THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => ENJOY => Topic started by: KvP on 12 Jan 2010, 15:52
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There's a new teaser out! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jH_KkUyZsw&feature=player_embedded) And it doesn't tell us much of anything.
Here are the things that we know!
- It is premiering in April.
- It is primarily about Jazz musicians in the Treme district of Nyoleans, which is famous for its musically-oriented residents.
Here are some names in the cast:
- Bunk from the Wire! (that's motherfucking Wendell Pierce, motherfucker)
- Steve motherfucking Zahn!
- Melissa motherfucking Leo! (Kay Howard from Homicide bitchess)
- WALTER FUCKING SOBCHAK
- The lesbian madame from Deadwood!
- A whole lot of Nyoleans natives
It's your new favorite show!
I'ma go watch When the Levees Broke again.
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Don't forget Clarke Peters, AKA Lester motherfucking Freamon!
I'm looking forward to seeing something with Melissa Leo in it again, she was great in Homicide. Basically, there is very little chance this won't be excellent.
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I've been looking forward to this for so long, I can't tell you. That teaser trailer doesn't tell you anything - but it does establish the look of the show, and it looks just as good as anything you'd expect from Simon & Burns. Incidentally, Wendell Pierce is a New Orleans native.
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It's your new favorite show!
Yes!
Don't forget Clarke Peters, AKA Lester motherfucking Freamon!
Fuck Yes!
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I've never watched the wire, but the idea of a new HBO show is extremely appealing.
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Watch The Wire, man.
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Oh hey George Pelecanos is going to be writing for this as well. Niiiice.
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Holy cow ... this really might be my new favorite show. Thank you for giving me some television to look forward to!
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Holy shit why did nobody tell me John Goodman was in this as well!!
Guys let's cancel the rest of March and just get to April already.
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Elvis FUCKING Costello you guys!
I am hoping I will be able to watch this and see Clarke Peters and Wendell Pierce and not go "Hey it is Freamon and The Bunk" but it will probably be hard-going at the outset
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Holy shit why did nobody tell me John Goodman was in this as well!!
- WALTER FUCKING SOBCHAK
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Well I'm sold.
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Megaupload dudes are generally pretty on-the-ball. I watched In Treatment while the season was ongoing via the internets.
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Since HBO needs an inferior show that will be way more popular than Treme, they've also got a new show from the Sopranos guys. It's about Prohibition, and it's called Boardwalk Empire (http://www.hbo.com/global-video/video.html?vid=1085330&view=grid&autoplay=true).
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Seeing that the first Boardwalk Empire episode is directed by Scorcese, that Steve Buscemi is involved, and that The Sopranoes was much better than The Wire (and I loved The Wire), I don't know how you would assume it'll be inferior.
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I cannot think of a single way in which The Sopranos is better than The Wire.
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The Sopranos and The Wire are two very different shows that are each masterful in their own way. Bitches.
Since HBO needs an inferior show that will be way more popular than Treme, they've also got a new show from the Sopranos guys. It's about Prohibition, and it's called Boardwalk Empire (http://www.hbo.com/global-video/video.html?vid=1085330&view=grid&autoplay=true).
You forgot to mention that Michael K. Williams (aka Omar FUCKING Little) is in this show.
(http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs499.ash1/27244_516353337434_82300598_30675463_4608776_n.jpg)
I mean LOOK at that. That is magic.
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Seeing that the first Boardwalk Empire episode is directed by Scorcese, that Steve Buscemi is involved, and that The Sopranoes was much better than The Wire (and I loved The Wire), I don't know how you would assume it'll be inferior.
I'm coming back to Canada to beat some sense into you.
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John are you serious Boardwalk Empire is going to fucking rule. As good as Treme? Maybe not, but
Actually you know what no point in trying to be reasoned and intelligent sounding
JOHN BITCH YOU TRIPPIN
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I cannot think of a single way in which The Sopranos is better than The Wire.
