Treme & What It Means

THERE IS A moment of delicate, incredibly uncommon beauty that arrives near the end of the premiere episode of Treme, (HBO, 10pm) David Simon & Eric Overmyer's unabashed love letter to the damaged & ravaged city of New Orleans.
Clarke Peters, (so memorable as Lester Freamon in The Wire) plays a Mardi Gras Indian named Albert, who returns to the city as soon as he can after Katrina. His house is wrecked. His daughter, and later his son have shown up to try to convince him that there's nothing to return to, that his tribe is scattered to the four winds. They can't understand why he's being so stubborn. He asks for help and support but others won't help him, "You're not even in my tribe," says one sympathetic, but unyielding associate.
And then, out of pitch darkness, emerges Albert, moving slowly, ritually, with the chant full in his throat. He is decked out in his full outfit -- a stunning white Indian headdress. It makes the argument -- the plea for help, that New Orleans couldn't make itself using logic, or words, or economic models -- about why an impractical and ruined city below sea level must come back.
You're forgiven if there's much in the previous two paragraphs you don't understand. The opening song provides a map to the answer -- "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?"


Treme is an honest, straight up attempt to make a case for 'yes,' and in many ways, that's its greatest virtue. Mardi Gras Indians and Second Line Parades might be incomprehensible to anyone not steeped in the unique history & traditions of the Crescent City, and Simon and Overmyer do nothing to situate you or hold your hand. They simply dive you into the lives of Albert, and Bone player Antoine (Wendell Pierce, oh Bunk, how I miss you), as well as a voluble professor, and a struggling cafe owner. Treme asks you to catch up on your own time, but hooks you with the music & the visceral, incredible sadness & determination of people trying to rebuild lives, and relationships, and an entire city in the wake of an incomprehensible disaster.
There is anger in Treme, vintage Simon, but while The Wire seemed pessimistic, shot through with the idea that individuals were destined to be ground down by the city -- Treme, in exploring the city that seems unlike America yet birthed America's greatest indigenous art form -- makes the opposite case.
There's no reason for New Orleans to come back. But the tale of the return of tourism, and corruption & all the things that make life in New Orleans hard, and how none of that matters; that is the point of this intimate & affecting, slow-burn show. Some shows are meant to be enjoyed for the thrills or the mystery or the characters -- Treme is about leaving your heart somewhere, and fighting to get it back, impractical as it may be. Watch the first few episodes -- and you'll soon know what it means...
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