[Cristofle]

My biggest problem in their Layla recap is acting like Will owed anyone coming out publicly. Should he have acknowledged it to himself and Layla long before he married her? OF COURSE. Does he ever owe ANYONE coming out to the press for ANY reason, let alone to further pointless Layla's storyline? Hell no.

[Static Waves]

Because of course the kid can sing. Of course he can.

but really. OF COURSE THE KID CAN SING LMAOO



Will only "married" Layla so that we could be forced to be stuck with that character until the rest of eternity and forget the interesting version of her... which was the Juliette replacement mirroring Juliette "replacing" Rayna in the country music world. I literally can't think of her purpose now.

[holding my heart]

OBVIOUSLY. WHY WOULD HE NOT?

[dmc]

Originally Posted by Cristofle (View Post) My biggest problem in their Layla recap is acting like Will owed anyone coming out publicly. Should he have acknowledged it to himself and Layla long before he married her? OF COURSE. Does he ever owe ANYONE coming out to the press for ANY reason, let alone to further pointless Layla's storyline? Hell no.

My biggest problem with her is that her character is not consistent. Every episode she changes. She is not written well. In addition, she doesn't have the ability to be terrible and still be likeable. Some characters can pull this off. Even when Juliette is awful, we all still love her. This girl doesn't have that. With relation to Will, I don't like that she is never accountable for her actions. This show paints her like she is the victim of everyone. Yes, Will lied to her but at the point where she knew she could have left the relationship. She instead blackmails Will and Jeff. Then she sleeps with Jeff after he has been consistently awful to her because he likes her song (LOL) and decides she is in love (after one time...literally her quote..."don't let him do this to us...US?"...you slept together once). Then Jeff dumps her and Will does too but instead of being like I deferred Harvard let me do that or call my parents. But instead she takes a bunch of pills and now that's everyone's fault.

Now we are supposed to be invested in her relationship with Jeff (a character that has never been fleshed out himself-all we have is used to be in a band-that doesn't even begin to explain Jeff-but I will give him credit he at least makes me want to know more) even though their connection seems contrived and they have NO chemistry together.

I can't seem to care, every plot involving her makes me irrationally angry. Also...if anyone needs more screen time it's Will not her. I am invested in his story. They missed an opportunity.

[jbshmdfb]

Originally Posted by dmc (View Post) My biggest problem with her is that her character is not consistent. Every episode she changes. She is not written well. In addition, she doesn't have the ability to be terrible and still be likeable. Some characters can pull this off. Even when Juliette is awful, we all still love her. This girl doesn't have that. With relation to Will, I don't like that she is never accountable for her actions. This show paints her like she is the victim of everyone. Yes, Will lied to her but at the point where she knew she could have left the relationship. She instead blackmails Will and Jeff. Then she sleeps with Jeff and decides she is in love (after one time...literally her quote..."don't let him do this to us...US?"...you slept together once). Then Jeff dumps her and Will does too but instead of being like I deferred Harvard let me do that or call my parents. But instead she takes a bunch of pills and now that's everyone's fault. Now we are supposed to be invested in her relationship with Jeff (a character that has never been fleshed out himself) even though their connection seems contrived and they have NO chemistry together. I can't seem to care, everything plot involving her makes me irrationally angry. Also...if anyone needs more screen time it's Will not her.

Completely agree with this.

[Static Waves]

Yes, Will lied to her but at the point where she knew she could have left the relationship. She instead blackmails Will and Jeff.

and yet somehow this chick is still painted as the victim! SMH. people forget (and tbh I do sometimes to) she literally dangled Will's secret out there for her own gain. gross.

[Heart of Rhythm]

Originally Posted by Cristofle (View Post) The eternal struggle of us viewers who watched FNL before Nashville, lol- trying to grasp that Connie has gone from playing Tami Taylor to Rayna. That is a long, long, LONGGGG way to fall.

Rayna had great moments in season 1, the writers started doing a bad job in season 2 (and only getting worse in first half of season 3). But the idea and the potential of the character were great, I understand why Connie chose the character in the first place. Then, it unfortunately didn't turn out to be what she wanted I think.

Rayna is a character with flaws, she's not supposed to be as likeable as Tami anyway. But in season 2 we plain stopped understanding her actions... so, yeah.

