Public Service Announcement: Do not binge Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings unless you want to wake up with an emotional hangover reminiscent of a severe break up.
Country music legend Dolly Parton knows one thing or two about tugging at the heartstrings.
Transcending generations, her music is filled with personal anecdotes of love and loss, drawing from personal experiences and anecdotes which have become some of the most famous tunes in the world.
At 73, the icon is showing no signs of slowing down, releasing a brand new Netflix anthology series that is quite simply put — heartbreaking.
Each of the eight episodes in Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings is a story in itself, based on one of her infamous songs — and boy, oh, boy, if you’re thinking of bingeing them all in one night, don’t.
If you can get past the production, and quite frankly, some of the cringiest acting I’ve ever seen, you will be drawn into some of the most gut-wrenching moments you’ll ever witness — and ones that you’ve no doubt been a part of yourself.
Each character has a deeply intense back-story (like we all do), full of personal heartache and made even more dramatic by the deep southern American drawl — an accent, which Dolly herself is famous for.
The first episode centers around Jolene, a red-haired barmaid who dreams of being a singer, but it’s her relationships with the people around her that the story focuses on, namely a new friend who is convinced that Jolene is having an affair with her husband.
Then there’s the father who left his kids when they were just six and four, went out for a “pack of camels” only to never return without explanation until his new partner reunites them all thirty-four years later.
Starring Australia’s very own Ben Lawson, anyone with daddy-issues would be hard-pressed not to sob their eyes out.
I can’t tell you how it ends, but I suggest having a box of tissues at hand.
Other episodes are about a son coming out to his conservative parents, the plight of a young 1960s mixed race couple and the tale of four female friends whose friendship spans decades. It’s all a recipe for emotional distress.
If you can’t relate to one, you can relate to another, and your heart will never be the same again.
As this is a show about Dolly, you can bet she makes a cameo in every single episode. Sometimes as herself and other times as a character she has imagined, but it’s that classic Dolly all the same. Crazy outfit, big hair, long nails and that great southern charm.
So, if you watch (and you really should), prepare for your heart to be ripped out of your chest — but please, please, do not watch them all at once like I did. My heart still hasn’t recovered.
