Monarch

[BudBaxter]

I watched the first episode as I like country music & I like Susan Sarandon, but honestly I'd be amazed if this even did a full season. It's complete cheese & certainly no Nashville (which it clearly wants to be).

Sarandon & Anna Friel aside, the acting's largely terrible, the cinematography is ugly, the writing feels like it's just ticking off cliches, the twanging guitar on the incidental score is beyond parody &, even though it's set today, the costume designer seems to have just dug into all the worst country music fashion horrors from the 70s & 80s.

The only minor upticks for me were that there's some decent songs in there & it was nice to see the lovely Eva Amurri briefly playing the younger version of her mom again.