10 Reasons You Should Watch Treme

Image via Complex Original

10. TREME HAS ISSUES

…in the plotlines, that is. There’s no other television show on right now doing the sort of serious social and political work Treme is doing. David Simon and Eric Overmeyer's art is genuinely angry and affecting.


Think of the conclusion to the first season’s third episode, where the Katrina tour bus interrupts the Indians as they pay respects to one of their dead. There’s more pathos in that single moment than in other shows’ entire seasons. It makes everything else on TV feel as humanistic as Mein Kampf.

9. TREME IS NOT THE WIRE

And if you want it to be, you should go watch The Wire some more. Because Treme doesn’t have the automatically exciting guns ‘n’ drugs element The Wire so deftly explored, viewers are processing the show as boring. In fact, the two shows are doing similar work in that they’re both committed to painting a full picture of a city, but the similarities end there, just as the similarities between B-more and NOLA can only be pushed so far.

Basically, stop whining. The Wire was brilliant but it’s over. You know who you sound like? The dude that can't get over his past relationship, even though the lovely woman you’re with now is quite fetching and musically-inclined and has excellent taste.

8. TREME MAY BE SLOW…

…but that just makes it authentic to the city. “The Big Easy” isn’t one of those ironic nicknames—things move slower there, people sit back and enjoy life. A show paced any faster wouldn’t feel true to the setting.

7. TREME IS DARING

Though The Wire played at creating a show with no fixed central character, ultimately McNulty stood out as a main protagonist that the audience identified with and was asked to follow more closely. He was the first character viewers meet in the first episode, and he’s the last character we see at the close of the final season. But Treme has achieved the formally audacious task of having no fixed central character. The New Orleans of Treme is defined by its polyvocality.

6. TREME IS SCRIPTED REALITY, FOR REAL

Unlike “reality” shows that are obviously orchestrated by producers to squeeze the most drama they can out of their stars (don’t worry, we still love you, Jersey Shore), Treme is a scripted show that manages to capture very real problems in a very real city, and nothing seems forced for the sake of plot.


Though the term “ripped from the headlines” is thrown around for mostly shows that have presented storylines for so-called shock factor, Treme seems to be the full embodiment of the phrase. This really happened.

5. TREME IS A TRUE CHARACTER DRAMA

What’s probably the most compelling thing about Treme is the characters. They aren’t saints, they aren’t sinners, they aren’t extremes of any sort—they’re just people trying to rebuild their lives and their city one day at a time. Some are even based off of actual citizens (see #3), making their struggles, problems and evolution all the more affecting.

4. TREME HAS GOT THE BEAT

When a show manages to snag Elvis Costello to guest star as himself in the premiere episode, you know it has the music aspect sorted out. The soundtrack isn’t exactly mainstream (save for Lil Wayne’s “Fireman” popping up in one episode) but that’s why it works—it remains authentic. Along with tracks by legendary Blues/Jazz singer Johnny Adams, music by real local groups like the Treme Brass Band are utilized in nearly every episode. And Kermit Ruffins, the New Orleans-born jazz trumpeter who makes regular appearance, steals just about every scene he’s in.

3. TREME’S CHARACTERS ARE REAL

Or inspired by real-life NOLA citizens, anyway. Janette Desautel (Kim Dickens), the show’s resident restaurant owner who struggles to get her business back up and running post-Katrina is loosely based on well-known chef Susan Spicer of the Bayona restaurant.

John Goodman is Creighton Bernette, a Tulane University professor who takes no issue speaking just what’s on his mind in reference to the Katrina tragedy (“You mean the federally induced disaster? This is not a natural disaster. This is a manmade fucking catastrophe of epic proportions!”) is a clear reference to the late blogger Ashley Morris, who made a rep for similarly profane outbursts.

2. TREME IS CHALLENGING

The show makes a point to never underestimate the audience’s intelligence, which is refreshing in a world of predictable melodramas and soapy reality shows. Treme’s pace and lengthy performances ask the viewer to attend to the action in a different way than we’re used to. There’s a difference between boring and slow. Slow demands the kind of concentration that makes for a more satisfyingly immersive experience.


And honestly, if you don’t like the music, which runs the gamut from jazz to bounce, that’s not the show’s problem—it’s your problem. The performances are integral to the show. It’s like complaining about a musical because you don’t buy characters spontaneously bursting into song. It’s part of the form.

1. TREME IS NEW ORLEANS

Like Joyce’s Ulysses did for Dublin, Treme is an awe-inspiring recreation of NOLA during a specific moment of time. An insect-trapped-in-amber type level of preservation.

Many of the staff writers are local, unlike whatever windowless room full of monkeys is turning out whole seasons of Law & Order: NCISCSISVU. Even the Times-Picayune, the iconic daily newspaper of the city, praised the show after its premiere, with Dave Walker writing, “Probably as good as it will ever get. This is the screen depiction that New Orleans deserves, has always desired, but has been denied.” Considering the last show set in the city was K-Ville, we’re inclined to agree.