According to this flier, the HBO series Treme will be “the heartwarming story of the residents of New Orleans Ninth Ward attempting to rebuild their lives after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.” Some might question — some have questioned — the idea of a “heartwarming” fiction connected to post-Katrina life. (Others might at least be interested to learn that this flier was posted in connection with the filming of scenes for the show in, um, Greenpoint, Brooklyn.)
But whatever. I’m still dying to see the show. The Gambit’s blog has posted an official statement/synopsis of its premise here. The item also notes that someone has already started a blog about the show, which I haven’t explored much yet, but will be reading in the days ahead, called Back of Town.
Also there are a couple of trailers for the show, here. I have to admit when I watched the second, more recent one, my reaction was not so good. It looked a bit didactic, and more than little cliched. But it’s just a trailer. And it was fun to see Kermit Ruffins and Allen Toussaint in it. So, I’m still hoping for the best, but as E reminds me, sometimes it’s best not to set expectations too high for this sort of thing.
The flier is wrong.
Greenpoint is playing for Greenpoint. All the New Orleans scenes are shot on location in New Orleans. One character lives part of the year in NY and part of the year in NOLA. Get it?
It’s amazing how fast b.s. travels on the internet without anyone checking anything.
I’d heard the same thing as Not Really & was really disappointed that Gambit ran a blog post that had little more than the objection to the adjective “heartwarming” and anxiety about what might happen if Greenpoint was in fact subbing for New Orleans. Considering the amount of shooting they’ve done here, it seems like someone over there would wonder what was up with the Greenpoint shooting instead of assume it was being used to double for New Orleans. Or, maybe they’d ask.
Yeah, I guess apologies all around for linking to this.
To be honest I was drawn to more in my former-NY sense than in my former-NO sense, and that’s kind of how I read the underlying post (the one Gambit linked to, not theirs) — the point seemed more like the surprise that Greenpoint would be a stand-in for post-K lower ninth ward New Orleans was surprise that had more to do with Greenpoint than with running the authenticity-meter on Team Treme. (I have a funny feeling that “not really” is on Team Treme, but that’s pure speculation.) That’s certainly where I was coming from on this — a comment about Greenpoint. (So if they’d been shooting in Quebec City or some other place I’ve never been and have no opinion about, I wouldn’t have noticed the item.)
And my REAL point, the part that’s not in parentheses, was my agreement with the bemusement that this might be a “heartwarming” show. On that front I remain bemused. But as this extremely pro-Treme post makes clear, I look forward to seeing the show.
That is, to the extent there can be “REAL” point to a squib like this.
“Heartwarming” may be a less than felicitous phrase, but I do hope the show captures the joy of that first year after Katrina.
There was constant tragedy. I remember one day thinking how tired I was of hearing about death. But as we sat down here often feeling abandoned by the rest of country, the community never felt closer. And it seemed that we might be able to rebuild a better New Orleans.
It was an extraordinarily strange period. It soon gave way to the realization that we were facing a slow, disappointing slog. For those who weren’t here that first year (and the author that Gambit post is in that number), it may be hard to understand that strange mix of emotions most of us went through in New Orleans.
I hope “heartwarming” means that they will try to capture the joy as well as the tragedy. I don’t have a lot of hope that television can pull that off, but I hasn’t seen the Wire. Maybe Simon is the man to do it.