Country music never really caught on outside of the United States, and one can debate whether it’s a shame or not, but Hollywood-level romantic fairy tales actually caught on strongly and the vibrant and creative country world provided one of the greatest of them: the stormy love story of Tammy Wint and George Jones . In 2016 it was to be turned into a biopic with Jessica Chastain and Josh Brolin, Life itself turned the script into a six-episode TV series on Showtime/Paramount+, Brolin left and Michael Shannon came in his place, and the result is “George And Tammy” whose debut episode aired last night in the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjrEeuQ5838
At the center of the plot, as mentioned, is the novel that started between Wynette and Jones in 1968, when he is one of the biggest stars of the genre and she is just before her big breakthrough, but the series opens up a very broad picture and does not focus only on the complex and tortured relationship between the two stars after the relationship of forces We have changed, with all the clichés of self-destruction, alcoholism and pills. Wynette, contrary to what might have been implied by hits like “Stand By Your Man”, was not a small and submissive woman. Jones was her third husband and her greatest love, but in total she married five times and worked her way through all the power in a male-dominated world. The series, according to what was told by the daughter of George and Tammy who collaborated with her, brings an authentic and unadorned picture of the romantic drama between them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypHfr42IicU
Chastain and Shannon burn the screen in the first episode with Oscar-worthy performances (and the fact that they sing themselves adds some vulnerability to the characters), the cast also includes gifts such as the mighty Walton Goggins and the excellent Bill Zahn (as Wynette’s fifth husband, the agent and promoter George Ritchie ), and if the complexity of the destructive and violent relationships that Wynette has had in her life come across beautifully on the screen, we probably have here a fine piece of Americana that will be worth following.
>> “Gorge and Tammy”, limited series, six episodes, now on Paramount+
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