Nashville (2012)
ABC | CMT - Country Music Television | Release Date: October 10, 2012
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
40
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
NewsdayVerne GayDec 14, 2016
Season 5 Review: A warm, welcome and even moving return. Best of all, a reflective one. Read full review
100
People WeeklyTom GliattoOct 22, 2012
Season 1 Review: Nashville is the best new show of the fall. [29 Oct 2012, p.37]
100
RedEyeCurt WagnerOct 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: [Show creator Callie Khouri] has created rich histories for each of her compelling characters. The actors give nuanced performances that make their characters more than one-dimensional cliches. Read full review
100
New York PostLinda StasiOct 9, 2012
Season 1 Review: Nashville is arguably the best-written new TV series of the fall season. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandOct 9, 2012
Season 1 Review: They [Rayna and Juliette], and the other characters, are anything but [one-dimensional cliches], thanks not only to the writing but also to the performances of the colorful and capable cast. Read full review
100
Uncle BarkyEd BarkOct 9, 2012
Season 1 Review: It has Emmy caliber performances from its two leads and an authenticity that won't quit. Read full review
100
NewsdayVerne GayOct 8, 2012
Season 1 Review: The hype is justified. Nashville's terrific. Read full review
100
Washington PostHank StueverSep 14, 2012
Season 1 Review: Nashville never strays too far from its real story--the ups and downs of glitzy stardom, with Britton and Panettiere performing their own vocals. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyKen TuckerOct 3, 2012
Season 1 Review: Rarely does a pilot present a world as completely as Nashville does in its first hour. Read full review
90
SalonWilla PaskinOct 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: Happily, Nashville, with its unexpected intelligence and surprisingly low-key attitude, not only met all my cockamamie expectations, it exceeded them. Read full review
90
Miami HeraldGlenn GarvinOct 9, 2012
Season 1 Review: The recipe may go back to your grandma or beyond, but that doesn't mean you won't eat two helpings and beg for more. Read full review
88
USA TodayRobert BiancoOct 11, 2012
Season 1 Review: It's a sprawling story, held together with music--though unlike Glee or Smash, most of the songs are presented on this night in truncated bursts.... While that could mean trouble, set worries aside for one night, and simply enjoy the season's best, most enjoyable new hour. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchGail PenningtonOct 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: The half-star markdown in the rating for Nashville is a knock on Panettiere, whose performance seems too broad, especially in the face of such naturalistic acting from everyone else in the cast. But that flaw can't keep Nashville from being a superb series. Read full review
88
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesChuck BarneyOct 5, 2012
Season 1 Review: An irresistible blend of soapy shenanigans, domestic tension, political intrigue and catchy tunes. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyRuth KinaneJan 3, 2017
Season 5 Review: Like any good country song, the episode is more about developing the narrative and less about the cheap thrills. It’s refreshing to see the show settle into a new rhythm where necessary attention is given to each (potentially smaller) storyline. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyMelissa MaerzSep 18, 2013
Season 2 Review: Panettiere is deliciously manipulative, oozing faux sincerity as she pays tribute to her "friend" Rayna. And Esten brings the melodrama. The Scarlett/Gunnar/Avery triangle is tedious but at least Lamar gets a crazy plot twist. [20/27 Sep 2013, p.144]
83
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardOct 9, 2012
Season 1 Review: Nashville is the snarky showbiz drama NBC's "Smash" can only dream of becoming. Read full review
83
HitfixAlan SepinwallOct 8, 2012
Season 1 Review: It's a smart mix of soap opera, music and political intrigue. Read full review
80
Yahoo TVKen TuckerJan 4, 2018
Season 6 Review: Herskovitz and Zwick are not damp-eyed sentimentalists. They’re wickedly good at building up characters you love to hate. ... When you combine this bubbly soap opera material with amusingly lively scenes of Will (Chris Carmack), Avery, and Gunnar getting together to form the band you didn’t know you’d always wanted, Nashville seems to be going out with an enjoyable blast. Read full review
80
SlateTroy PattersonOct 11, 2012
Season 1 Review: Nashville feels fresh because it catches a different tone. The few ironic winks it makes do not disfigure its straight face for quality pulp, nor does the sincerity harden into hokum. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzOct 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: It feels lived-in, confident. That's a good sign. Read full review