Have you considered 'overall quality'?
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Wow, that is a pretty nebulous criteria!
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And completely wrong! I mean come on, even if you preferred The Sopranos it's definitely a less interesting programme. Then again, they also have almost nothing in common aside from the fact that some characters commit crimes.
I doubt the highly patchy Scorsese will do any harm and will manage to do a decent enough job, so I am looking forward to Boardwalk Empire. Michael K. Williams could sell me on pretty much anything.
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it's definitely a less interesting programme.
Why? Although the ideas which supported the show were less politically concrete, I thought they were fascinating.
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Now I think of it, that's probably just my personal interests speaking. Omar as palimpsest, Hamsterdam as ghetto within the ghetto/pre-modern within the ultimate site of modernity, use of the ghetto as entertainment by the outside world etc, I just find these things very interesting. I also only watched one or two seasons of The Sopranos before sort of losing touch with it, so there might well be a lot I missed. Mobster gets psychological problems and a humanisation and focus on the more mundane aspects of being someone involved in organised crime just isn't something I find as much mileage in. Nicely drawn characters and all but I never found all that much to get my teeth into, but if I was more interested in therapy than I am the city that could have been very different.
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Treme looks great. I can't even express my excitement at the appearance from the trailer that HBO seems to finally get that "realistic and gritty" doesn't necessitate an oppressively downbeat mood. Also John Goodman being back on TV is always cause for celebration, even if it's only 13 weeks a year.
As for Boardwalk Empire, did everybody miss that it is exec produced by MARTIN SCORSESE? The Sopranos is underrated in my opinion as of late (read: since The Wire) anyway, but I think the Internet as a whole has been far too dismissive of Boardwalk Empire considering its subject matter and pedigree.
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I think if I were to watch one of these two shows, it would be Boardwalk Empire. Looks pretty interesting and there hasn't been a lot of good prohibition-era media in a while.
I never watched The Sopranos or The Wire though
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HBO seems to finally get that "realistic and gritty" doesn't necessitate an oppressively downbeat mood
What? The Wire was one of the most realistic and gritty and downbeat shows on TV while simultaneously being one of the most hilarious and life-affirming and strangely beautiful.
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I must confess I am only in the middle of the first season of The Wire (started when Treme mania kicked in, have had it under reccommendation for a loooooong time), so perhaps I have not hit the majority of the humor yet, but so far it seems a little... dreary. Not in terms of characterization, but the cinematography and the overall tone. I don't mean that as an insult by any means, by the way.
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It's not a sitcom by any means but the writer's attempts to realistically depict inner-city life extends to providing their characters with plenty of droll remarks, one-liners, practical jokes, and gallows humour, just as real life people express in even the direst circumstances.
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Shut up Harry.
Shut up Arthur. Watch the show.
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What the fuck did I do?
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Nicely drawn characters and all but I never found all that much to get my teeth into, but if I was more interested in therapy than I am the city that could have been very different.
This actually makes me want to watch The Wire less because of my antipathy for urban life. Previously it was just because of the nagging, and also because I am wary of taking TV recommendations off of people on this forum based on the other television and films that are big round here.
Edit: I also find it fairly hard to get into these really long American TV series. For a start, they look fairly daunting to approach, but I also never really get engaged with them. I'm only kinda in to The West Wing (and to a lesser degree MASH) because other members of my family are obsessive fans and I've been exposed to a lot of second-hand episodes. I never seem to develop a burning urge to find out what happens to the characters. I watched the first two seasons of The Sopranos with friends a couple of years ago, which was all my friend had at the time, and then have barely ever thought about it again. Most of my favourite television series (Edge of Darkness, Ultraviolet, Riget, etc.) are less than half the length of a single season of most American series. I don't know why this is, particularly. Perhaps it's also related to my general latent anti-americanism.
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If you don't like dense things then you will not enjoy The Wire. As far as the length is concerned, the thing about The Wire is that it is essentially a new show every season, with recurring characters in the B-stories.
