I was looking for reviews of Treme, because even apart from David Simon’s track record, John Goodman and Melissa Leo are both on my “Actors To Watch, No Matter the Other Details” list. But cable does not happen in this household, and I’m too old & techno-cowardly to figure out bittorrent, so I won’t be able to watch actual episodes until the DVDs come out or HBO decides to Hulu. So, a link from an otherwise neutral-to-mildly-hostile review on the AOL site led me to Back of Town: Blogging Treme and (among other fine things) the following wisdom from Athenae:
Who has the right to tell your story and hear your story? Who has the right to be let in that deep? Telling a story is letting someone into your heart, into the things for you that are like the things of the church, the things you don’t talk about, that are knit into your muscle and bone. We were always trying to be conscious of that, at my last paper, that ain’t nobody obligated to give you shit about their lives and that if they do, you tread on that as if it’s sacred ground. We didn’t always get there but I’d never say we didn’t always try. Here’s the crazy thing, though: Show up on someone’s doorstep after their grandkid died in some horrific car accident or school shooting or something, call up somebody after 20 years who said he was molested by a priest, invite yourself to a funeral, join a Muslim family for dinner after their children have been spit at on the street, and more often than not people want you there. They invite you in. Feed you, even. They talk for hours. They want their story told.
__
We all know as fucking human beings, somewhere deep down, that our own memories only live as long as we do and the way we teach each other how to live is to tell our stories. And if we can’t tell them ourselves, we tell them this way: Books. Newspapers. TV shows. Movies, even. Radio. We’ve expanded the campfire where we used to share tales of the hunt to the entire fucking world. This is how we do this now.
Happy Tuesday, everybody. And… what did you think of Treme?
Tim
I caught the last hour of the premier, which was 90 mins, and enjoyed it. I really like how the music is used in the show and if none of the actors are musicians they are very convincing.
The characters are written in a way that makes you want to know more about them.
I need to see it again.
asiangrrlMN
Do not have cable. Did not see it. Will have to wait. My song of the moment. A little NIN.
debit
Haven’t watched it yet. I’ll let a few more episodes air then probably will torrent. I don’t feel bad about torrenting a premium channel series, as I usually buy the dvd set once it’s out. And when HBO sets prices between $50 and $80 bucks a set, I feel even less bad. My bank account is still wincing from the full set of Oz.
geg6
Personally, I loved it. The music is just fabulous, of course; how could it not be? There are a lot of “The Wire” actors, who are always great. Mainly, the first episode set up the characters and in typical Simon fashion, you are dropped into their lives a few months after Katrina and left to try to figure them out without a lot of exposition on their pasts and how they relate to each other. I think the last 10 to 15 minutes showed what this show is going to be and was, I thought, so beautifully set and shot. It’s not like “The Wire” at all but is just like it in that it’s nothing like any other show. It’s challenging, the characters are complex and not all immediately likeable. There’s a lot going on under the surface and with New Orleans such a mysterious setting, it draws you in with some dread and then the joy that the city takes in its music and rhythms. I am going to enjoy this show. I don’t care what the reviews say.
Incertus (Brian)
Greater detail on my thoughts here, but the short version is that I can’t possibly be objective, because I’m too close to it, but Simon got so many of the small things right that I’m more than willing to see how the big things play out. Not wild about John Goodman so far, as he seems to be playing the same character he has been for a while. Love the Clarke Peters character (Big Chief near the end), and the pain-in-the-ass DJ had the line of the night when he’s talking to Elvis Costello.
stuckinred
We are deep into the “Pacific” which is half way through a ten week run. Treme came on directly after and, because we hit the rack at 10, we decided to catch it later this week. There is a website specifically devoted to the Pacific with discussions. I started participating there about the same time I came to BJ but the conversation and reviews were so ridiculous that I bailed. I did read a couple of reviews and comment on Treme on the Nola site yesterday and decided not to pursue them. The Wire and Generation Kill were both outstanding and I expect the same from Treme.
cs
I mostly liked it. The first episode was beautifully shot, the music was amazing, but it felt like a brief excerpt from a prologue, meaning you didn’t get quite enough to piece together a story or stories. The thing felt more like a collection of vignettes of the daily life in a New Orleans where the trauma was still fresh, as opposed to creating a cohesive story from the beginning.
