******** Note: Possible spoilers for Episodes 1-4 ********
OK, i've watched the first four episodes now (haven't watched last night's ep. 5 yet) and i'm starting to get into it.
It's not as gripping as the Wire (and even with The Wire, i didn't really get hooked until episode 5 or 6), and it doesn't have the same sort of compelling story arc, but i like the stories, i like the music, i like the politics (even if they are laid on with a heavy hand at times), and the characters are starting to grow on me.
The search for Ladonna's brother is a good window into the fucked-up state of post-Katrina law and order, and the way that people who often were not criminals at all got caught up and held just because it was the easiest thing to do, and because federal money was being paid to police departments for holding people. It was also good to see The Wire's Anwan Glover (Slim Charles) make an appearance. I hope we see more of him, if for no other reason than to hear him talk; he has a great voice.
Apart from the music itself, which is great, i also like the insight into the music scene. I'm not a musician, and i guess i never spent too much time thinking about the sort of community and the relationships that must develop in a place like New Orleans. I like the little stuff, like finding out that playing in the tourist traps on Bourbon Street is considered shitty work, and seeing the different opportunities that are available for different people. I like the personal and professional tension between the two buskers, with the guy clearly jealous of his girlfriend's talent and the fact that she is constantly getting asked to play with other people.
Got to agree with
Pie 1 about the Steve Zahn character, Davis. Every time he opens his mouth, i just want to punch him in the face. Simon does a good job of conveying his complete lack of self-awareness, and at the same time his total self-centeredness. For example, after he's arrested in episode 3, he complains to his lawyer about the police, but it soon becomes clear that he was mouthing off at the cops and acting like a jackass, and even his black friend complains that Davis being an asshole almost led to the black guy getting arrested as well. In the last couple of episodes, Davis also had a couple of great exchanges with John Goodman's character.
I also like the little stuff about race and ethnic and family politics. For example, in episode 4 when Lorenzo asks Albert (Clarke Peters) not to say anything at the memorial service, because the dead guy's mother didn't approve of their Indian rituals. Or when Khandi Alexander's character, Ladonna, talks about the "7th Ward Creoles" of her husband's family who look down on her side of the family.
Despite everything i like about the show, it's not perfect. As i suggested earlier, there are a few places where you feel like you're being hit over the head with the politics, and where a little more subtlety might have improved things. Also, despite the fact that i really like the music, some of the more extended musical interludes sometimes make it seem a bit like a music video, and seem to be substituting for narrative. Still, if you're going to have music in a show, you could do far worse than the stuff they use.
As i said, it hasn't yet gripped me the way The Wire did. It probably never will, and i think that judging it by the standards of The Wire is probably not going to be fair to Simon, or to Treme. For me, also, The Wire seemed more real and immediate because i actually lived in Baltimore while it was showing, and the stories we saw on the show often mirrored the stories i saw on the news every night, and read in the paper. I had a real sense of where the events were taking place; i had been to, or driven by, many of the locations.
I think it really changes your relationship to a show or a movie when you can orient the story spatially in your head as a result of personal familiarity with the locations. When a character of The Wire talked about the Eager Street lockup, or about a murder at the corner of Division and Gold, i knew exactly where those places were, and could place them within the bigger story. I've never been to New Orleans, so when the characters talk about neighborhood names, i don't have the same sense of geography, or the same sense of the significance of locations. Maybe i just need to do some reading, and spend some time on Google maps.
Anyway, that's my two pennies. I'm definitely sticking with it, because it's still better than most of what's on TV, and i think it will only get better. My only long-term concern is whether the writing will maintain its quality now that David Mills has died.