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I don't think it's density particularly, but rather the length. That 'new show every season' thing sounds kinda promising though!
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I would take that with a rather large helping of salt though. Speaking as somebody who's only halfway through season 3, the cops that start season one are still there with a fair bit of character development, and understanding what the major case unit is doing relies pretty heavily on knowing the politics that built up there over the previous two seasons. The dockworkers have disappeared, but the dealers from season one are still there, and understanding whats going on with them and marlo requires knowing certain things that happened in s1 and 2. The only thing that's really new in s2 is the dockworkers, and even that begs knowing about the police, and in s3 it's the politicians, and you need to know about the police higher ups to really get that. I haven't missed a minute and there are still things that I'll miss entirely or need to be reminded of.
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The third season is more or less the conclusion of the storyline of the first season, and they have the most in common. The first and third seasons are kind of anomalous in that. The vast majority of the characters from the second season aren't present throughout the rest of the show, and the fourth and fifth seasons likewise introduce new characters and places that are the focus of the show in those seasons. But the characters established in seasons 1 / 3 have B-plots and show up in the A plots from time to time. But the show isn't really "about" any one group of characters. In the fourth season the character usually regarded as the "main character" (McNulty) is barely present.
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So how is this pronounced? Like 'monotreme' or like I'm pretending I can speak french?
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Khar, if you're in doubt about the Wire you should watch at least the first season. It does in fact end in a resolution, of sorts, and can be satisfyingly viewed as a self-contained story.
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So how is this pronounced? Like 'monotreme' or like I'm pretending I can speak french?
I had to look this up but it looks like it is pronounced "treh-may" cause historically Treme had an accent on the last e.
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I started grinning uncontrollably while watching that simply out of excitement for this show, and the certainty that it is going to be very, very, very fucking good. SO EXCITE.
Also, flat caps everywhere weeee
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One of the principal writers of Treme as well as David Simon's other projects, David Mills, died of a brain aneurysm. RIP. Link (http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-david-mills-writer-for-the-wire-and-treme,39701/).
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Via a bro of mine on the Facebook, here is some streaming of the pilot episode (http://www.ninjavideo.net/cat/2475), allegedly.
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Sidereel has some megavideo links. Not amazing when I blow it up to fullscreen 1080, but if I sit back a bit it looks like I'm playing a DVD.
Oh, and it's really fucking good. It feels exactly like The Wire, and the writing is great. Fuckin' funny when the DJ (I'm no good with names, I simply think of his as Steve Zahn) kept trying to talk to Elvis Costello.
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The first episode was really fucking great, laying out the tracks for the story arcs and giving you some time with each character to get to know them. I think I read that there will be a lot of cameos from famous artists too so maybe keep a watchful eye if you like that kind of thing.
As for streaming, this link (http://www.wisevid.com/gate-way?v=8t_gtJd8wzwb) was the one I used after a couple of others were too pixelated for my liking and it was great.
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I didn't have any luck with any of the various streaming sites I tried last night, but the torrent was up already and I'm almost half-way to glory! So excited.
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I hope I can phrase this so it makes sense:
I kind of wish this show was done already.
In the sense that I wish there were already 5+ seasons that I could sit there and watch in huge chunks, like I did The Wire, because I can see that even in the first episode that they are laying out some seriously long-term story arcs and unsurprisingly there is a lot of opportunity for Simon et. al. to expand the scope of the show to take in more and more of the city and it's people, and I literally can not wait to see them do it.
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So one thing I'm not certain about here: is this a series (like the Wire) or a minseries (like Generation Kill and the Corner)?
Oh and I just finished watching the first episode and I'm pretty happy with it. Steve Zahn's character could get annoying and Wendell Pierce's "I can't pay for my cab fare" shtick is getting pretty repetitive even one episode in but I am, of course, prepared to give anything by David Simon the benefit of the doubt. And holy shit, that scene of Clark Davis in the Mardi Gras Indian costume looming out of the darkness! And I love seeing Melissa Leo in anything.