[Cristofle]

Rayna doesn't have to be likable- plenty of my favorite characters aren't necessarily likable. But for me, Rayna isn't even slightly relatable or understandable. Like that scene with Luke at his ranch- that should have been an easy gimme for me to feel for her when he dissed her so harshly, since I have exactly zero use for Luke. But her choice to go there at all less than a couple hours after he ordered her off his property in no uncertain terms, her entire demeanor where she was sighing and huffing and rolling her eyes like she was being inconvenienced, and her attitude like he should just make this easier on her when she literally just dumped him right before the altar, was so WTF and so awful, that as much as I think Luke is a whiny, creepy tool, I kinda didn't blame him for hating her ass and dressing her down as cruelly as he could. Not one single thing in that scene gave me ANYTHING to understand Rayna, or to think she has any capacity for care about the damage she causes for more than about two minutes at a time before she goes back to deciding the world revolves around her. Rayna was never that likable, but she used to be kind of sad in a relatable way, as someone who could just never live the life she wanted. Now she's so far into outer space, and so removed from the lives and feelings of everyone around her, and she's so deeply self-centered, that there's just nothing. I have nothing to either root for or at bare minimum grasp enough to be interested in. I actually found myself agreeing with Luke's useless son's low opinion of her, which is a tragic turn of events.

[Heart of Rhythm]

I loved that ranch scene actually and I didn't get that vibe from Rayna at all. She wasn't looking for excuses about what she had done, she only asked Luke to keep this private since they both have kids, which was a completely reasonable request. She only got (understandably) defensive when Luke made it sound like he was the only one responsible for her success. I loved Rayna in that scene.

[Cristofle]

It's actually not reasonable. She has no right to request privacy or anything else from Luke on the day she called off their wedding on the day OF said wedding. He is not entirely wrong- we watched her deliberately leverage this relationship for press early in the season. We watched her make that choice. She doesn't get to use the kids or anything else to try to control the story on her terms. She has no right, and if she had any shame, she'd know that.

And she is literally sighing and huffing and rolling her eyes. Watch that moment where he starts to recount their first date- she does all three in the space of about five seconds. She never should have gone there (which she did admit, but only after it epically blew up in her face and before making the extremely poor and selfish decision to call their break-up mutual when Luke could not have possibly been more clear that he did not feel that way and had no intention of going along with her spin), and her apology sounded canned and fake when she spent the rest of the time looking like he was boring her (which I think might have actually been an acting choice? And not a good one, I have to say- I was reminded of that atrocious scene in 3x09 outside of Deacon's house).

[Heart of Rhythm]

I didn't get that impression at all, for me she didn't seem bored, she seemed uncomfortable and guilty.

It actually was a reasonable request and I think Rayna was able to make it because she was less emotional than Luke at that time. I understand the way Luke reacted though and he had the absolute right to do so, but Rayna's request was right.

Ironically, I think it was a good thing for him that she said it was mutual, because that made him look a lot better that if she had said she left him on the day of their wedding... That would have been a lot worse for his male country star image.

[Cristofle]

But that's not up to her. She asked for that and he said no. He said that wasn't what he wanted to do or how he wanted to play it. He flat-out said "No, we are not handling this privately." He said he was extremely pissed off and she needed to give him space to react like that, not calm down and handle it privately. And she deliberately did exactly what he asked her not to do. Which you just don't do if you grasp the enormity of dumping someone on the day of the wedding, lol. If he wants to scream on the roof tops that she's a heartless bitch who crushed his heart on the day of their wedding and strung him along for her own gain...eh, she pretty much asked for that and should probably just take her lumps.

And this is not to say I feel sorry for Luke. I don't. He should have known better than to get involved with her and he's creepy and weird and possibly the worst parent on the entire show based on this episode, which is a truly tragic statement, lol (well, no, Kiley is still the worst, but he's right behind her). But I was also shocked at her audacity in going there when he literally told her to get off the property like two hours prior and try to control the story when he's right- nothing about their relationship has been private and SHE chose to play it that way for her own reasons and her own gain. She can't ask for that now. I mean, she can, but the sheer gall is appalling. And literally rolling your eyes (I am not kidding, she does it 18:37 in the episode, lol, before he ever mentions anything about her professional gain) is not the best way to show the depth of your sorrow and regret. And I actually thought she DID look appropriately shamed at the end of 3x10, but like I said- she can't seem to hold onto things like that for more than about two minutes before she returns to her completely self-centered Planet of Rayna.

[piratewench78]

I actually disagree with just about all of that. ^^

I just see it completely differently and if it wasn't so late and I wasn't on my phone, I'd make a point by point rebuttal. But the short answer is that, again, we look at things through our own filters and there isn't one right or wrong answer, since there is disagreement on interpretation. But maybe it also has to do with who we align with on the show.

[Static Waves]

I've stated this from the moment Rayna said yes to Luke.... I will NEVER appreciate the fact that they made Connie Britton play a runaway bride. never. never. never.


I find that outside of a very specific set of situations, leaving your supposed groom the day of the wedding is an inherently selfish act. I don't like it on any medium: primetime, soaps, movies, etc. It's always selfish. Like, you can't figure that sht out earlier?

[fox24]

I don't like runaway brides either. Rayna had months to call of her engagement instead she led Luke on for months got her kids used to the idea of being a family with Luke and his kids and on top of that she is famous and thid gives her kids unwanted attention.

I am not Luke's biggest fan but I was happy he stuck her with the bill. She needs to clean up her mess like the rest of us.