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Treme! From the creators of the Wire

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KvP:
For those unfamiliar with the practice, a writer at NOLA.com has explained all the details of Mardi Gras and post-Katrina New Orleans as shown by Treme.

Inlander:
I'm really enjoying the different textures in the relationships between characters in Treme that we haven't seen before in shows by Simon & co. Interactions such as those between Antoine and the Japanese jazz fan, or Davis and Annie in tonight's episode, are really sweet and touching in a way that never would have been possible in shows such as the Wire or the Corner.

David_Dovey:

--- Quote from: David_Dovey on 13 Apr 2010, 09:33 ---Oh yeah I guess there was one thing that I didn't particularly dig about the first episode, although it's kind of speculative right now, but if they are setting up Kim Dickens' character (the restaurant owner) to have an on-again, off-again thing with Steve Zahn then that is kind of weak, simply because the cliché of the strong/capable/independent woman who nonetheless has a weak spot for the unreliable/self-centred asshole is way overused and just gives me the shits.

Of course that being said, maybe when she told him to "fuck off", she really meant it, and will continue to tell him to fuck off. That would be nice.

--- End quote ---

Damnit.

I also squirmed at the part in Ep. 2 (I think?) where it's revealed Davis has rich parents. There's a few other examples in Treme (John Goodman's daughter, for one) where I feel they are leaning way too heavily on established character tropes/clichés that you keep seeing pop up in all manner of hacky sitcoms and episodic dramas, and that I would've thought that were below Simon and co.

Compare and contrast with characters like Kima and Stringer Bell from The Wire (actually, any of the characters in The Wire, come to think of it), who take standard perceptions of lesbian cop, or drug-slinging crime lord and completely confound expectation at every turn.

That being said, I'm really enjoying the depth of character Albert (Clarke Peters) gained in the first three episodes, partly because despite it being a David Simon et al production (set in a disaster zone, no less), I was very much not expecting a turn that dark that quick.

Oh oh and how awesome was it when Slim Charles (well, OK the actor who played Slim Charles) turned up in that jail scene. Awesome!

Anyway I am still behind, I've only seen up to the end of Ep. 3

Inlander:
I dunno Dovey, you all know how much I adore the Wire but it's always seemed to me that almost every single character in it is an archetype or stereotype; that they rise above it is simply because we get to spend so much time with them that we come to see them as fully fleshed-out human beings rather than just characters. I mean, the maverick Irish-American cop who drinks too much and whose marriage is falling apart? Really?

Also, I'm not going to spoilers you but stick with Davis, he gets a lot better, and his relationship with Jeanette gets fleshed out a hell of a lot and quite satisfactorily without Jeanette seeming any the weaker, in my opinion.

David_Dovey:
Oh goodie, hooray!

I'll be honest, I was actively trying to avoid mentioning McNulty for exactly the reasons you point out. He's the exception. But I think even though a lot of the characters are pretty arch, that's only if you were putting their chief characteristics down on paper. I'm re-watching S1 right now and the main thing that's struck me is how fully-formed the characters are right from the get go, and how even though they are maybe set up as being standard cops n' robbers archetypes in the first scene they appear in, there is something within the same episode which goes on to make things significantly more complex i.e; the scene where McNulty finds out Kima is gay, the chess scene, the scene where D visits Stringer in the strip club with the day's takings, and continues right through the entire show with Frank Sobotka, and Bunny Colvin and all of the boys in S4 and so on and on.

And of course I'm not throwing Treme under the bus for these very minor indiscretions and as I mentioned in my first post about the show a lot of the appeal is in the anticipation of things to come. Hell, I even kind of like Davis in a perverse sort of way.

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