A little bit country: Sarandon dons boots for new Fox series ‘Monarch’

All eyes will be on the music industry when it comes to television airing this week. While one of the biggest televised music events of the year, the 64th annual Grammy Awards, has been postponed due to safety issues surrounding COVID-19 and its Omicron variant, one show about the country music industry is still going strong.

Premiering Sunday, Jan. 30, on Fox, “Monarch” stars Hollywood legend Susan Sarandon (“Thelma & Louise,” 1991) as Dottie Cantrell Roman, the matriarch of the fictional Roman country music dynasty. Created by budding talent Melissa London Hilfers (“Blasphemy,” 2019), the series follows in the footsteps of multigenerational family dramas such as “Blue Bloods,” “Dallas,” “Succession” and, most notably, “Nashville,” while also blazing its own fresh path in the world of television.

Plot-wise, the series follows the Romans throughout their daily lives, performances and personal dramas both big and small. As daughter and dynastic heir Nicolette “Nicky” Roman (Anna Friel, “Land of the Lost,” 2009) begins her ascension into the limelight previously long dominated by her parents, the family elders try with all their might to hold onto the secrets that paved the way to stardom for their family.

In addition to Sarandon in the leading role of matriarch, real-life multiplatinum country star Trace Adkins (“The Lincoln Lawyer,” 2011) stars as her husband, family patriarch Albie Roman, another key role in the series. Together, the two must grapple with a series of rumors that threaten to collapse the shaky foundation upon which they built their empire. The changes also appear to coincide with the rise to fame of their daughter, who, luckily for them, seems to have inherited more than just the family name and talent as she vows to do everything in her power to stave off media vultures and the prying eyes of the public.

Fox, the network that owns and produced the show in its entirety, calls “Monarch” a “Texas-sized, multigenerational musical drama,” noting in the same news release that “even though the Roman name is synonymous with authenticity, the very foundation of their success is a lie.”