Kim Dickens may be an unrecognizable name, but she is certainly a recognizable face. In the past several years, Dickens has had prominent roles in some of the most acclaimed television shows of all time, Sons of Anarchy, Treme, House of Cards, Lost, and Friday Night Lights just to name a few. In each of …
Treme finished its four season run this week with “… To Miss New Orleans”, an appropriately reflective and celebratory hour. Unlike last year’s potential series finale, “Tipitina”, this episode focuses on each character’s journey not to a specific place, but forward in their life. Surprisingly, and happily, this episode leaves each character in a good place. Not everyone winds up in New Orleans, but they’ve all made positive motion in their lives and are surrounded by people who understand and support them. Davis has a responsible job he’s good at, but still finds time to still write a new Godzilla vs. MLK single. Antoine may still be fooling around on Mardi Gras, but he’s involved in his sons lives for the first time in the entire series. Terry and Annie leave town, but Terry gets to be with his children and Annie continues to blossom as an artist. Everyone gets a win in some way or another this week and this fond, perhaps overly sunny farewell is more than most viewers will have hoped for.
The reflective tone of last week’s episode is crystallized in “Sunset on Louisianne”, as characters ponder their legacies and impact while Big Chief Lambreaux quietly passes. Viewers expecting a dramatic, emotional goodbye for Albert may be disappointed, but they shouldn’t be surprised. Treme, like The Wire before it, prizes honesty over melodrama and an expected, comparatively peaceful death while sleeping is much more in keeping with this than the tearful goodbyes, waterworks, and last minute revelations of so many other cancer-related deaths on television. Over the past few episodes, Albert has grown increasingly tired and has started to fade.
Season four continues along its bittersweet track this week, with everyone holding on for dear life as they say goodbye to 2008 and hello to 2009. Albert’s health is deteriorating, Janette continues to struggle with her new restaurant, and Terry feels the consequences of his season three evidence swap. Antoine reconnects with Jennifer, who’s drifted away from band after the death of Cherise, but he also gets a startling reminder of a certain portion of the population’s thoughts on race and history. At the moment, Treme looks like it’ll be going out not with the triumphant coming together of the season three finale, but a more sober statement on endurance. It may not be as much of an audience-pleaser, but it’s a fitting and honest choice.
Treme is a bit of an odd one this week, with “This City” delivering affecting, heart-breaking news to several of its characters while simultaneously featuring quite a bit of what a non-fan might call filler. That’s a bit too hard of a knock for this reviewer, so let’s just call the episode problematically-paced. We open with Albert, who finds out his cancer is back after he’s been in remission for all of one episode. It’s a strange narrative choice. Why the quick turnaround? In “Tipitina”, the fantastic season three finale, he’s sick and starting chemo. In last week’s season four premiere, he’s in remission, and this week, he’s not only relapsed, he’s decided against continuing his treatment. The constraints of only having five episodes for the final season are clearly showing here and one can’t help wondering why the writers chose to pick up where they did with Albert. It’s a bit frustrating- Treme has always been a show to take its time and savor the details of the small moments that lead to the big ones rather than skipping ahead to the dramatic payoffs.
Treme returns this week in glorious fashion, kicking of its final mini-season with “Yes We Can Can”. With more shows being produced with each passing year and a current frustrating sameness to much of this fall’s programming, it’s wonderful to get to spend even a few more weeks in this unique world. From the characters to the music to the cinematography, this is a show that feels like no other and just hearing the theme song makes any fan of the show feel instantly at ease, welcomed back to the colorful, inspiring, and occasionally harsh world of Treme.
The third track on one of my favorite rock records of the last decade, Okkervil River’s The Stage Names, is called “A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene.” Without context, its lyric is a bit of a tough nut to crack. Will Sheff sings about events unfolding on a TV screen in the first verse, recaps …
Ep. 3.08, “Don’t You Leave Me Here” Written by Tom Piazza (Teleplay), Eric Overmyer (Story) Directed by Ernest Dickerson Ep. 3.09, “Poor Man’s Paradise” Written by George Pelecanos (Teleplay and Story), Jordan Hirsch (Story) Directed by Roxann Dawson Ep. 3.10, “Tipitina” Written by David Simon (Teleplay and Story), Eric Overmyer (Teleplay), and Anthony Bourdain (Story) …
10. (tie) The Thick of It Is there a better tonic for election-year hype than an Armando Iannucci series? The apparently-final series of the show that made Iannucci’s name, The Thick Of It, upped the ante on its pitch-black style, stripping nearly all of its characters of any remaining semblances of humanity and daring us …
When it came to devising a list of what I felt were the top ten Television shows of 2012 I contemplated sticking with the theme of “Hey You Geeks!!” and centering the list solely on the best sci-fi and nerd related shows on TV. I generally group “Geek TV” into a segment of shows exclusively …
Treme, Season 3, Episode 7: “Promised Land” Written by David Simon, Chris Rose & Micah Kibodeaux Directed by Tim Robbins Airs Sundays at 10pm (ET) on HBO This week, on Treme: Chief Lambreaux takes his walk, Antoine’s band jams with the Marines, and Sofia misses her dad Treme always knocks it out of the park …
Treme, Season 3, Episode 6: “Careless Love” Written by George Pelecanos (Story) and Chris Offutt (Story, Teleplay) Directed by Anthony Hemingway Airs Sundays at 10pm (ET) on HBO This week, on Treme: Sonny screws up, Antoine fights the system, and Big Chief holds off on chemo The common complaint with Treme is that, with so …
Treme, Season 3, Episode 5: “I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say” Written by Eric Overmyer (Story), Lolis Eric Elie and Jen Ralson (Teleplay) Directed by Alex Hall Airs Sundays at 10pm (ET) on HBO This week, on Treme: Amy’s family comes to visit, Sofia can’t catch a break, and Terry does a hell of …
Treme, Season 3, Episode 4: “The Greatest Love” Written by David Simon (Story), Mari Kornhauser and Chris Yakaitis (Teleplay) Directed by Ernest Dickerson Airs Sundays at 10pm (ET) on HBO This week, on Treme: LP feels the heat, romance is in the air (or it isn’t), and LaDonna’s is the place to be on Sundays …
Treme, Season 3, Episode 3: “Me Donkey Want Water” Written by George Pelecanos Directed by Adam Davidson Airs Sundays at 10pm (ET) on HBO This week, on Treme: Janette and Annie get deals, Big Chief Lambreaux gets a diagnosis, and Toni gets serious In Treme terms, “Me Donkey Want Water” features an explosion of action. …
Treme, Season 3, Episode 1: “Knock with Me – Rock with Me” Written by David Simon and Anthony Bourdain (Story) Directed by Anthony Hemingway Treme, Season 3, Episode 2: “Saints” Written by Eric Overmyer Directed by Jim McKay Airs Sundays at 10pm (ET) on HBO Treme is a show unlike any other on TV at …
After Glee‘s tremendous success, many may have predicted a wave of musical TV series entering production as various networks tried to capitalize on Fox’s good fortune. None came. This week, Smash premiered on NBC to strong ratings, bringing the tally of network musicals up to two. Given the tremendous potential for gain, both in terms …
If a single recent event can help to sum up what’s happened to television in 2010, at least on a symbolic level, it’s this one: Charles Eglee, one of the writer-producers who had worked on AMC’s wildly popular The Walking Dead before either leaving or getting sacked by showrunner Frank Darabont (depending on who you …