I have been following David Simon's "Treme" for quite sometime now, and I love the premise and the cast looks fantastic. After the Wire I will give any of his projects a shot. I wanted to make this thread to alert everybody out there who might not even know about this show that is premiering April 11th on HBO. So check out the info and remember the date.
Premise
Treme is an upcoming American drama television series created by David Simon and Eric Overmyer. The series takes place three months after Hurricane Katrina where the residents of New Orleans, including musicians, chefs, Mardi Gras Indians and ordinary New Orleanian try to rebuild their lives, their homes and their unique culture in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane.The series is scheduled to premiere April 11, 2010, on HBO. The first season will consist of 10 episodes, including an 80-minute pilot episode.
Conception
Simon and Overmyer first worked together as writers on the television series Homicide: Life on the Street when the two became friends. They collaborated again on Simon's series The Wire when Overmyer joined the crew as a consulting producer and writer in 2006. Treme was put into development by HBO in 2008 shortly after the conclusion of The Wire. The show was envisioned to focus on the working class Treme neighborhood in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and will be smaller in scope than The Wire, which examined an entire city.
Overmyer lives part-time in New Orleans and Simon believes his experience will be valuable in navigating the "ornate oral tradition" of the city's stories. Simon has stated that the series will explore beyond the music scene to encompass political corruption, the public housing controversy, the criminal-justice system, clashes between police and Mardi Gras Indians, and the struggle to regain the tourism industry after the storm. Simon also consulted with New Orleans musicians Donald Harrison Jr., Kermit Ruffins, and Davis Rogan while developing the series. Simon also consulted local chef Susan Spicer.
Casting
The Wire star Wendell Pierce was the first to be attached to star in the series. His involvement was announced shortly after the pilot in July 2008. Pierce is a New Orleans native and will play Antoine Batiste, an accomplished trombonist. Fellow Wire alumnus Clarke Peters was also attached to star in the project early in its development. Peters will play the leader of a Mardi Gras Indian tribe who is trying to bring his people home. Khandi Alexander will also star in the project. She previously worked with Simon on the award-winning HBO miniseries The Corner. In August 2008 Alexander was cast as Ladonna Batiste, the estranged wife of Pierce's character and a bar owner.
Film actor Steve Zahn joined the project in February 2009. Treme is his first series commitment in television. Zahn will play a dancer, DJ and band member with anger management issues. The role will showcase the actor's singing and guitar playing talents. Zahn's character is based on series consultant Davis Rogan and will share his first name. Kim Dickens from HBO's Deadwood was also cast in February 2009. She will play a chef with a tumultuous relationship with Zahn's character. Rob Brown was cast as Delmond Lambreaux in February 2009. Browns' character is a New York jazz musician and son of Peters' character who reluctantly returns home. Academy Award nominee and Homicide star Melissa Leo was cast as a civil rights lawyer just before the pilot began filming in March 2009. John Goodman was cast as her character's college professor husband when the show started filming its season order, and scenes featuring him were added to the pilot.
The series casting mirrored that of The Wire in using local actors wherever possible. Local casting took place in January and February 2009 via RPM casting. New Orleans native Phyllis Montana LeBlanc was cast as the girlfriend of Pierce's character. LeBlanc was recommended for the project by director Spike Lee who had worked with her on the HBO Hurricane Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke. Additionally, well-known New Orleans musician Kermit Ruffins will appear as himself in the pilot. Other musical guests will include Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Elvis Costello, Steve Earle, Donald Harrison Jr., Galactic, Trombone Shorty Andrews, Deacon John, and the Rebirth and Tremé Brass Bands.
There are several reviews of the pilot you can read Here
Nobody else out there looking forward to this, seriously??
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NEW HBO DRAMA SERIES TREME, CREATED AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY DAVID SIMON AND ERIC OVERMYER, DEBUTS APRIL 11
The one-hour drama series TREME launches its ten-episode first season SUNDAY, APRIL 11 (10:00-11:20 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO. From David Simon (“The Wire,” “Generation Kill,” “The Corner”) and Eric Overmyer (“Homicide: Life on the Street,” “The Wire”), the show follows musicians, chefs, Mardi Gras Indians and ordinary New Orleanians as they try to rebuild their lives, their homes and their unique culture in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane and levee failure that caused the near-death of an American city.
TREME begins in fall 2005, three months after Hurricane Katrina and the massive engineering failure in which flood control failed throughout New Orleans, flooding 80% of the city, killing hundreds and displacing hundreds of thousands of residents. Fictional events depicted in the series will honor the actual chronology of political, economic and cultural events following the storm.
