Alright this is a little late especially since got to see a preview of the pilot at the BFI a couple of months ago. So lets dive right in. How do you follow up what is considered by many to be the finest television drama of all time? Well that is problem that faced David Hudgins writer and creator of Past Life… only kidding! David Simon the show runner of HBO’s The Wire had the tough job of following up on the critical acclaim of the Baltimore set drama, in order to deliver he teamed up with The Wire writer Eric Overmyer to create Treme. The New Orleans drama set 3 months after Katrina looks at the working class district of Treme as musicians cooks and inhabitants struggle to get back on their feet while dealing with the fallout of the disaster. In 2007 Fox greenlit K-Ville, a post Katrina New Orleans police drama, the series was cut short during production and ultimately never even screened all the episodes that were shot. So how does HBOs take on event stack up?
Like The Wire, Treme is an ensemble cast of characters who all are looking for a way to survive in the damaged city. The main thrust of the pilot follows Antoine Batiste (Wendell Pierce) a trombonist who arrives in the New Orleans neighbourhood of Treme as it holds its first “second-line parade since the flood. Antoine is desperately chasing up friends looking for the next gig so he can survive, since the storm washed away his car, he has to rely on taxis to get him everywhere, and regrettably much of the money he earns is lost in that endeavour. Meanwhile his ex-wife LaDonna Batiste-Williams (Khandi Alexander) discovers her brother thought to be killed in the storm is still alive thanks to the help of civil rights lawyer Toni Bernette (Melissa Leo). Her husband Creighton Bernette (John Goodman) fights to get the truth about governments failings both during and before Katrina. Janette Desautel (Kim Dickens) runs a restaurant, that despite being very busy is in danger of closure as she waits for the insurance to arrive. Davis McAlary (Steve Zahn) is a DJ with a passion for the music and culture New Orleans, a struggling musician he battles the Man and his ignorance of outsiders as he defends the music he loves. Finally Albert Lambreaux (Clarke Peters) returns home to find it destroyed by the storm, as a Mardi Gras Indian chief, he beings trying to bring back his tribe, including his son Delmond (Rob Brown) who has found the music scene New York more to his taste. The near feature length pilot sets all these stories in motion, introducing us to this culture and what we can expect to see over the series.
There is no big mystery or mission in Treme, the characters occasionally cross paths, but they are all heading in their own direction regardless of what the others are doing. Watching the pilot we get see the heartbreak of seeing a home wrecked by the flood, the families that have been displaced and businesses struggling as they wait for tourists to return. Ultimately however there is a certainty that New Orleans is worth saving and will return with full swing.
Watching Treme for the first time, I was totally grabbed by music, the characters and the culture, the show boasts appearance form many local musicians, something which is clear for the weathered and often un-TV like faces. However, despite the rich tapestry I often found myself not really caring about the stories. This is a slow burner, many of the characters are just trying to get by day by day, therefore there are few victories they can claim and those they do are small. Albert’s big victory is getting the water damaged junk removed from outside his bar, or Antoine getting another paid gig. Sometimes it can just feel like watching a series of beautiful snap shots, moments in time, like The Wire, Treme is in it for the long game a means to explore deeper far reaching stories, rather than the “case of week” formula used on so many other shows.
HBO has already renewed the show for a second season.
Created / Written by: David Simon, Eric Overmyer
Directed by: Agnieszka Holland
Starring: Wendell Pierce, Khandi Alexander, Melissa Leo, John Goodman, Kim Dickens, Steve Zahn, Clarke Peters, Rob Brown
Date premièred: 11th April 2010
UK Details: TBC
. Such a success was this multi generational look at one of life’s greatest challenges network TV rushed out to make a small screen version. Ed Begley Jr, David Arquette and Leonardo DiCaprio took on the roles of their big screen counterparts, unfortunately for Leo, the series followed the fate of other 80s and early 90s movies turned TV shows (
, 
, 
and Baby Talk (based on the film 
)) and lasted only on series.
star Peter Krause. Originally intended for a September airing it pushed back to the mid-season as actress Maura Tierney was diagnosed with breast cancer, as a result Mercy was brought up in its place. Tiernay went on to leave the series due to her treatment and Lauren Graham took her place.
and Party Down have enjoyed a moderate amount of success, but their latest addition is 
.
to cover manhood or lack there of. Starz looking to make a name for it’s original drama has created a series that promised much violence and plenty of full frontal nudity from both sexes.
