Jolene

So I was so excited to start Dolly's series! Jolene is not a strong episode, it's choppy and doesn't work. The story does not flow. I love Kimberly Williams-Paisley! She was not utilized well in this series unfortunately. I can't say I'm the biggest Julianne Hough fan but I don't always dislike her movies. Heartstrings improves with episode 2 and bangs it out of the park with episode 3!!! Keep watching and don't give up!

Structurally the characters and plot are satisfying. Every character has more than superficial motivation for who they are and what they do. The episode takes time to show that everyone has understandable reasons for the things they do, even if the things they do hurt others. No one is made out to be a complete villain and neither is anyone a blameless saint. ..Except for budda-like wisdom-dropping Dolly, but that is to be expected. There is enough character development and small turns to the plot to keep interest for an hour.

Unfortunately, the delivery of this otherwise structurally sound story is so saccharine and obvious, that it felt painful to watch at times. There are obvious moral lessons throughout the story, and characters make it even more obvious through ABC Afterschool Special-level moralizing.

In many ways this whole endeavor was a relief from standard rom-com plot stupidity, where absurd and terrible things happen to buttress a plot which wouldn't otherwise unfold if characters would communicate with one another in a semi-realistic way. "Jolene" in some ways addresses this, either implicitly by showing people's motivations for what they do, and explicitly and heavy-handedly explaining how they could do it better.

Finally, the story has an overarching theme of personal agency and responsibility. Every character at some point in the story is forced to look inward when considering their particular predicament. The characters themselves had a depth that is absent from many overall better TV dramas or movies.

Didn't hate it. Didn't love it. Can't fault the apparent motivations, and Dolly is a gem.

Sometimes it pays to step outside your expectation zone on Netflix. I'd normally never bother with a show about a country music star even though I enjoyed Dolly Parton years ago in '9 to 5' with Lily Tomlin etc.

But Dolly's new Netflix show - at least this first episode, 'Jolene' - is a deceptively simple story that's really about women supporting women, and how quickly women's friendships can get complicated by feelings un-shared and words unspoken - or spoken in a moment of anger or insecurity.

Women can be each other's best friends, and our own worst enemies, but seldom our own best friends. The script did a tidy job of exposing the social minefields too many women walk through daily, as contrasted with the power of even one female mentor's unqualified support. Dolly gave a straight-up performance as an older woman sharing her life experience without pressure on a younger one to make her own way.

This show also gives a worthy role to veteran actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley (whose eternal mix of vulnerability & strength I've enjoyed since first seeing her in 'The 10th Kingdom) and showcases the rise of a relative newcomer, Julianne Hough, from an uncredited schoolgirl in 'Harry Potter' to a luminous stage musician and screen personality in her own right.

It's a lovely, women-centric show with good music, even though it's not normally my kind of music and the women characters aren't normally my kind of women.

The acting is very good. Jolene is a song that places a wife who pleads with a beautiful woman not to take her man, even though she could. This Heartstrings episode indicates that Jolene should be at liberty to sleep with women's husbands as she wishes, and if you are the wife of one of these husbands, tough. She is an empowered and progressive woman. How dare anyone judge her.

I expected some moral basis would be applied here, given Dolly's family-centric faith.

Julianne Hough has never looked more sultry and appealing. Dolly, a person I have always liked, whatever she has done, is not as comfortable and smooth in this role as she was in her younger days. Not bad, just a bit awkward in her presentation. Now here is something that struck me and if you watch, maybe you will see it too. In fact I thought this was going to be part of the "problem" he was having in his marriage. Emily's husband Aaron (Dallas Roberts) plays the role slightly effeminately. I expected Aaron was going to "come out" and that was the issue. I was wrong...so I guess it's just Roberts acting style. Anyway, enjoy the soap-opera/Hallmark style production. I stayed to the end mainly to watch Hough...oh my!