The drama unfolds with Antoine Batiste, a smooth-talking trombonist who is struggling to make ends meet, earning cash with any gig he can get, including playing in funeral processions for his former neighbors. His ex-wife, LaDonna Batiste-Williams, owns a bar in the Central City neighborhood and splits her time between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, where her children and new husband have relocated. Concerned over the disappearance of her younger brother David, or Daymo, unseen since the storm, LaDonna has turned to a local civil rights attorney, the overburdened and underpaid Toni Bernette, for help. The government’s inconsistent and ineffectual response to the devastation has spurred Bernette’s husband Creighton, a university professor of English literature and an expert on local history, to become an increasingly outspoken critic of the institutional response.
Tremé resident Davis McAlary, a rebellious radio disc jockey, itinerant musician and general gadfly, is both chronicler of and participant in the city’s vibrant and varied musical culture, which simply refuses to be silent, even in the early months after the storm. His occasional partner, popular chef Janette Desautel, hopes to regain momentum for her small, newly re-opened neighborhood restaurant. Elsewhere in the city, displaced Mardi Gras Indian chief Albert Lambreaux returns to find his home destroyed and his uptown tribe, the Guardians of the Flame, scattered, but Lambreaux is determined to rebuild. His son Delmond, an exile in New York playing modern jazz and looking beyond New Orleans for his future, is less sure of his native city, while violinist Annie and her boyfriend Sonny, young street musicians living hand-to-mouth, seem wholly committed to the culture of the Crescent City.
As the story begins, more than half the population of New Orleans is elsewhere and much of the city is wrecked, muddied and caked in mold, while other neighborhoods – in “the sliver by the river,” as locals call it – remain viable. But the tourists have yet to return, the money that follows them is scarce, and residents can take solace only in the fact that the city’s high levels of crime have migrated to Houston and Baton Rouge. And for those returning, housing is hard to come by, with many people waiting on insurance checks that may never arrive.
The ensemble cast of TREME includes Wendell Pierce (“The Wire,” HBO’s documentary “When the Levees Broke”) as Antoine Batiste; Khandi Alexander (“CSI: Miami,” HBO’s Emmy®-winning “The Corner”) as LaDonna Batiste-Williams; Clarke Peters (“Damages,” HBO’s “The Wire” and “The Corner”) as Albert Lambreaux; Rob Brown (“Stop-Loss,” “Finding Forrester”) as Delmond Lambreaux; Steve Zahn (“A Perfect Getaway,” “Sunshine Cleaning”) as Davis McAlary; Kim Dickens (HBO’s “Deadwood”) as Janette Desautel; Melissa Leo (“Homicide: Life on the Street”; Oscar® nominee for “Frozen River”) as Toni Bernette; John Goodman (“The Big Lebowski,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”) as Creighton Bernette; Michiel Huisman (“The Young Victoria”) as Sonny; and classical violinist Lucia Micarelli as Annie.
The series will also feature cameos by notable real-life New Orleanians, as well as the talents of many of its extraordinary musicians and other artists associated with the city’s music. Early episodes feature appearances by Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Elvis Costello, Steve Earle, Kermit Ruffins, Donald Harrison Jr., John Boutte, Galactic, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, Deacon John, and the Rebirth and Tremé Brass Bands.
The 80-minute pilot episode of TREME was directed by Agnieszka Holland (“The Wire,” “Cold Case”). Additional episodes are directed by Simon Cellan Jones (“Generation Kill”) as well as alumni of “The Wire,” including Jim McKay (HBO’s “In Treatment” and “Big Love”), Ernest Dickerson (“Burn Notice”), Anthony Hemingway (the upcoming film “Redtails”), Christine Moore (“CSI: NY”), Brad Anderson (“Fringe,” “The Machinist”) and Dan Attias (HBO’s “Big Love,” “House”).
In addition to Simon and Overmyer, TREME is written by David Mills (HBO’s “The Corner” and “The Wire”) and George Pelecanos (“The Wire” and the HBO miniseries “The Pacific”). Additional writers include New Orleans natives Lolis Elie (author and columnist for the New Orleans Times-Picayune) and Tom Piazza (author of the novel “City of Refuge” and “Why New Orleans Matters”).
April’s episodes:
Episode #1: “Do You Know What It Means”
Debut: SUNDAY, APRIL 11 (10:00-11:20 p.m. ET/PT)
Other HBO playdates: April 11 (12:30 a.m.), 13 (11:00 p.m.), 14 (2:25 a.m.), 15 (10:00 p.m.) and 29 (8:00 p.m.)
