Anticipating Treme aka "Tremé" - David Simon and his buddies do post-Katrina N.O.

how

It's a interesting mess. I like the ambition but it really does a great job of highlighting the things that Simon isn't good at.

otm. The characters, framing, and development are substandard. The key scene (spoiler perhaps): an exchange late in the season between the struggling restauranteur and a rival chef. On "The Wire" the directors would have conveyed the agony of this woman acknowledging defeat and the rival's ambivalence: he won the game but feels bad for his competitor/pal. Here's it's thrown away with boilerplate and blank reaction shots.

Also, the didactic bilge that Simon saved until the last season of "The Wire" spills forth from John Goodman and a couple of other characters every chance. Nothing sticks.

It's like someone imitating David Simon.

if Simon was channeling his true self through a cranky suicidal YouTube vlogger that's a pretty good self-deprecating joke though

Even better: through a bratty overconfident teenaged girl.

it broke my damn heart because everything d. simon has done since the wire has been one big raspberry blown in the direction of my admiration.

not saying the guy should stick to cops and robbers, but the guy should stick to.cops and robbers. actually, treme just points up how crucial the whole group of creatives he assembled was important to the wire. i've got a feeling ed burns acted as a major bullshit detector, having now seen d.s. off the leash with treme.

that is majorly garbled, but i'm gonna blame editing posts on my phone.

generation kill seemed alright, although i don't think i'll ever revisit it

haha i bailed on gen kill early because i figured we werent going to get a tragic heart-rending death/reversal to counteract ziggy's basic annoyance factor.

I grew to really love ziggy's character on gen kill fwiw

generation kill is kinda my favorite thing hes done tbh

also i realize wendell pierce is now stuck in hbo rep players hell but if there was ever a chance to give a REAL star turn this was it, but instead we get this didactic altman-for-idiots ensemble stuff. boooooo.

though i suppose other wire players have had far worse post wire careers

there was a scene somewhere in the middle of Season 1 where a character comments to Clarke Peters that there are probably a bunch of dead bodies in the boarded up housing projects, and I felt almost heartbroken.

also: fuck Elvis Costello.

generation kill was great

more i think about it this really is like if stanely kramer had directed "nashville" instead of altman

it's also irritating that Clarke Peters gets to only have like two different facial expressions

it's hard not to imagine lester freamon looking down his granny glasses and giving a little derisive head-shake

http://i.cdn.hbo.com/assets/images/series/the-wire/character/the-law/lester-freamon-160.jpg

generation kill was great

― caek, Saturday, June 18, 2011 1:33 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

i always call this show "tres gay" in my head

more i think about it this really is like if stanely kramer had directed "nashville" instead of altman

i gave up on this show early, but until someone can convincingly contradict this estimation, i'm not coming back

ha i don't even like nashville but jess is kind of otm

amateurist's opening salvo otm. this is an embarrassment.

i haven't seen the new season yet, but treme makes me happy and amateurist is the bummerest of all bummers.

:-(

Really loving this show.

The show put a smile on my face during one of the scenes in David Chang's restaurant where they played 'Uptown Top Ranking.'

the kitchen scenes are becoming my favorite part of this show

It seemed inevitable at the beginning of the season that within 4 or 5 episodes they would bring her back down to New Orleans. I really respect that they've run with the NYC thing like this.

nah, this show really sucks. i'm getting off the bus.

says the only guy left on the bus, to noone in particular

I'm on the bus. I'm lovin' the ride.

Slept on this show for ages, but went through all the episodes over the last few weeks. Sure, it's not perfect, but it has a lot of charms.

New season starts Sunday. HBO has already picked it up for a shortened fourth and final season.

have not seen in some time, would like to, still resent amateurist for his life mission of raining on things

http://www.nola.com/treme-hbo/index.ssf/2012/09/hbos_treme_renewed_for_a_fourt.html

HBO's 'Treme' renewed for a fourth and final season

“Treme” drew an average of 2.2 million cumulative weekly viewers in its second season, far below HBO blockbusters like “True Blood,” “Game of Thrones” and “Boardwalk Empire,” but HBO programming executives had expressed admiration for the show’s execution and importance. Steeped in New Orleans music, cuisine and recovery-related social and political issues, the post-Katrina drama was honored with a Peabody Award in April.

Simon said the past week was spent securing the participating of all the series’ main cast members, a complicated contractual task given the shorter season.

“To a person, they all came back,” Simon said. “We’re happy for a chance to finish the story on our own terms.”

What I've seen is flawed, but I most certainly agree that it has its charms

The show can be quite preachy/corny at times, but then there'll be an episode or a scene that is so damned good that it merits the whole exercise.

i'm glad people are getting paid but the show's whole "oh yo trombone shorty what's up nothin kid just eatin a lucky dog in front of preservation hall with my boy steve earle we fixin to go get some gumbo ya ya down the bayou wit ya mom n dem" vibe is pretty lol. not everything is all new orleans all the time!

tho they shot a scene with eyehategod which is a step in the right direction, has that episode aired yet?

hahah eyehategod, for real?! they didn't show up this premiere no

even when this show is being totally aimless, there's just something amiable about it that i can't help but be charmed by

Shame to see the show end, I enjoyed its meandering charms.

i stopped watching out of indifference midway through the 3rd season. should i go ahead and finish it?

just started watching season 3, it's pleasantly boring. mostly i pause it a lot to tell my girlfriend some story about run-ins with the musicians or places in the show (and being reminded of those stories is the main appeal for me, that and the novelty of seeing brass band dudes acting).

i'm just waiting until i can afford the damn thing, but maybe i can just stream it online by this point and catch up

s3 was the ebst season, it comes together at the end very nicely.

the indian practice in season 3 ep 4 had the juice, it's those little moments that make me glad they did the show. shannon powell's musical cameo was nice to see too. it's even worth sitting through all of the scenes of the violin player's dumb band.