Treme Ep. 1.2: Meet De Boys on the Battlefront

So I've decided to write a weekly recap/reflection on what is turning out to be the one of the best shows on television: David Simon's Treme. The follow-up to the series premier had a big job. It's predecessor succeeded in introducing characters and creating a tone for the series. This weeks episode needed to continue its successful march by delving deeper into these characters lives and keeping us interested. It was triumphant.

This week brought the funny, albeit with some dark and disturbing elements. It opens up with the sacrificing of a chicken during a live radio session, which ends up getting our lovable DJ Davis (Steve Zahn) fired. It was a strange, humorous, if unsettling opening to our show. Davis gets a new job at a hotel and proceeds to send tourists, who happen to be in New Orleans on a mission trip, to the seedier side of New Orleans so that they can indeed get a taste of the culture of the city. They go missing, and Davis goes jobless, again. His heart is apparently much bigger than his sense of logic--but we love him for it.

A theme that I thought was interesting throughout the episode was that of pride or respect. Antoine (Wendell Pierce) goes to a gig on Bourbon Street at a strip-club. He is ashamed thinking it is beneath him, but people console him by saying "There is pride on Bourbon Street." Antoine is not convinced. Creighton (John Goodman)is wanting to get back to writing his book about the history of floods in New Orleans (he is already 250 pages in), but he doesn't want to be seen as cashing in on tragedy.

The most jaw-dropping moment of last night's episode was when Albert (Clarke Peters) confronted the thug who stole his tools. We expected a philosophical chat after Albert slammed him up against the wall, but what we got instead was a brutal beating. Albert took a crobar and beat the boy (he couldn't have been older than 20 years old) to death. Could it be that Treme has it's own Omar Little in the tragic figure of Mardi Gras Indian Chief Albert Lambreaux?

Treme continues to deliver when it comes to writing, acting, and music. If it stays on the track that it's on it will be a force to be reckon with come awards season.