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Set in New Orleans in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, Treme comes to the screens with very high expectations. It delivers too, says Peter Wild.

It is almost universally agreed that David Simon’s The Wire is, at the very least, a quality TV show. Some go as far to say that it trumps The Sopranos to stand as the greatest TV show of the last 20 years. To say, then, that Treme, his latest project, which finds an ensemble of characters living in New Orleans in the months after Katrina, comes in a box stamped HIGH EXPECTATIONS is something of an understatement. And, undoubtedly, there will be those for whom the slow burning nature of the show and the throbbing musicality is offputting; but for those willing to let the show dictate its own speed, there is much to ardently love.

As with The Wire there is a real sense of bureaucratic failure at the heart of the show, best seen in lawyer Toni Bernette’s struggle to track down a young black man who was swallowed up by the legal system during the flood; and, again as with The Wire, there are stories of people at the very bottom, struggling to get by here (whether it be Wendell Pierce’s big hearted Antoine Baptiste or Deadwood veteran Kim Dicken’s attempts to keep her restaurant afloat). Undoubtedly Treme is big and opinionated (John Goodman’s YouTube updates allow the anger of the city’s isolation to really percolate) but perhaps the best thing about is just how damn sassy it is. This is a show full of life and music, bursting at the seams with brass and jazz. If you make some time for it, it will make the most of that time for you.

 

Peter Wild on 4th April 2011
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