Last night I watched the third episode of the new HBO series Treme. My original objections were premature, I admit. Sadly, I must stay with my original negative feelings about the show but now for totally different reasons. If you have never lived in New Orleans and if you don’t know the culture of the city, you are missing the meaning of half the dialogue and to know and understand it, is what makes this series exciting.
The music is killer and when I heard A Certain Girl by Ernie K-doe, a song I grew up with, I got excited. To see Dr. John perform was great and even to watch the Mardi Gras Indians due their rap was interesting. If a producer of the show happens to read this, please let us hear some Benny Spellman, Clarence “Frogman” Henry, The Meters, “Who Shot the La La “ Morgan, some Irma Thomas and oh yes, much more Ernie K-doe!
The thing is…you have or had to have lived there. The New Orleans culture is so different than any place else: not to mention, and very important… the innuendo is being lost on anyone not from there, as well as the reference to songs, musicians, politicians, visuals. You must be aware of these things to fully understand what these people are going through and why this disaster has affected them in the manner in which they act and think. By the way, I did not miss the class distinction in the diatribe between Davis and his neighbors.
Excluding those who have an association with the city, in my opinion the storyline does not have enough action to keep a general viewer tuned in week after week. And with the addition of not having a clue what the characters are referring, to, TREME doesn’t have a shot.
I realize it was renewed for a second season after only one episode, which is unheard of. The numbers it pulled were huge after its first showing. I figure it was because every person who either lives there or who has had any association with the city, ever, is watching it….me included!
I have been wrong before. Maybe the music will be enough. Time will tell………
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
HBO Series TREME-Follow up Review
A couple of days ago I wrote a passionate but negative review of the new HBO series TREME. Since that time the feedback I have received did not agree at all with my opinions of the show. In fact I was referred to as an elitist, unfair and narrow minded. No matter how I have tried to justify my thinking, my detractors have been very vocal. In fact my own children, all now adults, all born in New Orleans made our weekly Friday night dinner quite lively, expounding their views on the show and telling me I was way off base!
Comments from readers stated everything from: I may have employed blacks, but certainly never lived among them, so how could I possibly understand their dialogue….to the Mardi Gras Indians are part of the fabric of New Orleans. I say go back and reread my review. At no time did I say anything condescending about the Indians or for that matter anything about the blacks, other than I did not understand the dialogue of the show during the first five minutes..
I was told to get off my high horse! The basic premise of my review was that the show was narrow in scope and that it did not portray other segments of the population that experienced the catastrophe of Katrina in many of the same ways. I think one of my comments sums it up, and I quote, “I think if there is anything to be agreed upon, it’s that the show affects people on a personal level, especially if they know New Orleans on a personal level.”
I cry “UNCLE!” I will give it another look see. After all, as I have been told numerous times, it was only the first. I can only hope the show producers portray the others I speak about at some point, so that its viewers can get a broader accounting of what the inhabitants of this great city went through and for some, are still.
Comments from readers stated everything from: I may have employed blacks, but certainly never lived among them, so how could I possibly understand their dialogue….to the Mardi Gras Indians are part of the fabric of New Orleans. I say go back and reread my review. At no time did I say anything condescending about the Indians or for that matter anything about the blacks, other than I did not understand the dialogue of the show during the first five minutes..
I was told to get off my high horse! The basic premise of my review was that the show was narrow in scope and that it did not portray other segments of the population that experienced the catastrophe of Katrina in many of the same ways. I think one of my comments sums it up, and I quote, “I think if there is anything to be agreed upon, it’s that the show affects people on a personal level, especially if they know New Orleans on a personal level.”
I cry “UNCLE!” I will give it another look see. After all, as I have been told numerous times, it was only the first. I can only hope the show producers portray the others I speak about at some point, so that its viewers can get a broader accounting of what the inhabitants of this great city went through and for some, are still.
Monday, April 12, 2010
New HBO Series-TREME--Very Dissapointing!
As a former New Orleanian, I really was anxious to watch it and looked forward to viewing with much anticipation. Unfortunately, unless the coming episodes change dramatically, I will not be watching it too many more times.
I understand the premise. I also understand that the main purpose of a TV show is to entertain and the focus of TREME is to show how the catastrophe of Katrina changed peoples’ lives showcasing a cross section of the population. In my opinion, the focus is way too narrow and in some cases focuses on some, way too much.
During the first five minutes of the episode, which normally would attract the viewers attention, to continue watching…..I couldn’t even understand what the actors were saying.
Although, a large majority of those affected during Katrina were black, it seems you are discounting the fact that there are thousands that lost everything in every racial and socio economic group across the board. Additionally, if I am not wrong, to me you are trying to portray only your definition of the middle classes through the entire theme. The character who ran a bar and is trying to resurrect his Mardi Gras Indian group, to give and take him back to some semblance of a normal life: the John Goodman character who really tells it like it is with no pretentiousness, , as they say in New Orleans” is where it’s at!” But the black musician, who may be a fine actor, is a boring and a useless character to the theme. How does a character like the disc jockey, which is a dope smoking, thief degenerate, garner such a prominent role?
Spike Lee only showed the degenerate of the New Orleans population. The New Orleans population is much more then you deem the middle class to be. What about the lawyer friend of mine in his forties who shot himself in his devastated home because after Katrina he had no more clients? How did his wife and children cope? Lots of stories like that. What about the men and women who started groups like the Horizon Initiative to work with big business and city officials to help build the city? What about the fact that that alcohol sales went through the roof for years after, cause so many couldn’t deal at all with losing everything.
A friend lived on one of the two million dollar streets in the city lost her house. How did people like these cope? Don’t you think those people should be represented in your story as well?
TREME is only one small area of the city. What a disservice you are doing to the city but most of all to your viewers to lead them to believe that what you are putting out there is what it is all about…is where it’s at……because it isn’t!
I understand the premise. I also understand that the main purpose of a TV show is to entertain and the focus of TREME is to show how the catastrophe of Katrina changed peoples’ lives showcasing a cross section of the population. In my opinion, the focus is way too narrow and in some cases focuses on some, way too much.
During the first five minutes of the episode, which normally would attract the viewers attention, to continue watching…..I couldn’t even understand what the actors were saying.
Although, a large majority of those affected during Katrina were black, it seems you are discounting the fact that there are thousands that lost everything in every racial and socio economic group across the board. Additionally, if I am not wrong, to me you are trying to portray only your definition of the middle classes through the entire theme. The character who ran a bar and is trying to resurrect his Mardi Gras Indian group, to give and take him back to some semblance of a normal life: the John Goodman character who really tells it like it is with no pretentiousness, , as they say in New Orleans” is where it’s at!” But the black musician, who may be a fine actor, is a boring and a useless character to the theme. How does a character like the disc jockey, which is a dope smoking, thief degenerate, garner such a prominent role?
Spike Lee only showed the degenerate of the New Orleans population. The New Orleans population is much more then you deem the middle class to be. What about the lawyer friend of mine in his forties who shot himself in his devastated home because after Katrina he had no more clients? How did his wife and children cope? Lots of stories like that. What about the men and women who started groups like the Horizon Initiative to work with big business and city officials to help build the city? What about the fact that that alcohol sales went through the roof for years after, cause so many couldn’t deal at all with losing everything.
A friend lived on one of the two million dollar streets in the city lost her house. How did people like these cope? Don’t you think those people should be represented in your story as well?
TREME is only one small area of the city. What a disservice you are doing to the city but most of all to your viewers to lead them to believe that what you are putting out there is what it is all about…is where it’s at……because it isn’t!
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