Is the Steve Zahn character on Treme...

[bam bam]

Something really off about last night's episode. The show seems to have this chip on its shoulder about what's authentic New Orleans and since most of us have jobs, lives, families what have you, we don't spend our time trying to out New Orleans each other. But yet, this is what David Simon gives us, a bunch of characters trying to be the arbiter of what is authentic New Orleans, at least when comes to music but even then, when the non-musician characters are listening to the radio, they are all listening to WWOZ. Now, considering WWL was simulcasting talk across all 16 of its stations at the time, they may not be far off, but most people I know spent a good deal of time in December of 2005 listening to Spud as insufferable as he is. But yet, we still haven't seen anyone order a Sazerac or discuss the etymology of the Poor Boy sandwich.

The storyline that I love and I think rings the most true is the Albert Lambreaux thread. You can take what I know about the Mardi Gras Indians and put it in a thimble, so I am not going to comment on the authenticity of that but his sense of rebuilding, commitment to family and friends and traditions of New Orleans amidst the despair of Katrina is what rings true. His savage beating of the copper wire thief is something I think most folks could identify with in December of 2005. He doesn't bitch about the federal levees or FEMA money. He's going to get back to work and play. That type of story cuts across all lines and has some eternal truth to it, regardless of whether some details are fudged.

The rest, I think while it doesn't fail as miserably as the Big Easy or Kville is still off. The crime aspect of the show is utter horse crap. This is not to say people don't get jammed up on bull**** or that the New Orleans cops don't take some liberties with civil liberties so to speak. But the beating of the teacher on Bourbon Street in December 2005 which the Batiste beating was based on, involved more than the NOPD. Two FBI agents were involved and were found to be the cause in fact of the victims' injuries. But here we have NOPD acting as a goon squad. I say this to David Simon, if you want to get it right, get it right. Don't half ass it.

Furthermore, a stop such as the marijuana bust in week 2 or the Batiste beat down just would never happen. The police, even on patrol, don't randomly pull people over for nonsense. They usually use a seatbelt violation or a loitering charge as a pretext for stopping and searching people. The marijuana arrest outside of DBA in episode 2 would never happen like that. Ever.

As such, I feel like I recognize the background, the beat of the show. But the slow moving story is missing a little "ju ju" to give it any authenticity.

[peychaud]

All three episodes have left me feeling unsatisfied. I feel like they've peeled back one layer of the onion--the "Big Easy" layer--but they're still just presenting a pretty conventional monochromatic "liberal" take on New Orleans post-Katrina: cops harassing the cultural class (which I don't remember reading about), disaster tourism sparking outrage, Katrina as man-made as opposed to natural disaster, insurance woes, etc. It's as if they thumbed through the Times-Picayune in the months after the storm and made a list of subjects to cover. Personally, I don't recall hearing anything about cops or National Guard harassing musicians. Maybe a few people like the Davis character resented having the military policing the streets, but I think a lot (most?) people appreciated having some visible sign of order on our largely desolate streets. I used to like seeing them roll through our neighborhood.

The whole show feels to me more like a soap opera than anything else. If they're not going to emphasize the multi-layered, complicated plots they did on "The Wire" (one of the best shows ever), I'd rather see a greater emphasis on the anthropology of New Orleans. They could have done a lot with Davis teaching the John Goodman character's daughter about Professor Longhair, but they just kind of glossed over it.

I'm going to keep watching, but I hope they start to dig a little deeper and expand their perspective.

[Shep]

Man Peychaud, this is getting ridiculous but, I agree with you again. I came back the day after the storm and in the months following I found the military to be nothing but polite. I spent considerable time in the Quarter area (dining out meant uptown or Muriel's) and I for one was glad they were there. I still think it is worth watching and the Indians are portrayed in a good light deservingly. I think it is to inject race into the story lines for future episodes but these are mostly black police doing the beat downs. I will be interested to see if they pursue the Creole and Black differences as with the " they act like they are a different race" remark.

[Suzy Wong]

Not sure why I'm reading this since I will never watch Treme but "katrina" was a hurricane, a natural disaster, in NO way could have been prevented or stopped...the flooding that resulted was due to a man made mistake, that COULD have been avoided.

shep,
You mentioned coming back within a couple of days (I think, correct me if I'm wrong) You must live in an area that didn't flood?

[Shep]

Correct no flood, I live on the river levee. Uptown, St Charles to the river and a few places in the Quarter if you wanted to dine out. There were check points to go through but Military was polite , even when they said no and I had to find a different way in and out.

[edible complex]

hey erl, do i smell a new storyline for TREME?

[bam bam]

"Respectfully Ma'am, I do jail. Your boy don't." I actually have a client in OPP on 2nd degree. I can totally see him saying that.

[justagirl]

So the rumor on nola.com is that the Sonny character is the dude who cut up and cooked his girlfriend.

"Lagniappe aint what it used to be."

[bam bam]

"East Bank is extra."

[edible complex]

So the rumor on nola.com is that the Sonny character is the dude who cut up and cooked his girlfriend.

was that posted on a food forum?