The new David Simon series “Treme” requires us to set aside what we think we know. About New Orleans. About David Simon.
The flavor is new, blending the fictionalized analysis of urban life that the creator has perfected before with a heavy dose of music, but also a heavier hand. It’s possible lovers of jazz, blues and New Orleans will be much more satisfied than admirers of Simon’s past dramatic efforts on HBO.
Simon’s body of work is among the greatest in the history of television. His journalistically influenced exploration of the drug wars in Baltimore, “The Corner,” remains the standard for what literate, nonfiction TV can accomplish. His nuanced study of corruption in a decaying American city, “The Wire,” spoke to the condition of the American soul well beyond Baltimore.
Now, “Treme,” beginning Sunday at 8 p.m. on HBO, his 10-episode take on the human failings that led to the epic destruction of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, goes inside that devastated city while making points about the bias of the system.
Making points — that’s the problem.
The dialog makes points as if in capital letters. GOVERNMENT FAILED THE UNDERCLASS.
Also, FAITH & RENEWAL, INDOMITABLE HUMAN SPIRIT, TRIUMPH OF URBAN CULTURE.
“Treme,” (pronounced “tre-MAY”) while musically compelling and vividly authentic with New Awlens locales and accents, tends toward the pedantic. Unlike Simon’s earlier epics, “Treme” includes frequent line readings that hit us over the head.
Railings against FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), while deserved, don’t make for great drama.
Recitations of the city’s history of flooding, while historically accurate and spoken by a professorial character played by John Goodman, don’t translate as good storytelling.
The cast of terrific Simon repertory players brings to life the characters of Treme, the neighborhood north of the French Quarter. They include New Orleans native Wendell Pierce (“The Wire”), Khandi Alexander (“The Corner”), Clark Peters (“The Wire”), Melissa Leo (“Frozen River”), Kim Dickens (“Deadwood”), Goodman and a number of musicians playing themselves. But even some of the distinguished actors sound stilted when delivering lines like “for four months I’ve had an army of occupation rolling through my neighborhood… I just want my city back.”
Simon, with co-executive producers Eric Overmyer and the late David Mills, a writer and another former journalist who died suddenly on the set last month, has given us a puzzler. How can we surrender to the film’s charms when we’re repeatedly jarred by its angry speechifying?
Not that the folks don’t have horrors to be angry about. The government’s disregard for a particular sector of the population — ie. poor, black — is outrageous and deserves continued notice. It’s the dramaturgy that’s off. Even the knocks on tourists (a wide-eyed bunch from Wisconsin appear particularly ridiculous) are sometimes overwritten.
When at its best, the dialog is minimal, as when a “Katrina Tour” bus full of gawkers with cameras flashing interrupts a heartfelt Creole Indian chant. Then, “Treme” reminds us we are vicarious TV tourists tropping through this territory.
When it’s talky, “Treme” feels like an editorial paced by stops in jazz clubs. Although Simon had the intention to do a series about New Orleans long before the storm hit, the post-Katrina result is not up to the auteur’s standard.
Fans of “The Wire” shouldn’t expect a similar construction here.
“Treme” is rooted in character and music, not crime and punishment. It’s about mold and corrosion as much as corruption. The idiosyncrasies of the city make it the most complex character of all.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