But, as I said, this is just the beginning of the beginning so I’ll keep watching. This is what David Simon does with his shows. The beginning is often slow but things will come together and it will be one hell of a story by the end.
Basilisc
Given all the kerfuffle over Mississippi recently, it was interesting to read this piece in the Times. Apparently we won’t have to worry about Mississippi much longer, at least as long as its youth find it fun and diverting to spend their nights
… around rusting, leaking oil tanks.
How ironic it would be if, despite rejecting the theory of evolution, they end up being victims of Darwinian natural selection after all.
Josh Huaco
OT, but our new biggubmit soshulistic takeover of health care has the good citizens of Oklahoma so concerned that they may form militias.
Screw you, President Hussein, and your affordable health care. I prefer to die from a pre-existing condition while bitterly clinging to my guns.
machine
DVR’ed it, haven’t seen it yet, but as a Houstonian I’m really curious to see how the relationship b/w the two cities plays out.
Montysano
Loved the setting (I’m an ex-New Orleanian), and it’s beautifully shot, but the storyline, so far at least, seems weak and aimless. OTOH….. frequent blasts of brass band music!
We’ll see….
Bobby Thomson
Agree with the comment that there is no storyline to speak of, yet. A lot of characters doing things only to establish personal tics. Supposedly Simon at the first producers’ meeting when the suits said that not much seemed to happen, Simon said, “I suppose we could have a murder.” The Wire was slow to build, too, but from the beginning there was a unifying conflict: efforts of the police to stop the Barksdale group from murdering people who interfered with their drug business. Yes, the show was really about Baltimore, but it sucked you in with something more readily accessible.
Simon was on his home turf in The Wire, writing about stuff he had been covering for decades. That was someone telling the story of his neighbors. In Treme, Simon is paying homage to his home away from home. And, unlike Baltimore’s story, New Orleans’ story has already been told from many different angles. I expect a lot of nice little touches that don’t add up to a coherent whole or offer any real insight. I’ll keep watching, but I’d be surprised if Treme is renewed.
stuckinred
@Bobby Thomson: They kept renewing the Wire even though, in relative terms, no one watched it.
NHCt
The first episode took a while to come into focus. There are a lot of characters and a lot of storylines. It took about three episodes for the Wire to click for me, so I’m patient when it comes to Simon. That being said, something happened the last half-hour or so that made me want to keep watching. The Steve Vaughn/Elvis Costello scene is hilarious and quickly added a new dimension to what was shaping up to be a fairly tiresome character. And Clarke Peters pretty much owns the back half of the show. I won’t go into details; I’ll just say he is the center of the best-shot, most evocative scene in the entire episode. I’m definitely looking forward to the rest of the season.
Jennifer
Yes, the first episode was disjointed. But you can’t build a sprawling narrative, which is what Simon is so masterful at doing, without introducing the cast of characters and showing how they are related to one another.
Predictions that Treme will not be renewed are way premature.
My favorite touch so far: Phyllis Montana-LeBlanc in a bit part (she’s playing Desiree, the woman Wendell Pierce is staying with out past the county line). If you saw Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke, you’ll remember her.
plasticgoat
I married a boy from mid-city, who grew up in New Orleans, no Jefferson Parrish for him or his family. They spent the past 150 years within 7 blocks of each other. After Katrina the family scattered, 9 feet of water in your house will do that. Treme was heartbreakingly real, I know some of these people in different incarnations. The music, the stories, they are all so familiar. My DVR has been set to capture all. I may now be 10 hours away by car, but once you have lived and loved in New Orleans, you never really leave.
Ed in NJ
If you are waiting for the show to present the storylines in some linear, formulaic fashion, you are obviously not familiar with David Simon’s work, and probably didn’t watch The Wire. One hallmark of his work is that you need to invest in the show in order to be rewarded. It’s not for casual viewing. This opening episode was no different.
I thought it was an excellent introductory episode. It certainly whet my appetite for more. And from the reviews I’ve read, the show more than lives up to the hype.
Anton Sirius
Since this is technically an open thread and not a Treme appreciation thread: according to the Gray Senile Lady, as part of HCR, Congress may have inadvertently kicked itself off the federal employees health care plan.
Grassley and Baucus appear to be playing Abbott and Costello in this particular comedy routine. It’s not quite Who’s On First, but I’m still laughing.
