Thursday, February 10, 2011

MORE BANANAS FOSTER: I'll admit that I tried but couldn't get into Treme when it premiered last year--despite family ties to New Orleans, I felt less like I was being entertained and more like I was being beaten over the head while David Simon yelled "THIS IS A TRAGEDY!" at me. (I had a similar reaction to parts of The Wire as well.) Add to it that I found many of the characters completely unsympathetic (most notably Steve Zahn's), and I let it drop. However, news that Anthony Bourdain is writing parts of Season 2 that are set in/involve restaurants makes me think that I might give it another chance.
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6 comments:

  1. mcm10:45 AM

    I have the whole first season on my Tivo and just haven't had a weekend to devote to it.  I love NO and I think part of me has procrastinated because I am afraid of being dissapointed.

    As a fan of Bourdain's writing, this intrigues me.  Maybe I can make time this weekend. 

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  2. Genevieve10:56 AM

    Bourdain?  Brilliance.  Will definitely watch this.
    I'm thinking I should rent the season but skip the "THIS IS A TRAGEDY!" parts.

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  3. Andrew12:02 PM

    It's a hard show to get into, but the music is terrific, the performances are great all around and once you get into it, it's emotionally involving. But on a macro level, the show is light on plot. Each of the characters has story, but there isn't an overarching narrative arc like The Wire that all comes together at the end. It could be a very weird pairing with Game of Thrones...

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  4. isaac_spaceman12:17 PM

    That was what made me quit.  Each of the seasons had one or two unifying threads, be they the act of building a case or the Hamsterdam experiment or the effort to create a drug-selling cartel.  When that kind of direction didn't coalesce in the first four or five episodes of Treme, I lost interest. 

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  5. KR4:37 PM

    Bourdain did a show in NOLA and Emeril got to him or something.  Bourdain is pro-NOLA now, so it could be pretty interesting.

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  6. Bob in SA8:20 PM

    I enjoyed Treme immensely. While you may have been "beat over the head" all the time, I think that is partly due to the fact that the people there got beat over the head constantly; even when things seem to get better, out of the blue there would be something to beat you over the head AGAIN. And, the music is AMAZING because it is so AUTHENTIC.

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