HBO2 playdates: April 12 (11:00 p.m.), 16 (10:00 p.m.), 17 (8:30 p.m.), 18 (noon) and 24 (7:30 p.m.)
A New Orleans neighborhood celebrates its first second-line “parade” since Katrina, reuniting many of its musicians and residents, though many more have yet to return.
Written by David Simon and Eric Overmyer; directed by Agnieszka Holland.
Episode #2: “Meet De Boys on the Battlefront”
Debut: SUNDAY, APRIL 18 (10:00-11:00 p.m.)
Other HBO playdates: April 18 (midnight), 20 (11:00 p.m.), 21 (3:10 a.m.), 22 (10:00 p.m.) and 29 (9:30 p.m.)
HBO2 playdates: April 19 (11:00 p.m.), 23 (10:00 p.m.), 24 (9:00 p.m.) and 25 (3:30 p.m.), and May 1 (8:00 p.m.)
Albert (Clarke Peters) takes the law into his own hands; LaDonna (Khandi Alexander) gets news about her missing brother.
Story by David Simon and Eric Overmyer; teleplay by Eric Overmyer; directed by Jim McKay.
Episode #3: “Right Place, Wrong Time”
Debut: SUNDAY, APRIL 25 (10:00-11:00 p.m.)
Other HBO playdates: April 25 (midnight), 27 (11:00 p.m.), 28 (2:30 a.m.) and 29 (10:30 p.m.)
HBO2 playdates: April 26 (11:00 p.m.) and 30 (10:00 p.m.), and May 1 (9:00 p.m.), 2 (3:30 p.m.) and 8 (8:00 p.m.)
Albert makes a shocking discovery; Davis (Steve Zahn) barters freedom for piano lessons; Antoine (Wendell Pierce) hits rock bottom; Annie (Lucia Micarelli) gets a birthday gig.
Story by David Simon and David Mills; teleplay by David Mills; directed by Ernest Dickerson.
TREME is named for the Faubourg Tremé (an historic neighborhood just to the lakeside of the more celebrated French Quarter). Jazz itself was said to be born there, created by the slaves of Creole planters who were allowed to drum and chant on Sundays and market days in a public area that came to be known as Congo Square. It was in New Orleans that African rhythms and the pentatonic scale of flatted “blue” notes met European instrumentation and arrangements – a cross-cultural creation that transformed music on a worldwide scale.
“New Orleans is a city which lives in the imagination of the whole world,” says Overmyer. “We wanted to capture something authentic about it, as its people struggle with the after effects of the greatest calamity to befall an American city in the history of this country.”
Simon calls TREME an argument on behalf of American culture, saying, “For New Orleanians, it was their insistence on salvaging their unique culture that proved to be their true ally in the wake of Katrina. Their state and local governments, the federal relief effort, the Corps of Engineers, the insurance industry – none offered any meaningful response or leadership. But the culture itself could neither be forgotten or abandoned by those who understood it.”
“As much as possible, we’re trying to show fealty to the post-Katrina history,” Overmyer notes. “New Orleanians have had their lives transformed by the storm and its aftermath, and we want to be careful in our presentation of that.”
Simon adds that viewers familiar with “The Wire,” the previous HBO drama on which he, Overmyer and fellow executive producer Nina Noble labored, should not expect a similar drama set in another city.
“In some fundamental ways,” he says, “TREME is centered on the ordinary lives of ordinary people. It is political only in the sense that ordinary people find themselves dealing with politics in their own lives. That said, New Orleanians – those who have been able to return, especially – are passionate about their city.”
“The disaster impacted people on every possible level – physically, emotionally, and spiritually,” says New Orleans native Wendell Pierce. “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, family that included anyone who decided to accept the challenge to return. We knew that America was, in the words of Martin Luther King, a ‘ten-day nation.’ We knew our plight wouldn’t stay in the spotlight of the world long. But we are exercising our right of self-determination in the darkness with personal resolve. We are accessing the best of the human spirit and bringing light to this difficult time. That’s what TREME is about. We won’t bow down.”
Simon’s most recent HBO project, “Generation Kill,” debuted in July 2008. Based on the award-winning nonfiction book of the same name by journalist Evan Wright, it recounted the early weeks of the U.S. march into Iraq from the point of view of the officers and commanders who led the way to Baghdad. The New York Times called the miniseries “impeccable” and “searingly intense,” and USA Today praised it as “honest” and “painfully vivid.”
