HBO Series TREME-Another Review

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………