TREME: SEASON 1

It's all about the music.

Sure, you have your usual David Simon (The Wire, Generation Kill) elements:  A diverse cast of colorful characters; an exploration of social injustices being perpetrated on the "lower classes"; and a city that serves not only as setting, but as a protagonist/antagonist in its own right.  But what you'll find yourself doing after watching any individual episode will be singing the chorus to "Ghost of a Chance". . . or perhaps "My Indian Red".  This is the portrait of a city bonded by music.  Despite the divisions between people in Post-Katrina New Orleans - Black or White; Rich or Poor; Indian or Cop - everyone, but EVERYONE, knows the lyrics to all of the local standards.

The story arcs of the diverse characters share one common bond: it's about people learning to deal with the cards that fate hands you.  About being able to cope with loss.  Sometimes that's as trivial as losing a DJ job that you could care less about, and other times it's about the search for a brother who was lost in the system.  As David Simon once said, "There's no room for hope on The Wire.", but in Treme it's all about hope, despite the odds.

Everything about this show is as excellent as anticipated.  I leave it feeling informed, entertained, and moved (Yes, you will be crying!).  A slight caveat is that it might do more for big fans of New Orleans Jazz than it did for me;  While the "real people" cameos in The Wire were smoothly integrated into the narrative, here they're about as subtle as Vincent Price showing up on the Muppet Show (with a slightly different Kermit).

LOVED