, a 225 if you will, but this is only one piece of the puzzle – the slow motion fights. For dialogue they have thrown in the original Spartacus, while HBO’s 
provides influence for the explicit sex. Finally 
provides a great deal of influence for the series’ title character; Spartacus was a slave turned Gladiator turned leader of an army, here we have husband warrior sold into a Gladiator school. The Spartacus in this series has no bonds with slavery, there is no hint of what the man shall become which seems very short sighted. Away from the sex and violence the series feels like a movie of the week with melodramatic emotions and swearing thrown in just because they can.
, mainly because it gives credibility to some of the most evil people on the planet. Those who seek to exploit people in their most desperate hour, real police time is wasted and these charlatans are only too happy to profit off the back of someone else’s tragedy. For an insight into what these folk get up to check out Stop Sylvia Browne. Rant over.
burst onto the scene in 2008 with the idea of teaming a man with a unique skill (in the case a reformed TV psychic) with a bunch of detectives (now it can be argued that the idea for The Mentalist was stolen from comedy drama Psych – a fact not gone unnoticed by the show.) This was followed a few months later by 
which saw a crime novelist team up with detectives to solve crime. Finally we have 
, this time the guy with a skill is a expert conman Neal Caffrey, rescued from prison to help the FBI solve crimes.
, October Road and What About Brian.
this is an important show for NBC and although planned to air mid season it was rushed out to fill the gap caused by a delay in the production of Parenthood.
hit the small screen in 2001 it ushered in a new era of big budget television shows with huge scope and story arcs. With the exception of 
, many of these shows crumbled quickly under the weight of their big budgets and diminishing audience figures. Shows like 
limped into a second season, while 
struggled to reach a season climax, 
got canned after 10 episodes leaving the remaining 3 unaired for months. So make no mistake there is a huge risk making this sort of drama, the idea has to be good, it has to hit hard on day one and keep the audience coming back, because once the train has left the station no one wants to jump on.
came out and hit hard at Comic-Con, they showed clips from the pilot, took questions from the audience and gave away a few tantalising details. Positive word of mouth helped the show deliver a strong debut both in America and the UK.
of the same name by Robert J. Sawyer, but the differences are obvious – in the book the flash forward is 21 years and the lead character is a particle physicist. Most likely the writers have taken the idea of the book and run off in a new direction (like how 
changed everything from the 
by Richard Matheson). As usual the pilot is all about setting the scene and introducing us to the characters.
we were given 2 things, “save the cheerleader, save the world” which served as the series midpoint and the bomb in the city which was season finale. In FlashForward we are given a date in April and the show producers have confirmed that the season finale will air on that date. Having a direction and an end point really helps focus the audience on a goal, this is an ongoing problem is Lost, you really have no idea where it is going.
, which itself was based on the 
of the same name by John Updike. This is not the first time someone has tried to make The Witches of Eastwick into a TV series, the first attempt was in 1992, a pilot was shot and aired, but NBC failed to be picked up. Things then went quiet for 10 years, but in 2002 FOX tried again, with Marcia Cross who, when the show failed to be picked up, went to on star as Bree in 
. Third time lucky and with a whole new cast, ABC finally picked it up the show for an initial order of 13 episodes. The release of 
in 2008 and the stage musical probably helped raise the profile of the source material, making it a slightly more tempting offer for the commissioners.
, 
, 
, Melrose Place (yes this is a reboot for the popular 90s late night soap – I’ll review it soon, don’t worry),
, 
creator Mike Kelley and the show is executivly produced by Ashton Kutcher, which will no doubt lead to a cameo later in the series. Despite a huge marketing drive online and print ads featuring nude shots of the stars, the show failed to bring in the ratings and really there is nothing to stick around for. Early word is that the show is already be eyed to be replaced mid-season by Life UneXpected, so the chances of a full season pick up or second series seems extremely unlikely.