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I got a similar feeling, Dovey. I think it's a show who's appeal will mostly come from your relationship with the characters and that is easier/delivers more if you can spend a few hours a day every few days them rather than an hour a week.
On the other hand I'm not going to lose whole nights of sleep to "just one more episode".
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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.
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Despite pulling in a rather anemic 1.4 million viewers for the pilot, HBO has already ordered a second season of the show. Yaaaaay.
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Hugs 4 HBO
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I still miss Deadwood and Carnivale, especially Carninvale.
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Just finished up the first episode (can't find streaming, but the torrents look to be 300+ seeders, so it doesn't take more than 20 minutes for the download) and yeah, I'm thinking that this will be similar to the Wire in terms of depth and scope, but it's gonna be hard to adjust to the changes in stakes - this is deep character study, not cutthroat gangster drama.
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Also if you're playing along at home, Alan Sepinwall's got pretty good coverage of the show on an episode by episode basis (http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/search/label/Treme), as does Dave Walker at NOLA.com, who reviews it as a native here (http://www.nola.com/treme-hbo/).
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I'll admit I was ever-so-slightly underwhelmed by the first episode of this. I liked it well enough but without the crime angle of the Wire it seemed to be lacking the drama. But after watching the second episode something's just clicked. I don't know what it is, but now I'm absolutely fascinated by these characters and I really care about what happens to them and I can't wait to see how their stories unfold and develop. I think my favourite character at the moment is Clarke Peters' Albert Lambreaux. For a lot of the second episode he seemed to be channelling Lester Freamon, wandering around the city slowly piecing together the whereabouts of missing people, wondering why the housing projects were boarded up - and then wham! Out of nowhere he beats the shit out of that thief, and he's definitely no Freamon. Amazing. And then that practice scene at the end, with just him and the one guy from his tribe who's turned up, and both of them playing their tambourines and singing about Katrina - I think that was my favourite musical sequence from the whole episode.
And speaking of the music - I've never been to New Orleans but as someone who lives in a city with a thriving music culture I can say that Treme is doing a simply superb job in capturing the depth and range and interconnectedness of the scene in a truly musical city. I have a feeling that the music in Treme is going to play the same role the jokes in the Wire did: the characters in the Wire had grown up in a broken city and they'd all evolved a black sense of humour to help them cope with it; the characters in Treme are still in shock and trying to adjust to a city that out of nowhere has suddenly been shattered, and they don't have the innate defence mechanisms that their counterparts in the Wire had - but they've got music, which is the spark of joy that keeps them going.
EDIT: Oh also, Lucia Micarelli (http://www.hbo.com/treme#/treme/cast-and-crew/annie/bio/lucia-micarelli.html). Yeah, I can stand to watch her, that's okay.
Really excited for episode three now!
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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!
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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.
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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.
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Preview of the next episode (http://www.hbo.com/treme#/treme/episodes/1/04-at-the-foot-of-canal-street/video/ep-04-at-the-foot-of-canal-street-preview.html/eNrjcmbOYM5nLtQsy0xJzXfMS8ypLMlMds7PK0mtKFHPz0mBCQUkpqf6JeamcjIyskknlpbkF+QkVtqWFJWmsjGyMQIAWCcXOA==).
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.
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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!
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George Pelecanos scripted the last episode, and we get a couple of characters that move forward a bit and a couple who don't seem to go anywhere. We get a telling comment from John Goodman's wife about how he's not leaving the house or doing anything constructive. He's very good at hiding it, but his rage is bottomless and it's taking up more and more of him. One wonders how his youtube video will play with the uni he works at. If people on the street recognize him, surely those outside the city will as well. Could turn out badly. Interesting how Delmond's (that's Clarke Peter's son, the trumpet player) arc seems to be taking place almost entirely outside of New Orleans.
