Treme Review

Treme opens three months after the flood and simply lives in the city. Wendell Pierce's trombonist Antoine Batiste hustles for gigs and cab fare; Clarke Peters's Albert Lambreaux, a Mardi Gras Indian Big Chief, comes home to a ruined house and sets about gathering his scattered tribe; Khandi Alexander's LaDonna searches for a brother lost in the storm; Kim Dickens's chef fights to keep her restaurant; and John Goodman's professor rants online, furious and funny, in a first season that is the show's best.

The music is the point, long unhurried performances by New Orleans players, set against a city's argument about whether its culture can survive its politics. Simon and Overmyer, with George Pelecanos among the writers, have a sharp ear for how people there talk, and Agnieszka Holland's Emmy-nominated pilot sets the tone of grief and stubborn celebration.

The indifference to plot is also the problem. Storylines drift for whole seasons, Steve Zahn's DJ Davis McAlary grates more than the writers seem to realise, and the fourth and final season was cut short. The 2011 Peabody was deserved, and so is the complaint that Treme is easier to admire than to watch.