Treme

It's a beautiful mess. Don't miss it. [29 Nov 2013, p.66]

The show fades away like a Mari Gras parade drifting out of range. But it's a potent memory. [16 Dec 2013]

Treme imparts a feeling, however small in scope, of real transformation in the Crescent City, but it comes with an insensitivity toward the city's traditions.

A half a loaf is better than none at all. When it's baked by David Simon, Eric Overmyer and George Pelecanos, it's better than most people's full loaf.

Still good, still not for everyone, and almost gone for good.

Artistically, it may be an unnecessary appendix, but I'm not complaining. More pie? I will make room somehow.

It's still the sort of show that makes you reach out to it, rather than reaching out to you--a characteristic that Treme shares with a good many of its characters, a mostly obsessive and intractable bunch who are inclined to monologues about art, work, family, mortality, and the characteristics of the perfect po-boy.

It is, as always, beautifully filmed and patiently assembled. Everyone in it clearly believes in the project (and the city) down to their bones, even if the writers have shortchanged their best actors this time. What comes through most is a feeling of over-indulgence--one drink too many, one plate of etouffee too far, one too many hangovers and five too many episodes of an otherwise memorable series.