Another episode, another slight from Annie against Sonny. Harry's right about the chip on his shoulder, and that he's projecting his insecurity at being an outsider on other people, but I still feel like as he continues to stew over his lack of control he's going to start taking it out on Annie. She's the only good thing he has going and he doesn't feel like he's worthy of her or that she respects him.
A partial resolution to the Antoine storyline and we're almost back to his arc not really having any sort of hook. His dental problem's fixed but according to Melissa Leo's character, his horn is missing, so he's got tough times coming.
Wondering where the restaurant arc could possibly go from here. It will only get worse, I'm guessing.
Lambreaux gets to display the less violent side to his strong masculinity, and he looks on track to becoming the de facto father of another family. Lots of potential for conflict there.
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It was nice to see that Janette can turn down Davis cold and without a moment's hesitation when she's not in the mood (which looks like being most of the time, really). Clearly neither of them consider themselves to be boyfriend/girlfriend, so it's an interesting little dynamic going on between those two characters. At the moment Davis's interactions with Creighton are the episode highlights for me. We've obviously skipped a few piano lessons ahead since last episode: their interaction seemed to have evolved somewhat, and I think Creighton is starting to recognise that whatever his faults, Davis is at least somebody who's as one-eyed and passionate about New Orleans as he is.
I don't know about Delmond's storyline at the moment. I guess his function in the show is to represent the New Orleans diaspora, but if I understand correctly he left before Katrina, and he doesn't see himself as part of the city's musical heritage, and every time we go to see what he's up to we get yanked out of New Orleans. I thought his scenes were some of the best in episode 4 and I really enjoyed them, but I don't know if they belonged in the same show as everything else.
With each episode Sonny's chip gets explained (if not excused) a bit more: I think the show's hinting strongly that while he might be a decent enough musician, he's just not good enough to cut it in a town like New Orleans; Annie is clearly more talented and is getting offered gigs left right and centre; Sonny meanwhile is left to trek out to Texas with his fairly loserish mates to play one song before he gets turfed from the stage for a better, more recognised pianist. I think he moved to New Orleans thinking that just doing that would be enough, somehow - but it's not. On the other hand, he didn't seem angry at Annie for taking a gig with another pianist, as we supposed he might based on what he said to her: he was surprised, certainly, and I think he was making a little power-play by making sure that she knew he knew, but at the same I think that the way he sat in the bar listening to her play, and kind of smiled to himself, suggested that his request that she not play with another pianist was only half-serious at most.
I really liked the interaction between Antoine and his ex-wife's new husband (Leonard?). It was really refreshing to see a show that honestly depicts how most peope, I think, try to make a go of that kind of situation and try to get on with each other, rather than the usual boring "old husband hates the new husband" thing that we've seen a thousand times before.
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So how many people here are watching this show?
I really liked this week's episode. I've felt in previous episodes that the "Fuck the police!" attitude was a bit too simplistic and knee-jerk, so I really applaud the show for pointing out so sympathetically just how desperate and frightened the police are. It was also a salient reminder that pre-Katrina New Orleans wasn't the magical happyland the show has sometimes risked depicting it as, and that the problems are much, much greater than just fixing flood damage and moving people back. I haven't always liked David Morse in the past but I thought he did a terrific job as the police lieutenant, and Melissa Leo's reaction shots were great too: the way her eyes displayed how her attitude was changing even as the police situation was explained to her.
Speaking of Leo, I realised last night just how much I'm enjoying her seeing a different kind of character from those she's usually cast as. She's typically played fairly shambolic, down-on-their-luck characters, so it's great to see her getting the chance to do something different.
And that interlude with the Japanese jazz fan was so bizarre and strangely touching. It's so rare to get a moment of pure generosity like that in a David Simon show, and it was also a relief to have the "do-gooder outsider" portrayed sympathetically in Treme for once. (Also I watched this episode just after watching the latest episode of the Pacific, so the contrast in Japanese-American relations was rather jarring.)