Finishing its five-season run on HBO in March 2008, “The Wire” examined a dystopic American city in which civic institutions and civic leadership could no longer recognize fundamental problems, much less address those problems. Daily Variety said of the Peabody Award-winning series, “When television history is written, little else will rival ‘The Wire’… extraordinary,” while San Francisco Chronicle hailed it as “a masterpiece” and Entertainment Weekly called the show “a staggering achievement.”
TREME was created by David Simon and Eric Overmyer; executive producers, David Simon, Nina K. Noble, Eric Overmyer, Carolyn Strauss; co-executive producer, David Mills; producer, Anthony Hemingway; directors, Agnieszka Holland, Jim McKay, Ernest Dickerson, Anthony Hemingway, Christine Moore, Brad Anderson, Simon Cellan Jones and Dan Attias; writers, David Simon, Eric Overmyer, David Mills, George Pelecanos, Lolis Elie, Tom Piazza and Davis Rogan.
Last edited by WyldeMan45; 03-24-2010 at 07:50 PM.
Treme is an upcoming American drama television series created by David Simon and Eric Overmyer. The series takes place three months after Hurricane Katrina where the residents of New Orleans, including musicians, chefs, Mardi Gras Indians and ordinary New Orleanians try to rebuild their lives, their homes and their unique culture in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane. The series is scheduled to premiere April 11, 2010, on HBO. The first season will consist of 10 episodes, including an 80-minute pilot episode.
I saw a commercial for it and it looked interesting. I have way to many shows as it is but I think I will give this one a shot. Anyone else know about this and who is gonna watch this? Got Em!!
The first thing I heard about it was that Dutch actor Michiel Huisman is in it. This definitely looks interesting, so I'll check it out (still have to see Generation Kill too).
The first thing I heard about it was that Dutch actor Michiel Huisman is in it. This definitely looks interesting, so I'll check it out (still have to see Generation Kill too).
Saw a really long and great looking preview last night following the Pacific. GK was another awesome miniseries, I highly recommend it. I'm sure more people will post here once the show has started but it'd be nice if there was more interest already in something from the awesome David Simon.
I'm definitely watching this tonight. I never watched Generation Kill, but The Wire is my favorite show of all time (followed by Lost and Carnivale rounding out my top 3).
I was both lost and intrigued by last night's premiere. I have absolutely no knowledge of the music or lifestyle of those in NOLA, the very same way I knew nothing of B-More before the The Wire. So I am very much looking forward to learning more about the city, the music and it's residents over this season. I really hope its a success and will be around awhile. Sepinwall says everything in his review I wish I was smart enough to write, so just check it out and let's kick off this discussion.
Quote:
I reviewed "Treme" overall in Friday's column. Some thoughts on the pilot episode coming up just as soon as I teach you everything I know about Keynesian economics...
"All you want to do is get high, play some trumpet and barbecue in New Orleans your whole damn life?" -Davis
"That'll work." -Kermit
Just as he did with the pilot for "The Wire," David Simon (there with Ed Burns, here with Eric Overmyer) has no problem plunking his audience down into the middle of what's a foreign country to many of us and assuming we'll pick up the language as we go. So we open with two men (who turn out not to be significant characters) haggling over the fee for the second line parade, and our first familiar face in Wendell Pierce doesn't even turn up for several minutes. We don't get an explanation for what a Mardi Gras Indian is, but instead just see Clarke Peters strutting down an empty street in that amazing yellow feathered costume, looking like a cross between an Indian, an alien and a crazy person. You just go with the music, or you don't.
As I watched the "Treme" pilot, I had enough faith in Simon and company to know that I'd figure things out eventually, and now having seen three episodes, my faith has been rewarded. And because "Treme" is, so far, much more driven by character than plot than "The Wire" was, I had a much stronger sense of the main characters by the end of the pilot than I did about anyone but McNulty by the end of the first "Wire."
It helps that we start off with a somewhat more famous cast this time around. You see, for instance, John Goodman's Creighton going all Walter Sobchek on the British camera crew and you have many of the fine points of that character. (Ultimately, Creighton turns out to be much more refined and sane than Walter; he's just excitable.) And if chatty, hipper-than-thou Davis isn't exactly like other roles Steve Zahn has played, it's in the ballpark enough that all Simon and Overmyer have to do is establish the degree of his quirks. (For instance, that he'll rail against the Tower Records employees about the definition of "consignment," but will largely wimp out on trying to engage Elvis Costello in conversation.)
