Monarch

I don't know how this show got picked up. The storyline is awful and the acting is even worse. Nothing but a bunch of remake popular songs from the 90's and early 2000's acting like it was their songs. You'd think they could of at least hired some songwriters to write some original songs.

I can't believe Susan Sarandon agreed to do this. Always been a big fan of Trace Adkins, needs to stick to music. The rest of the cast is like watching a bad high school performance put on film.

I will say the house they filmed in is beautiful, but you can't expect the house to carry a show. I really was hoping this show would have been a hit.

I hoped for a show that could top some of the flaws of the show Nashville. And as an Austin resident and kniwing that was the setting, how could this thing miss? In the first five minutes they take a guy ice fishing. To a glacier. On a helicopter. From Austin, TX. Airwolf was more realistic. I am shocked that a writer is too lazy or dumb to know anything about geography, but I guess I shouldn't be. Feels like it was written by a teenager with no real education that was told "you can do anything!" Aside from having value as a teaching item in the "here is what NOT to do as a writer" or maybe "Cliches 101", thus is truly worthless tv that probably will be cancelled after two episodes.

Because for the most part I have no use for modern C+W, I wouldn't have given this a second look if not for Trace Adkins' appearance on Real Time and Maher falling all over himself with praise. But to be honest, we barely made it through the opening credits before it was clear that it was going to be a sanitized, cookie-cutter, Hallmark-worthy torture session whose every moment made me want to watch the Righteous Gemstones instead. Maybe I shouldn't even be writing this; there's probably some unstated rule about how much of something you actually have to see before dismissing it as junk and putting on something else.

We know that Susan Sarandon still has it - she rocked Ray Donovan. So unless the age ceiling for Hollywood actresses that we keep hearing about has suddenly come down on her hard, I can't for the life of me figure out why she'd sign on to this turkey. Or maybe the producers, desperate to attach the name of an actual "serious actor" (rather than just an array of Nashville twangers), made her an offer she couldn't refuse.

In the end, it doesn't matter why. It has been seen and cannot be unseen. And if it goes on to earn praise from country music fans, it will, as a point of reference, tell you much more about them than about Monarch.

I guess Nashville has been off long enough that someone thought this show was ready to pick up the slack. It's possible the writers missed a few cliches but I would need to watch it again and take notes in order to be certain. And I'm not going to do that. Ever. I actually enjoy some of the actors and I experience a mix of sorrow and contempt for them signing on to this incredibly bad program. And I feel like a dolt for watching even the pilot.

Apparently I haven't written enough to justify having my opinion recorded at IMDB. So I'm going to type a few (45) more words until I meet their mythical minimum (Oh joy!).

Attempted "This Is Us" ripoff with timeline bouncing, three siblings (heck, let's make one overweight), mix character development based on researching "Dallas" reruns,a healthy dose of contrived attempts at stereotypical accents and "big hair for everyone!"...the season with a few saccharine songs, and salinated ballots sung well...and you end up with this.

This is crap.

While there are actors whose films I avoid because of their outspokenness, it's not really their politics that dictate my reaction...it's that they're idiots. While I disagree with much of Susan Sarandon's viewpoints, she seems to be contemplative and sincere. I like her as an actress.

However she couldn't save this crap with a roadmap, a flashlight, a shotgun and a safe word.