In praise of “Treme”
I wanted to write something profound and deep about my favorite TV series “Treme,” now that Season 2 is over, but others have cut significant trail on this front. First Emily Nussbaum at Vulture who writes Why You Should Have Been Watching “Treme” Instead of “The Killing”:
As it happens, even as The Killing was getting all the press, Treme was having a quietly amazing second season, one that happened to feature a right-brain holistic journey and a refreshing unwillingness to tie things into bows. Because while Treme has plenty of lively stories in its mix, the most distinct thing about the show is its playful, circular, unpredictable, unresolved structure. Unlike almost every ambitious TV experiment, including great ones like The Sopranos and terrible ones like The Killing, Treme isn’t an elevating riff on a sitcom, or a police procedural, or a soap opera. It isn’t fueled by generic familiarity, even as something to reject. When I interviewed David Simon on the set of Treme, before his show began airing, he described Robert Altman as an inspiration and Altmanesque is how the show feels: intuitive, sly-humored, unexpectedly moving, subtle and full of visual surprise, adding up in bits and pieces, wild performances bracketing scraps of dialogue, quick cuts, an emphasis on facial expressions and a slow, flowing, satisfying overall feel of … well, funkiness. Or gumbo. Oh God, I shouldn’t say gumbo, should I?
And Tim Goodman at THR with How ‘Treme’ Found Greatness In Ordinary People And Counterintuitive Storytelling:
Before going any further trying to contextualize the achievements of Treme, it’s necessary to talk about something series co-creator David Simon isn’t too keen to talk much about anymore — the fact he previously created arguably the greatest drama in TV history with The Wire. Just the fact that Treme is even in a conversation about top-tier television series is something of a miracle after that. The burden of expectation on Simon (and, in some sense, HBO) was enormous following The Wire, and the odds were long that a follow-up act would be any good. Why? Because making even one excellent series is rare. Repeating greatness in the arts is no easy feat. More so in television than almost any other medium — even music, with the dreaded sophomore album. So that achievement — and it’s enormous — needs to be thoroughly understood before moving forward.
It’s this “past performance is no guarantee of future results” thing that might also be such a consternation when evaluating Treme. What I’ve sensed from critics is a difficulty contrasting, contextualizing and embracing the mostly linear storytelling of The Wire with the less structured, more free-flowing raft-on-the-ocean kind of storytelling of Simon, co-creator Eric Overmyer and the Treme writers. Almost every episode of The Wire through five seasons could be definitively deconstructed after each showing. Doing that for Treme is like writing definitively about a marathon at the first mile marker.
A few things. I was in my dentist’s office on Wilshire in Santa Monica back in 1991 when I happened to pick up a copy of Entertainment Weekly and read this book review of “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.” I bought the book. Read it. Read it again. Found it to be simply one of the finest pieces of non-fiction I’d ever read.
The book was written by David Simon, a Baltimore Sun reporter who was given unfettered access to the city’s beleaguered homicide department for one full year.
So naturally I followed “Homicide: Life on the Street,” the NBC series based on Simon’s book that ran 122 episodes from 1993 to 1999, becoming the best hour-long drama on broadcast TV.
Simon worked on that series as one of its staff writers and eventually producer.
Then came “The Wire,” which Simon created with former homicide cop Ed Burns. “The Wire” ran for 60 episodes on HBO and is the best hour-long drama on cable TV.
Best 1-hour drama on broadcast TV. Best 1-hour drama on cable TV. And David Simon intimately involved in both.
So I was hugely interested when I saw Simon was doing another series on HBO called “Treme” [I noted it for the first time on GITS here on March 27, 2009].
I watched the 10 episodes of “Treme’s” Season 1. In all honesty, it was a struggle for me. Some interesting characters and a dramatic backdrop — post-Katrina New Orleans — but it was preachy and the episodes seemed to wander, going nowhere in particular. Of course, I couldn’t help but compare it to “The Wire,” which likely didn’t help my experience of the show.
However I stuck with it because… well, David Simon.
Then came Season 2. And something happened this year: Everything clicked.
The characters. The storylines. The balance between music and plot, food and plot, New Orleans and plot. Whereas Season 1 had me wondering if Simon knew where the various narratives were going, Season 2 suggests I had just been slow on the uptake.
With “Treme,” we are on similar but different terrain as “The Wire.” It’s a series set in a gritty urban environment. There are cops. Politics. Schools. Lawyers. Many of the areas Simon delved into in “The Wire.” But “Treme” — as one of the articles cited above notes — has a more Robert Altman feel to the narrative approach. You have to give yourself over to that flow. And the characters? Ordinary citizens, but each with multiple layers of who they are and what they want, compelling in their own way.
Not a one of them perfect. Not a one of them without a flaw.
Saintly sinners. Sinful saints.
I can relate to them both in terms of their day-to-day struggles and the larger framework of trying to make sense of living in a country that by many measures is in a state of serious decay.
Season 2 had what I think is the single best line of dialogue of any TV series this year:
“Life is short. Let’s play a song.”
For those who have followed the series, you know why that line has such emotional resonance.
Season 2 also had dozens of memorable moments. Here is a snippet from one of them, excerpted from the final episode. In this scene, Toni Bernette (Melissa Leo) has a conversation with her teenage daughter Sofia (India Ennenga). If you haven’t seen the series, I don’t want to spoil it for you. Suffice to say, Toni and Sofia have lost someone near and dear to them, Toni’s husband and Sofia’s father. And Sofia, whose life was spinning out of control as a result of her father’s death, found solace in working part-time for a city councilman Oliver Thomas, a decent man who has just gotten indicted for accepting money in exchange for his votes. Here is the dialogue:
Sofia: I’m really sad about Oliver. He would have been a good mayor.
Toni: Maybe.
Sofia: Then again, he did take the money, right?
Toni: Seems so.
[five seconds of no talk, just ambient urban noise]
Toni: You know, folks just are, Sofia. Sometimes we’re better than ourselves, sometime we’re worse. Sometimes we please. And sometimes we disappoint.
[five seconds of ambient noise]
Toni: I don’t know. Guess we’re not talking about Oliver Thomas anymore.
[silence]
Sofia: I still love him. I always will. But I can’t forgive him.
Toni: I know. Not yet anyway, huh?
Obviously you need to understand the broader context to grasp the many layers of meaning in this exchange. But this moment provides a prism through which to see and understand at least one way of interpreting “Treme.” As a Lutheran minister-in-training once told me at Yale, when explaining the concept of grace, “We’re all fucked up, but God loves us anyway.”
All of the characters on “Treme” are in some sense “fucked up.” Sometimes they are better than themselves, sometimes worse. Sometimes they please, sometimes they disappoint. But in the end, there is the grace of human connection and surprising love that manages to just… keep them going.
David Simon and his fellow writers, producers, cast and crew members are doing something utterly remarkable with “Treme.” There is nothing else remotely like it on TV.
Despite the second season’s ratings being less than the first, HBO has greenlit a third season of “Treme.”
With so much crap being produced that pawns itself off as entertainment, “Treme” is unique. And beautiful. And deeply human.
If you haven’t seen the show, do yourself a big favor: Rent it. Watch it. And spread the word. How Simon and company have orchestrated the series’ multiple storylines is a wonder to behold.
I can’t wait for Season 3.
The official website of the series.
There is the music which is totally kick-ass:
And the food:
Thanks to David Simon and his crew for blessing us with the entertainment, insight, and soul of “Treme.”
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