However Long I Stay: Treme, Season 1 Episode 6, "Shallow Water, Oh, Mama."

Before I check back in on HBO's "Treme", I want to point anyone who is a fan of the show to the Times-Picayune and Dave Walker's great "Treme Explained". He does one for each episode, and it really helps put some of the storylines into context as well as explaining some of the throw away comments the characters make. This week, learn why Davis's mom was so horrified that he was working with Jacques Morial, who plays Antoine's mentor, some background on the real Davis, what the title of he episode means, and more. Check it out!

Unlike Dave Walker, I am not an expert on New Orleans or Katrina, but I still think that David Simon and Eric Overmyer's "Treme" gives me plenty to talk about. This episode is the beginning of the back half of the season, which is where Simon generally likes to pick up steam, plotwise. The stories they are telling us here are the small ones, not a grand tragedy like you see on "The Wire" but the way the little, everyday tragedies of life become so much worse when living among the ruins of a place that you love.

Some of the little moments I loved in this episode:

Delmond feeling overshadowed by the tradition his father loves, and yet completely unable to resist the pull of the Indians once he is among them.

Creighton, torn between his career and the fear that he could become something he hates, just another elite exploiting New Orleans.

Toni, in an amazing performance by Melissa Leo, push push pushing so insistently, so quietly, to get the information she needs to find Daymo. The thing I love most about Toni's character is that she is so dogged and persistent in her search for Daymo, because the more she uncovers, the more she sees the horror this poor guy must be going through, yet so patient and sweet with almost everyone she talks to about it. She knows that every person she is bothering about this has a thousand other tragedies to deal with, so she just gives them that little shove to make sure they help her figure out this one.

Davis with his rich, racist family, showing us what he is rebelling against and giving us a reason to root for him.

Antoine, taking care of the man that's taught him everything, and getting a scary glimpse into his own future at the same time.

Janette, trying and failing to ask her staff to work for free, realizing that even though she is amazing at what she does, she is just too far behind to do it anymore. The look on her face as she realized that her dream was done, at least for now and maybe forever, was a great piece of acting from Kim Dickens.

And of course, that silly, ridiculous only-in-New-Orleans parade, with Toni loosening up and being part of the "family of sperm" with Creighton and Sophia. Creighton and Toni's conversation sums up the series so far, with all it's little triumphs and sadnesses.
"Where else could we live, huh?"
"No place else."

Back with the streets I know; will never take me anywhere but here. Treme: Season 1, Episode 2: "Meet de Boys on the Battlefront."

This second episode seemed to be an episode about dreams thwarted, or at least tainted. We have Davis losing his job (a job which almost seemed to define him in the first episode, gone just a few minutes into the second), Janette having to beg her parents for a loan and still not getting enough to keep her restaurant or her ruined house together, Delmond having a great time in the city he abandoned only to get arrested for smoking weed, Sofie getting to come back to school in New Orleans at the expense of poorer kids, Albert getting a member of his tribe back but not before committing a shocking act of violence and most poignantly, LaDonna believing that her brother has been found, only to come face to face with the wrong David Brooks.

LaDonna's plight is one of the toughest to watch, because in her we see a strong woman trying so hard to hold so much together. The well being of her mother, her brother, her bar, her marriage and her kids are all on her shoulders, and in Khandi Alexander's performance you can see a woman who is bending but not about to break. In the scene where her husband suggests that she sell the bar and move to Baton Rouge it takes just a few facial expressions for the audience to see that this will not end well. She is not willing to give up her past or her home, no matter that right now her city is in ruins. Like many of our main characters, she is left, but not leaving.


We meet some new characters this week (Simon and Overmeyer LOVE their sprawling casts) in Sonny and Annie, street musician and possible con artists who seem to be getting a little sick of tourists and well wishers in their town. We also see some new sides to the characters we met last week, including a sweetness previously undetected in Davis (he really seemed to want to send those kids somewhere where they would have a good time!) and an intense anger and brutality in Albert. Dave Walker of NOLA.com is doing some very interesting annotations of each episode, and I really liked his explanation of Albert's actions. He mentions that depression and a kind of temporary insanity were rampant in the city after Katrina, and people often did things that they would not have done in normal circumstances. Something about reading his ideas on Albert's brutal beating of the thief made me feel a little better about it, and not so bad about how much I enjoyed his final scene, practicing with his lone tribe member. I am definitely a huge fan of Clark Peters, and I want Albert to be a man I can root for, despite this act of violence. I am sure it will not go entirely unpunished though. If I learned anything from The Wire it's that Simon and co. rarely let a bad or a good deed go unpunished.

