One caveat to this review: I've only watched about halfway into season 2.
I tried real hard to like Treme, but despite multiple attempts and a season and a half of investment I just couldn't. When this first debuted, I tried twice to get into it but couldn't get past the second episode. I recently started watching this on HBOGO after having watched The Wire again. With the same creator/showrunner I gave this show the benefit of the doubt, and while season 1 does improve a lot as it goes on until a brilliant final episode, the first episode of season 2 took a few tries to slog through and the improvement after that wasn't nearly as much in season 2 as in season 1 after the first couple episodes, which caused me to stop watching this.
The reason why it was almost a chore to get through the first couple of episodes wasn't because it was slow, which it was. Slow isn't bad by default, and I like shows that take their time layering their characters and stories. However, the problem with Treme IMO is that the characters are not likable or compelling.
By likable I don't mean the kind where the writers manipulate the audience into rooting for them. But there has to be something about them that either makes me care what happens to them, good or bad. Or something about their situation that makes me want to see what happens to them.
But what the characters that were presented to me after the first couple of episodes were: a part-time trombone player who tries to chump the people around him, an Indian chief/handyman who killed or at least tried to kill a kid for stealing his tools, an annoyingly outspoken musician/DJ who has an overblown sense of his entertainment value and a coke addict street musician who hits women when he's angry. Characters need not be nice or pretty on screen to be likable or compelling, but after a season and a half the way I would describe these characters is not that much different than the descriptions just offered.
The other characters are for the most part ones who you would like in real life but who, really, have no basis for being on screen. The closest characters to being having any dramatic basis or being likable/compelling are the bar owner who lost her brother in Katrina and who subsquently gets raped as a result of the dissolution of New Orleans, and an outspoken English professor/activist who then commits suicide that we surmise is from the aftermath of Katrina. In season 2 we are introduced to two new main characters: a carpetbagger from Houston who makes millions from the reconstruction and a police lieutenant who ruffles feathers in his department by caring about his city. Neither are stories that compelled me to watch further.
There are some great actors here, the directing and writing of each episode is solid, and the final episode of season 1 is a beautifully made collage. However, there is a reason why fictional TV shows and moviesdon't follow real life people: we're boring. Even the most most raw, gritty and realistic TV shows, such as the Wire or Six Feet Under, distill real life into characters and stories which are compelling.
Sometimes when watching this show I felt as if I were watching a show whose primary aim was to subsidize musicians who the vast majority of people have never heard of, or to help bring attention and revenue to a city in need of attention and revenue. While those are worthy goals, it simply does not make for good entertainment.
Also, Davis Macaleary, the part time musician/DJ, is probably one of the more annoying characters to hit the small screen in recent times.
Furthermore... if you're not a huge fan of jazz or blues, then be warned: in every episode there are multiple scenes of people playing music, mostly real musicians who aren't even characters in the story. The scenes are basically the camera watching them documentary style sans any drama. I like jazz or blues but after hours of watching people play with absolutely no dramatic purpose, combined with a lack of any likable or compelling characters/stories, I tuned off.
I tried real hard to like Treme, but despite multiple attempts and a season and a half of investment I just couldn't. When this first debuted, I tried twice to get into it but couldn't get past the second episode. I recently started watching this on HBOGO after having watched The Wire again. With the same creator/showrunner I gave this show the benefit of the doubt, and while season 1 does improve a lot as it goes on until a brilliant final episode, the first episode of season 2 took a few tries to slog through and the improvement after that wasn't nearly as much in season 2 as in season 1 after the first couple episodes, which caused me to stop watching this.
The reason why it was almost a chore to get through the first couple of episodes wasn't because it was slow, which it was. Slow isn't bad by default, and I like shows that take their time layering their characters and stories. However, the problem with Treme IMO is that the characters are not likable or compelling.
By likable I don't mean the kind where the writers manipulate the audience into rooting for them. But there has to be something about them that either makes me care what happens to them, good or bad. Or something about their situation that makes me want to see what happens to them.
But what the characters that were presented to me after the first couple of episodes were: a part-time trombone player who tries to chump the people around him, an Indian chief/handyman who killed or at least tried to kill a kid for stealing his tools, an annoyingly outspoken musician/DJ who has an overblown sense of his entertainment value and a coke addict street musician who hits women when he's angry. Characters need not be nice or pretty on screen to be likable or compelling, but after a season and a half the way I would describe these characters is not that much different than the descriptions just offered.
The other characters are for the most part ones who you would like in real life but who, really, have no basis for being on screen. The closest characters to being having any dramatic basis or being likable/compelling are the bar owner who lost her brother in Katrina and who subsquently gets raped as a result of the dissolution of New Orleans, and an outspoken English professor/activist who then commits suicide that we surmise is from the aftermath of Katrina. In season 2 we are introduced to two new main characters: a carpetbagger from Houston who makes millions from the reconstruction and a police lieutenant who ruffles feathers in his department by caring about his city. Neither are stories that compelled me to watch further.
There are some great actors here, the directing and writing of each episode is solid, and the final episode of season 1 is a beautifully made collage. However, there is a reason why fictional TV shows and moviesdon't follow real life people: we're boring. Even the most most raw, gritty and realistic TV shows, such as the Wire or Six Feet Under, distill real life into characters and stories which are compelling.
Sometimes when watching this show I felt as if I were watching a show whose primary aim was to subsidize musicians who the vast majority of people have never heard of, or to help bring attention and revenue to a city in need of attention and revenue. While those are worthy goals, it simply does not make for good entertainment.
Also, Davis Macaleary, the part time musician/DJ, is probably one of the more annoying characters to hit the small screen in recent times.
Furthermore... if you're not a huge fan of jazz or blues, then be warned: in every episode there are multiple scenes of people playing music, mostly real musicians who aren't even characters in the story. The scenes are basically the camera watching them documentary style sans any drama. I like jazz or blues but after hours of watching people play with absolutely no dramatic purpose, combined with a lack of any likable or compelling characters/stories, I tuned off.