The Wire was a real gamechanger for the TV show genre. The show´s creator David Simon chose narrative structures and strategies that owe more to classic novelists like Charles Dickens and Honoré de Balzac than any TV show or film ever seen. After five excellent seasons from the gritty streets of Baltimore, Simon wrote and produced the mini series Generation Kill, using the same unique approach to storytelling. His latest effort is set in New Orleans, three months after Hurricane Katrina, and is titled Treme.
I watched the pilot episode yesterday, and I´ve got the second episode all lined up for tonight. Like The Wire, Treme takes its time in establishing the setting and characters without rushing into plotlines and conflict. Visually it´s closely related to the style of The Wire. The soundtrack is of course steeped in New Orleans style jazz, but almost exclusively diegetic and part of the action. Two of Baltimore´s finest cops from The Wire is cast as jazz musicians – the excellent Wendell Pierce and Clarke Peters. It´s also a real pleasure seeing John Goodman as the angry college professor Creighton Bernette.
Like Generation Kill and The Wire, Treme follows up with a strong political conscience. David Simon is on a storytelling mission, and fonrtunately he has turned a deaf ear to the old tepid advice of ´no preaching´ and ´art shouldn´t be political´. Treme is full of emotion and smartness, made by people that care. This is not television for television´s sake.
It was also a really pleasant surprise to see an old aquaintance being cast as himself – jazz legend “Uncle” Lionel Batiste. He visits my hometown in Norway every year for the local jazz festival, always popping by my bar for a beer and a jam session. This summer I´ll be sure to ask him how it was like on the set of Treme.