Bobby Thomson
@stuckinred: I have a feeling Treme will have even fewer viewers than The Wire.
Bobby Thomson
@Ed in NJ: And there’s the first obligatory “You just don’t get Simon” comment. Took longer than I expected.
As I said myself, The Wire took a long time to build, too.
Still, I had the sense from the first scene that the show was going somewhere. This first episode just dragged.
Exurban Mom
Just chiming in to say that the John Boutte version of “Why” is truly beautiful. Thank you for posting it.
Keith
I managed to watch about 50 minutes of it, and after it didn’t go anywhere story-wise (it’s a great slice-of-life piece but I can hop in a car and see the real thing if I wanted that) I switched over to a movie. I would suspect they have some central story going on other than “life after Katrina” but it just took too damn long to get to it.
geg6
@Bobby Thomson:
LOLwhut?
In what universe has New Orleans’ story been told from every angle? I really haven’t seen any big movie blockbusters or television treatments of post-Katrina New Orleans other than a few documentaries, most of which have been on HBO (the only mass media that has, IMHO, done anything other than feel-good home improvement shows there).
Gus
@Keith: If I’d watched the first episode of “The Wire” when it first aired, I probably wouldn’t have gotten into the series. It’s similar with Treme. The first episode is about setting it up and introducing you to the characters. I’ve seen the second and third episodes, and it does get better.
psycholinguist
@Basilisc:
Jesus Basilisc, you think 2 dead teenagers are political fodder? Those are somebody’s kids man.
fes
David Simon more than earned the benefit of the doubt with
the WIRE. Obviously he is setting up the characters and context for the series. I have only been to New Orleans once since Katrina but the lack of rebuilding in the lower Ninth Ward is appalling.
AS the John Goodman character said,” a man made disaster”.
Rafe
Watched until Goodman appeared. His character was terribly written and acted. Just a ridiculous, over the top scene. One false note after another. Had to turn it off.
Gozer
I loved it, especially since my cousin (actually a cousin of my mom) is in it.
The accents that I hear are all familiar and comforting to this expat New Orleanian.
MinneapolisPipe
Don’t have cable, but even if I did, I would wait until the whole season’s over and then watch it on dvd.
If Treme is anything as detailed as The Wire, watching the episodes close together over a few days is a much richer experience.
Joseph Nobles
I agree that The Wire had a stronger pilot than Treme. You had a central protagonist (McNulty), you had a clear antagonist (Avon Barksdale), and a clear picture of the obstacles McNulty had to overcome to take down Barksdale.
In Treme, I don’t see a protagonist as central to the series as McNulty yet. We’ve got an antagonistic force, but I don’t see it identified clearly (Sobchek – I mean Goodman’s conspiratorial rantings aren’t to be trusted here).
The central question is clear, though – will New Orleans survive? And we’re going to dig into what survival even means, how it’s accomplished, that sort of stuff.
And maybe this is all intentional. New Orleans is a musical melting pot, where everybody blends together to create something greater than the sum total. It’s a band we’re dealing with. I’m enjoying the hell out of it, and it also looks like each episode will deserve its own soundtrack album. So I’m most definitely in on this one. Your patience will be rewarded. Tune in as you can.
Bas-O-Matic
@Rafe: Based on a real guy.
In the HBO series, which debuts April 11, the character Creighton Bernette, played by John Goodman, is partly based – certainly in spirit and occasionally word-for-blog-post-word – on Morris.
Ed in NJ
@Bobby Thomson:
Heh. For someone who felt the need to repeatedly post in this thread, you sure got a lot wrong. Probably won’t see this, but for the record, Treme has already been renewed, and the premiere garnered 1.4 million viewers. The Wire premieres averaged 890K.
That’s allota fail right there.
stuckinred
We just watched the opening of Treme. I realize this thread is dead but it was fucking great.
Bobby Thomson
@Ed in NJ:
Yes, I was wrong about a lot of things. I hope that means I’m also wrong about whether this turns into something.
The premiere numbers obviously convinced HBO, at least for now. Whether they will go up or down remains to be seen. Deadwood was also renewed promptly after its first episode.
BTW, three posts = “felt the need to post repeatedly”?
stuckinred
Picked up for a second season. . .geniuses!