80
TimeJames PoniewozikOct 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: Nashville's was the one that made me most excited to see more episodes of the series and see how its world unfolds. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushOct 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: ABC has done well in filling the time period with a show that's both sassy and smart, singing a tune we can name in three words: It's a winner. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamaraOct 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: Nashville is big, bold, wildly ambitious and great fun, with top notes of Robert Altman's "Nashville," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "All About Eve." Read full review
80
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertOct 9, 2012
Season 1 Review: Nashville falls somewhere in between the two extremes, a story that thrives on heightened melodrama and big twists but gives its characters more depth than you generally find in network lather-fests. Read full review
80
Philadelphia InquirerDavid HiltbrandOct 9, 2012
Season 1 Review: You don't have to like country to enjoy Nashville with its twisty plot threads of ego, sex, ambition, backstabbing and regret. Read full review
80
The Huffington PostMaureen RyanOct 9, 2012
Season 1 Review: It's a high-class entertainment that takes its locale and its characters seriously and treats the audience to some enjoyable music along the way. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleyOct 9, 2012
Season 1 Review: Nashville plays as a smartly written and well-appointed soap. Read full review
80
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenOct 8, 2012
Season 1 Review: It all blends together in an entertaining, easily digestible hour. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanOct 5, 2012
Season 1 Review: Khouri's strong writing and sense of character prove the show is no mere soap--does an excellent job of identifying them [storylines] without spending too much time on them. Read full review
80
Denver PostJoanne OstrowOct 5, 2012
Season 1 Review: What Nashville on ABC and "Arrow" on the CW have in common, is appealing characters in well-plotted stories. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesLori RacklOct 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: Toss in some sex and Southern-style politics, and you've got plenty to sing about. Read full review
70
Yahoo TVKen TuckerJan 6, 2017
Season 5 Review: Much of the soap-opera storytelling apparatus that frequently made the series a guilty pleasure rather than a pure pleasure--has been jettisoned. In its place is a more leisurely pace and, at its best, a soulfulness that Nashville has long struggled to achieve. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushJan 3, 2017
Season 5 Review: Conflicts that would of dragged on for weeks are now resolved with economy and grace. Music is once again the show's heart and soul. [2-15 Jan 2017, p.19]
70
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenSep 24, 2015
Season 4 Review: The show is nothing more than a soap with good music but it has a sense of humor often enough to keep me entertained. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredMitchel BroussardSep 22, 2015
Season 4 Review: Overall, Nashville will give fans what they want out of the season 4 premiere, for better or worse. The show’s got some problems (a minor one of which: whoever runs wardrobe has not met a deep-V they didn’t love to see every male lead in), but they’re mostly easy to ignore, especially if you can let yourself get lost in the homey, southern pace of it all. Read full review
70
PopMattersLesley SmithOct 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: No such show has come even near to Glee's success. Nashville may be the exception, with its clever, even cynical, mix of middle-aged crises and youthful ambitions set in country music's Mecca. Read full review
70
The New York TimesMike HaleOct 9, 2012
Season 1 Review: The depiction of the modern country music business in Nashville feels reasonably authentic, and when the story stays within that realm, it has the mix of hardheadedness, sentimentality and honky-tonk come-on you can get from a good country song. Read full review
70
VarietyBrian LowryOct 8, 2012
Season 1 Review: [ABC's] infatuation with translating the [country music] genre to series still appears questionable. Despite that, credit Nashville with crafting a reasonably catchy hook. Read full review
63
Slant MagazinePhillip MaciakOct 9, 2012
Season 1 Review: While plenty of Nashville is compelling, detailed, and beautifully acted, plenty of it feels boilerplate. Read full review
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