Fans of David Simon and his brilliant cop show The Wire, which focused on Baltimore’s relationship to law enforcement (particularly facing the drug trade), may or may not have heard of his 2010 drama television series Treme. Unfortunately, with The Wire being a huge success, when Treme was released two years after it finished, it was undeservedly pushed under the carpet and forgotten about by many critics and viewers. Now, Simon has released his new 2022 series We Own This City, which also focuses on Baltimore’s police corruption, so let’s take a look at his brilliantly underrated show, what it’s about, and why you should be watching it.
Treme, the name of a neighborhood in New Orleans, begins not long after the 2005 tragedy, Hurricane Katrina. We are shown residents of Treme, from all walks of life (musicians, chefs, reporters, and Mardi Gras Indians) attempt to put their lives back together after the disaster has struck their town and flooded their homes away. Wendell Pierce, originally from New Orleans, who fans might also recognize as a familiar face from The Wire, starred as trombonist Antoine Batiste and felt passionately for the series, saying, “the only things people had to hang on to were the rich traditions we knew that survived the test of time before: our music, food and family.”
Treme Keeps It Real
Warner Bros. Television
Simon always made sure that his cast were local actors, used wherever is possible, so that’s one thing that Treme and The Wire have in common. After the release of Treme, New Orleans residents waited anxiously to see how the tragedy would be represented, but to Simon’s delight, the show was embraced and described as an accurate representation, which was honest. The only problem was that the bar was set high after his success with The Wire, which brought life to crime dramas and interesting, complex and dramatic narratives. The show tackled the police’s problems with drugs, poverty, and race with more brilliance than just about any television show in history. How could anything beat that? Unfortunately, Treme didn’t.
However, while people may have overlooked it, Treme contains a powerful and emotional story surrounding disaster, destruction, loss, and family with utter authenticity. Although the show is slow paced, and was indeed criticized for it, when the viewer is patient, they’ll find that they have stumbled across beautiful characters and an emotional rollercoaster. The Wire was (and still is) adored for its storyline and novelistic sprawl, but its acclaim sadly overshadows Treme’s own charms.
What Does Treme Bring to the Table?
The simplicity of the show is fascinating and subtle, but it is something that viewers didn’t like about Treme. This might be because, really, there is no simple way to describe this show, as there is no fixated and easy story or conflict - we are shown characters from different worlds, with different lives, all bonding over the same tragedy. But apart from that, they really don’t have anything else in common, and people criticized the looseness and lack of conflict in Treme as a result. As it oscillates between families all over the city, the only running story is that they have all been affected by the hurricane. While many people thought this was too vague and pointless, when given a proper thought, it is actually a beautifully heartbreaking theme, and allows for the kind of all-encompassing portrait of humanity that most television shows are too specific to accomplish.
Treme is unfamiliar territory; we are very used to series with easy or focused narratives to follow and a solid story, so when we watch something that is different, that is loose and free, it is particularly difficult to put your finger on it (and hard to advertise it). However, this by no means makes it a bad show; if we dive in with an open mind and look at what is really being shown to us, instead of trying to follow a story with the typical expectations of television, we’ll be surprised and touched by what we see. We are looking at ordinary, local, vulnerable people going through life, with no powerful figures or outright villains. The fact that all the characters are actually powerless speaks volumes in Treme, and it makes the disaster even more brutal as there is nothing anyone can do to fix it. Treme just might be the most direct exploration of the working class (and actual race relations) in TV history.
The further we go, and especially towards the end of the final season (season four), certain things do come together very naturally, in the same way that life comes together; there aren’t any big plot twists or loose ends to tie up. Instead, it all gently falls into a bittersweet, beautiful end to many stories, and life goes on. There doesn’t seem to be anything forced about Treme, which is perhaps a reason it has been so overlooked. Without any major gripping storylines, or character developments, it doesn’t fit into the television landscape. Yet, what it does have is truth, natural representations of tragedy and humanity, and an honest, heartfelt tone to it.
