Down in The Treme

Some of my readers may recognise the names of David Simon and Eric Overmeyer from The Wire. Tremé is their latest project, following from the culmination of The Wire in it’s fifth season. Tremé is a neighbourhood of New Orleans, which is where this series is set; six months after landfall of Hurricane Katrina. In much the same way that The Wire used different points of view from different social groups, expanding through each season, to highlight the social picture of Baltimore; Simon and Overmeyer use diverse groups of characters to highlight the plight of New Orleans residents and culture in the wake of a tragic natural disaster. Tremé treads a very thin line between exploring the difficulties that residents faced and the resulting exploitative tourism that follows without becoming a part of the problem itself.

Tremé is, quite possibly, the best TV drama that I’ve ever seen. It is extremely mature; more so even than the wire I think because of the massive range of different people and emotions that it deals with from episode to episode. The quality of writing, production and performance are nothing less than outstanding, ensuring that the audience really cares about every single character that they meet on screen. Fans of The Wire will notice some of their favourite actors are back on the cast list; Wendell Pierce, formerly Bunk in The Wire, returns to the screen as Antoine Batiste, a trombone player. Also returning is Clarke Peters, formerly Lester, takes up the part of the Chief of an Indian Tribe, desperately trying to bring his people back that have been evacuated out of state. My personal favourite characters are Batiste, Steve Zahn’s ‘Davis McAlary’, Jon Goodman’s character, ‘Creighton Bernette’ and ‘Annie’, played by Lucia Micarelli.

One of the best things about this series though is the constant random cameos by actual local musicians; people such as Kermit Earle and Elvis Costello appear several times as themselves; lends the drama a real sense of authenticity that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality even further. If you watch one TV show all year, make it this one. You shall be rewarded and, just to reassure you, it’s already been picked up for a second season.