Treme Has Much to Live Up to, Becomes Emmy Frontrunner While Doing So

David Simon in New Orleans on the set of his show “Treme.’’ (Cheryl Gerber/Associated Press). From this interview with the creators.

The LA Times’ Mary McNamara believes many viewers will have unrealistic expectations for HBO’s Treme, but the series more than lives up to it:

The welter of expectations and “highly anticipateds” surrounding the premiere of David Simon’s “Treme” all but demands a measure of critical blowback. Certainly there will be obligatory mewling about the new 10-episode HBO series being good but not as good as “The Wire,” which launched Simon into the elite cadre of television artistes. There may be some random chest-beating over white folks’ unfortunate tendency to get mushy in the head about black musicians and the South in general, and probably more than a few blog-ready over-analyses of the politics/wisdom/hubris/sentimentality of taking on post-Katrina New Orleans.

But it’s all sound and fury. With “Treme” (which refers to a New Orleans neighborhood and is pronounced treh-MAY), Simon, co-creator Eric Overmyer and their team of writers (including the late, great David Mills) have proved that television as an art form cannot only rival Dickens, it can hold its own against Wagner.

Full of the same complicated characters, crisscrossing story lines and well-informed immediacy that made “The Wire” one of the most astonishing shows on television, “Treme” flips the theme of urban decay and infuses it with music.

Huffpo’s Marshall Fine says the first episode may underwhelm, but hang in there – it gets better:

Come back for the second episode — and the third. And the rest. Because Treme, which debuts Sunday night on HBO, is slow in the build but big in the pay-off.

Like a well-cooked meal, it reveals its pleasures gradually — not all in the first bite. This isn’t a hot dog — it’s a gumbo, with layers of flavor to surprise, delight and move you.

And the Baltimore Sun’s television critic, David Zurawik, does a nice job comparing and contrasting The Wire and Treme.