Fun Stuff > ENJOY

Treme! From the creators of the Wire

<< < (12/17) > >>

De_El:
I think episode two did a really great job of assuaging one doubt I had about the show in particular, that being: "Is Steve Zahn going to suck because he's Steve Zahn?" And hey look, character development, he's more than an incompetent ass. Gratifying television, truly.

And, you know, everything else about the show that's excellent.  It's a really exciting show to be able to follow. My excitement about the show doesn't even really have much of a focus yet. But episode two caught me really off-guard when it ended, mainly because I didn't want it to end, and having lost all sense of time outside the show, I had practically forgotten that there would only be a little bit of Treme before having to wait another week. Not any more though! Two days!

KvP:
Treme is doing that David Simon thing where characters are complicated. While at the outset it might have seemed that he was a mouthpiece for Simon in his imperious anger at tourists and the like, it's since become clear that he's a pompous hypocrite. In the latest episode there are a couple of scenes - The opener, when he says "I want my city back", and the part where he's admonishing his gay neighbors, lecturing them on how they live in a "great black neighborhood" when he's just as white as they are - where we're supposed to see how absurd his "Real New Orleans" schtick is. That having been said, Davis comes off as a prick but he's basically a smart guy with very little self-awareness or impulse control and a real, deep passion for the music of the city - the classic arrogant music geek. He's sort of like McNulty from The Wire, but he's not as wiley.

Contrast Davis with Sonny, the Dutch busker. He's like Davis, but the real deal - where Davis is just a blowhard, Sonny's a real musician, and he has some real issues with bitterness and restrained anger. At this point I'm waiting to see how many episodes it will be before he starts beating Annie. He's shown some signs of being the abusive type - big romantic gestures (the bottle of wine) and highly possessive toward Annie, even when the gig she's been invited to can be good for her. I'm a little concerned over the references we've heard in episodes 2 and 3 to Sonny's having gone out in a boat directly after the storm passed - the implication is that it's changed him, but he doesn't seem to exhibit any signs of PTSD besides a general air of tension. I feel like Simon would be more careful than to explain away potential violence on Sonny's part on his experiences post-Katrina when he doesn't show any outward signs of mental disturbance.

Speaking of tension, how about Lambreux? When he's not interacting with Indian folk (sometimes even then) Clarke Peters radiates barely controlled rage, like a coiled snake. He's like Anton Chighur almost - I get nervous when he's alone with other people.

Besides that, the lady from Newsradio is turning out to be the breakout actor in the ensemble (she does anger and frustration perfectly) and I'm having trouble connecting with Antoine. He's basically a walking stereotype at this point. His arc needs a hook, and he doesn't really have one. John Goodman is funny and plays a good dad. Melissa Leo needs a role that isn't just getting other characters out of scrapes and acting as a ligament between stories.

KvP:
Okay going back over it I'm pretty sure that Sonny is telling fish tales about post-Katrina experiences. Things are going to turn bad for Annie, and soon.

Anyway, there's been a lot of discussion 'round TV parts of the internet about the politics of the show's views vis a vis the role of "outsiders" in post-Katrina NOLA. A lot of people have taken umbrage to how prickly the show is towards the people who came to NOLA to "help rebuild" after the storm, but I think it's more or less justified, especially with the clean-scrubbed youth group kids of the second episode. I was one of those kids once. Went out to Nicaragua to "build houses for the poor". We worked 7 hour days, relaxed at night, ate out at "nice places" in town, and had 2 or 3 days of rest and sightseeing. We set the foundation for two houses. The actual building of the two houses was done by the natives, who were barely paid and had at least 12 hour days, and had little to eat. We came back from Nicaragua patting ourselves on the back for all the "helping" we did, when in fact we had done next to nothing. The natives resented us, and they had good reason to. We had taken a weeklong vacation to play at living in the kind of hardships that they felt every day, and at the end of the week we went back to infinite comforts, while they were left in no greater position than the one they had previously held. Of course they're going to be ornery.

Inlander:
Preview of the next episode.

Looks like Antoine's hook is going to be that he can't play the trombone any more after getting beaten up by the cops.

Also: more Anwan Glover.

Also also: PREZ!!

I think the show is still finding its feet. The problem with any David Simon show is that outside the confines of the show's central characters/community, everyone else tends to get painted with a pretty broad brush. That was a problem with episode three of Treme: the cops and the National Guard are all thugs! The tourists are all insensitive jerks! It wasn't a problem that occurred in the Wire so much just because of the sheer breadth of that show's community: however many cardboard cut-outs there were, they were overwhelmed by the sheer number and variety of living, breathing characters. Treme, on the other hand, looks to have a much tighter focus, and if it's going to keep that then this issue could become a concern.

Inlander:
Also, I don't know about Sonny. He's clearly got some arseholish tendencies but I think more than anything it stems from having a massive chip on his shoulder about something - perhaps about having stayed in New Orleans when everyone else fled. He clearly sees people as either phonies or "real": contrast his differing reactions to the two musicians who interacted with Annie in episode 3, namely Antoine and that other guy with the funny hat whose name I can't remember. Hat Guy is doing nothing more overt than talking to Annie, musician-to-musician, and offering her a gig - but Sonny doesn't like him because he's too much of a big-shot. Antoine, on the other hand, sings a drunken love song directly to - and with - Annie, but Sonny's reaction couldn't be more different: you can see him getting into it, and at the end he tries to get Antoine to stay and play with them some more. But then, Antoine's clearly just another ordinary musician, struggling to make a buck. I don't think Sonny's problems stem from jealousy and possessiveness so much as just straight-out arrogance.

I'm also warming to Davis. He's absolutely infuriating but he's so single-minded in his desires that it becomes something close to endearing. His interactions with Elvis Costello and with Creighton show that he's basically a social climber, but he's also desperate to let people into his world. Usually in an obnoxious and reckless way, sure, but there was a genuine generosity in the way he handled the tourist/volunteers from episode 2, which contrasted markedly with Sonny's reaction to them. Plus I'm tipping "Strippers Are Moving In My Neighbourhood" to be the break-out hit of the summer!

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page