This was a darker episode, but I must mention how much I am enjoying Wendall Pierce as Antoine. He's got this whole charming rogue thing down pat. Is it any surprise that a man who can flirt like that with his trombone has more than a few illegitimate children running around town? His odyssey to Bourbon Street and beyond for a paying gig added a nice touch of levity to the episode (loved his conversation with those Wisconsin kids!) as well as giving it that nice kick of music that is becoming this show's trademark.

But where is it all going? I am not sure yet, but I think I can see the hints of larger storylines on the horizon. We have Toni and Ladonna on a search for Daymo, about to embark on a mission through some kind of bureaucratic hell that may not have any kind of happy ending for them. Many of the characters, Janette, Davis, Antoine, Albert, and seemingly Sonny and Annie are just trying to find a way to get through the day and keep their lives, which are all in differing states of disrepair, together. Creighton is trying to tell his story, his city's story, without exploiting the less privileged people around him (which of course he can't.) At this point I'm not sure if there will be an overarching plot of any sort, or if this is just a story about rebuilding homes and lives and all the pain and messiness and beauty that comes with that. Either way, I am looking forward to what's coming next.

You're the shit, and I'm knee-deep in it. Treme, Season One, Episode One, "Do You Know What It Means"

Like his critically acclaimed “The Wire” (The best show that ever existed. Watch it!), David Simon’s “Treme” is not interested in holding your hand. The first episode had no “here are the characters, this is the plot” presentation, it plunks you down in the middle of these lives and asks you to make some deductions and figure things out. That’s right. It’s TV that asks something of you, of your brain and of your heart. Because the place it puts you is New Orleans, 3 months after Katrina. In scene after scene the questions “How’s your house?” and “How much water you get?” are asked and answered, with only a hint of the destruction of houses and people that went on. But even if life goes on for some, and the questions are casual, “Treme” shows us the pain and devastation of a city that was almost destroyed. When Albert Lamoreaux (Clark Peters) sees his house for the first time since fleeing the storm, it’s not just the water damage or the mud floor that grabs you, it’s the way you can look at his face and see that he is absolutely gutted. And then, in moments, his jaw is set in steely resolve, and it is clear, he’s not leaving.

Why? There are a lot of questions that we don’t get an exact answer to yet in this episode. We know that Albert is staying for practice, and that he is some kind of ‘chief’, but without doing the extra research on Mardi Gras Indians the exact ‘why’ still remains a bit of a mystery. Other questions? What does John Goodman’s character do exactly? Why does Davis (Steve Zahn) hate his neighbors? How are all these people intertwined?

Simon uses quick beats to define his large cast of characters. You see all of Antoine Baptist’s (Wendall Pierce) charm and hard luck the very first time he tries to hustle a cab driver out of a fare. He lives out of the city now, but he needs to get back in to play music, to make money, to see people. He is a man battling to get back to his old life, even if his old life means no more than not having to take a cab into town to scramble for gigs.

And it takes only three scenes, two of anger and one of love, to show the viewer that Creighton (John Goodman) and Toni (Melissa Leo) are pretty perfectly matched. A couple passionately devoted to the city and its people, and determined to use the little power they have through influence and money to affect some positive change. We also see that even in their privileged position, roadblocks are constantly thrown in their way.

We are given a few intriguing narrative threads to look forward to. One is LaDonna (Khandi Alexander) and Toni’s search for LaDonna’s brother Daymo, who has been missing since the storm. By episode’s end, we know that Daymo was in jail when the storm hit, and was moved by the sheriff’s department. We have a maybe love story between Davis and Jeanette (Kim Hickerson), the owner of a local restaurant. Another is Albert’s quest to get his tribe ready for Carnival, as well as an already intriguing father-son dynamic between him and his son. Clark Peters as Lester Freamon is one of my favorite characters on “The Wire”, so I for one am really looking forward to this story. With a cast this stellar, there is a lot to look forward to this season.

Though “Treme” is in some ways a story of Katrina, it is also a story of after. Of how people find joy and music and beauty in the bleakest of places. Of how home is still home, even if it’s nothing but the dirty remnant of the life you once had. It’s a story of rebuilding a place, and the rebuilding of people.