Treme, Season 2

I very much enjoy the HBO series Treme, having just finished the second season (I watch on DVD). What makes the series work is the very New Orleans-like way it has with its characters--a little slow (it's hot down there) with an emphasis on food and music.

The show, created by David Simon, was prompted by the city's devastation following Hurricane Katrina. The first season immediately followed the storm. This one starts 14 months after the storm, but there is still rebuilding, there are still damaged lives and open wounds. But through it all, there is an inherent optimism, fueled by a brotherhood that is mostly tied together by music.

There is a lot of music in the series. Not only do many jazz greats appear and play themselves, but other musicians, such as Shawn Colvin, John Prine, and Lucinda Williams make appearances. Two of the major plot threads are main characters starting bands, to mostly disappointing results.

One of them is Antoine Batiste and His Soul Apostles. Batiste (a great Wendell Pierce) is a trombone-player with a wife who wants him to get a steady job. He would rather start his own band, but finds it a constant challenge to keep things together, as musicians have other gigs and egos. He reluctantly takes a job as an assistant band leader at a high school, and ends up finding more satisfaction with young people.

The other band is The Brassy Knoll, a band started by the unsinkable DJ Davis. As with last season, Davis (Steve Zahn) keeps getting fired from his job at the radio station. He enlists his aunt (Elizabeth Ashley) to put up money for a record label. He assembles a great band, but finds that he's being squeezed out. He ends his days with the band by wearing the uniform of a typical white man (with sweater tied around his shoulder) singing "Sex Machine."

Other, more serious plot threads make up the rope of the show. LaDonna (Khandi Alexander), who stubbornly holds on to her family's bar, is attacked and raped. Toni (Melissa Leo) tries to recover from her husband's suicide, and deals with another case of New Orleans police malpractice--this time, did they shoot not one but two looters dead?

But the music can't be kept down. Delmond Lambreaux (Rob Brown), a son of New Orleans but a New York resident, is drawn back to the music of his roots, gets fascinated by early jazz and wants to cut a record mixing modern jazz with the New Orleans sound. He enlists many musicians (the real Dr. John and Ron Carter, for two) and his stubborn father (Clarke Peters) to lead traditional Indian chants.

As for food, we follow the story of Janette (Kim Dickens), whom last we saw leaving New Orleans, her restaurant padlocked. She's taken a job at a fancy restaurant in New York, but ends up throwing a drink in the face of the real-life food critic Alan Richman (a good sport). She lands on her feet, and what we could see all along seems to be happening--she'll come back to New Orleans. Apparently, once you live there it has a hold on you.

Many other people play themselves, including for New Orleans city councilman Oliver Thomas. In an extraordinary example of self-effacement, Thomas plays himself, who really did have to resign in disgrace for taking bribes. This is all part of a storyline involving Nelson (Jon Seda), a Dallas businessman who tries to take advantage of the storm to make money. He's a distasteful character and I'm happy to report he gets his.

Treme is exuberantly filmed television. Many first-rate film directors, such as Tim Robbins, Ernest Dickerson, and Agnieszka Holland helm episodes. The pacing is perfect, the acting top notch. At times it drifts into soap opera land, but that is not always a pejorative--these are characters we care about and root for (except for Seda's). I will definitely finish this series to its conclusion.