The only character who I'm a little touch-and-go about at the moment is Albert. In terms of character development I feel like he's spinning his wheels a little.
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So how many people here are watching this show?
Downloading the first 5 eps now, it'll probably take a while, I think our bandwidth got shaped and it won't be back to full speed for 2-3 days. I'll be back with impressions after that, I suppose.
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just something I stumbled across, though it's about The Wire, rather than Treme. sort of an amusing/cool quote.
Michael Kostroff, an actor who was in town to volunteer for Obama and had a chance to meet him, told the Sun that Obama’s favorite TV show is his own: HBO’s “The Wire,” which chronicles Baltimore’s violent drug culture and the police who quixotically try to stop it.
Obama told the Sun his favorite character is Omar, a stick-up artist who steals from drug dealers and then gives the loot to poor people in the neighborhood.
“That’s not an endorsement. He’s not my favorite person, but he’s a fascinating character.”
on-topic I'll probably check out this show after I'm done watching the Wire, and if I still have as much spare time as I do now. Even if this weren't on hbo (or whatever channel hbo uses for broadcasting in canada) I wouldn't watch it on tv, because I much prefer being able to choose when and where I watch things. so downloading and then dvds I guess. plus as Dovey and other people mentioned, that will mean I can stay up till 4 am watching 5 episodes or so in a row whenever I want (like I'm doing right now)
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I am really interested in this show. The first story arc is taking off at a roaring crawl, and I can only imagine that the writers intend to explore some very long term development and change in the characters rather than try and wrangle them all into a sweeping setup->conflict->resolution format you see in many serialized dramas. I caught an episode of The Sopranos on tv this morning and found myself reliving the joy of watching all 6 seasons in one summer, and after watching the wire in maybe a month's time, and I truly do love HBO's approach to high quality television series. That said, waiting every week for an episode of a show that is just beginning is such an arduous routine. Thank god Lost is a week away from being finished so I can be free of its grubby claws.
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I'm watching it! I catch the new episode every week with a friend of mine.
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After a 2-week break (can someone explain why?) and the anticipation of the Mardi Gras episode it was really amazing, probably my favourite episode as of yet. The story didn't really move on too much but there were inklings of what will happen next and they made Mardi Gras just seem so perfect, a real celebration of perseverance.
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I was watching it as soon as it hit the net, but I've decided I'd rather wait until I can import the DVD and down it all in one go in non-blurry megavideo-vision.
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Use the Wisevid links on watch-series (http://www.watch-series.com). They're not blurry at all for me and my eyesight is pretty bad.
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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 (http://www.nola.com/treme-hbo/index.ssf/2010/06/treme_explained_all_on_a_mardi.html).
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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.
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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.
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
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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.
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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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New season starts tomorrow, folks. Be Prepared.
I have been looking forward to this all year. Cannot wait.
Going to have to buy some whiskey to go with it, I do believe.
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David Morse's cop is now a regular character, yay!
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Oh man I just started watching this show, it's so good.
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So LaDonna's storyline sure did take a turn for the worst, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. I tried to avoid the kneejerk negative reaction to them including it in the plot, and they do seem to be taking extra care in presenting it in a more subtle/"real" way. And considering how heavily the season seems to be focused on the increase of crime, it was most likely inevitable.
And I know this show tends to pair up dramatic scenes with more lighthearted ones, but having Antoine's band practice right next to something as heavy as LaDonna in the hospital was much more jarring that I'm used to. All that considered, Khandi Alexander's performance was still excellent throughout (as always). That final shot was devastating.
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And for those of you who care, it was picked up for a second season. (http://www.avclub.com/articles/hbo-renews-treme-for-third-season,56069/)
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You mean third.
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Shit.
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It was great to see Albert in better spirits but the I remembered it was because of the road home thing and we all now how that's going to end.