Clarke Peters played my favorite character on "The Wire," and he quickly establishes Albert as one of the ones to watch closely here. There's that great moment where Albert enters his ruined home and with a few small gestures (a catch of the breath, a change in his eyes), Peters shows you just how much it wrecks him to see that. But then he steps outside, his jaw sets, and he becomes this immovable object - a big chief who isn't going to let his daughter, his son or anyone else stand in the way of his plan to clean out the bar, reassemble his old tribe, and start rehearsing for Carnival. It's a calling he takes so seriously that he won't even let himself break character when his neighbor agrees to haul the junk away from the bar, only allowing himself a little goofy victory dance after the street is completely empty.
We spend a lot of time in the pilot just watching musicians performing their craft. In the same way that "The Wire" would occasionally step back and just let us witness the cops perform their jobs at a high level, the long musical interludes are already revealing things about the characters: that Antoine, for instance, is so desperate for money that he'll perform in a parade he's clearly not in shape for.
We get to meet couples in varying states of their relationship: Creighton and Melissa Leo's Toni as a contented veteran pair who turn out to be a better match than they first seem (as Toni's just as capable of blowing up as her husband), Antoine and Khandi Alexander's Ladonna as exes who haven't lost their old chemistry, and Davis and Kim Dickens' Janette as two people going through the motions because she hasn't found a good enough excuse to kick him to the curb. (And by the end of the pilot, he provides her with one by opening that expensive bottle of wine at a restaurant that can't afford that kind of financial waste.)
And through it all, we see both the heartache and joy of post-Katrina New Orleans. Homes are destroyed, lives are lost or uncertain (like Ladonna's missing brother Daymo), yet there's great music and food and companionship and local pride. There are gigs to hustle for, consignment CDs to be reclaimed, victory dances to do, and money to be played for. It's a place where even the funerals eventually turn into celebrations with dancing and music, and one I look forward to spending a lot of time visiting this season.
Some other thoughts:
• As a lot of you know, a week and a half before the premiere, "Treme" co-executive producer David Mills died unexpectedly after suffering a brain aneurysm on the set. Give his love of music in general and funk in particular, I'm pleased that Davis's old band, whose CDs were being held on consignment by Tower, was named Uncut Funk, which was a fanzine David and his friends used to publish about George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic. (You can hear the music of the real Davis here, by the way.)
• Elvis Costello (who generated my biggest laugh of the pilot with his reaction to Davis's attempt to claim that he taught Kermit Ruffins anything) was one of the first famous musicians to come back to the city after the storm, where he began work on his "River in Reverse" album with Allen Toussaint. And Kermit himself is a local fixture whom Mills once described as "the de facto goodwill ambassador of New Orleans... except he rarely travels to ambassadorize."
• When Creighton declines the lemon ice (out of loyalty to another restaurant that has yet to re-open), the desert that Janette offers to fix for him is a Hubig's fried pie. In his open letter to the city of New Orleans in today's Times-Picayune, Simon cops to the fact that the Hubig's factory didn't reopen for several months after the time period depicted in this episode.
• And speaking of the Times-Picayune, if you like this show, you really owe it to yourself to check out some or all of Dave Walker's exhaustive coverage of the show.
• We don't get an explanation here for Davis's issues with his gay neighbors, but note that he assaults them with the music of New Orleans native Mystikal.
• I found it a nice touch that Toni carries around three giant purses all the time, which is a reminder not only that she has no office to go to because of the flood, but also suggests a character who's always over-extending herself.
• I know it's been 10 years and many films since Rob Brown made his movie debut in "Finding Forrester," but when I saw him as Delmond tearing it up at the Blue Note, I was overcome with the urge to yell out, "You're the man now, dawg!" in a Scottish accent.
I don't know I didn't see anything like the wire where it just sucks you in off the bat. But I will watch cause I was intrigued, but if it starts going down hill I'll stop watching real quick.
Haven't watched it yet, but I'm quite excited. I'm a bit worried because I have extremely high expectations. After all Simon's previous effort turned out to be only the greatest show in television history. But obviously it's not a fair comparison at this point.
Haven't watched it yet, but I'm quite excited. I'm a bit worried because I have extremely high expectations. After all Simon's previous effort turned out to be only the greatest show in television history. But obviously it's not a fair comparison at this point.
I was curious about the reviews One I read said they were calling mardi gras carnivals or something and that the roof after the hurricane was brown and torn up but was bright white in the opening episodes but not bad in my op unless you're nitpicking.
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Official Thread: David Simon's 'Treme'
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