week, but check back in next Thursday for my next update. In the meantime, come back tomorrow for my review of Haven, and then Sunday night is Once Upon a Time, Revenge, and possibly Betrayal, depending on whether or not I actually watch it. Have a good night!

Nashville 2.01 Review: Anger is a Mask for Guilt

Let’s keep this short and sweet. For all those that have yet to watch last night’s season two premiere of Nashville, entitled ‘I Fall to Pieces’, and wish to do so devoid of spoilers, now would be the time to turn away. As with all my previous reviews, there is always a chance that there are spoilers below. THIS BLOG MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

That was definitely a pleasant season two premiere. It wasn’t all that edge-of-your-seat excitement some premieres can have, but overall it was good. I liked that there was real drama I could grasp my fingers around, while still having the taste of music this series is built around.

I particularly liked Charles Esten and Hayden Panettiere’s performances as Deacon and Juliette, respectively. Esten did remarkably well playing Deacon as this angry, and obviously guilt-stricken, man that finally took it upon himself to take the blame for his actions last season. His battle with alcoholism is a sickness, and I hope that he tries to stick to the path of redemption this season. And Panettiere’s representation of Juliette was on the mark this season. Illuminating her need for fame and stardom, while balancing real emotional issues she has from where we left off last season, was quite well done. Her selfish need to do well with her album was this mask that she needed to not deal with her mother’s death. It was all so very well done and put together.

The way Gunnar and Will’s friendship has blossomed into being roommates is so much more interesting than what they had going last season. The two seem much more comfortable with each other than they did after Will tried to kiss Gunnar. I’m glad that they’ve kind of pushed that aside and are more friends, while Will obviously struggles with being gay. He’ll definitely need a friend like Gunnar as he deals with who he is. I do have to say that I miss Scarlett and Gunnar being together, and the transition with Gunnar losing his brother just made that something I didn’t care for last season, but I hope that he doesn’t give up on her. Saying yes to his question was definitely not the right way to go, so I like that they didn’t go there, but I don’t want this to be the end of their relationship. Last season wasn’t good when Gunnar got all dark because it was almost a complete flip of the switch, and we had so little in the way of clues to transition us to where this would be believable, so I hope they begin to redeem his character.

I definitely liked the way the flashback, or memories for Raina as she’s in her coma, sequences were filmed. The bright, sort of surreal texture to these scenes were well thought out, and the quick steps through certain memories of her and Deacon were well executed. I did have issues with the fact that this is supposed to be fifteen years ago, so it’s not all that realistic that these two would look so much the same to the present day. People never look young enough for flashbacks that long ago. I get that there was no way around this, except for casting lookalikes, but that’s always a little more complicated. Perhaps that’s the reason for the brightness in these scenes.

Overall, the episode progressed the series along well, and I look forward to the season ahead. It’s interesting the way they’re going with Teddy, and I’m wondering how Peggy is going to work in her miscarriage. She’ll probably string Teddy along until he comes back to her.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Best Lines:

“It’s hard enough to bust out of this tween demo, now I have to compete with a Saint in a coma?” – Juliette, showing her struggling colours.

“I’m nobodies father!” – Deacon yells at his niece, demonstrating his guilt towards the crash with Raina after he found out he is her firstborn’s biological father.

All right, I’m off to watch The Crazy Ones now, then review that. After that is the two hour season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy, then it’s this weeks rendition of Best Performances.