“There’s no place like New Orleans.” – Jazz musician
Now that we’ve been introduced to a large and eclectic cast of characters and absorbed a touch of the exotic and vibrant culture of New Orleans, resilient and feisty as ever post-Katrina, this episode is letting us know that the storm cut deep, even though the people who have survived and stayed are fighting gamely to ignore or overcome its effects. Davis McAlery (Steve Zahn) moans about military police roaming the streets of his neighborhood, arresting him for simply drinking a few beers outside of his house with a friend (“I just want my city back,” he laments). Albert Lambreaux (Clarke Peters) studies the obituaries, looking for names he knows even as Mrs. Brooks (Venida Evans) refuses to go to Baton Rouge to see her grandkids, waiting for lost son David to come home.
And then there’s the part where, even three months on, bodies are still being turned up in flood ravaged neighborhoods. Albert and a son of an old friend of his who has returned from Arizona find the friend’s body under a boat in his shed. It’s a shocking reminder that an American city was hit by this colossal natural disaster only a few short years ago, and underlies the episode title: New Orleans may be one of the more special places on the planet, but there are times when it can be the very wrong time, indeed.
On the same topic, there’s a sweet and melancholy scene that turns semi-tragic when Antoine Batiste, drunkenly down and out, stumbles across musicians Annie (Lucia Micarelli) and Sonny (Michael Huisman) playing their respective fiddle and keyboards on the street. Antoine joins in, not on his “bone,” but singing a lovely tale of longing and regret. After which he literally stumbles into a cop car and gets the bloody piss beat out of him and hauled off to jail for essentially no reason. Davis would no doubt relate. Antoine has been a character that has “cut across” a few of the multiple storylines we’ve been introduced to, so will be interesting where we and the rest of the cast of players heads.
Brightening up the darker mood this week is Steve Zahn/Davis, who absolutely cracks things up when his weed session is interrupted by a new muse, which takes the form of a large breasted woman walking down the street with a little dog. Singing excitedly and playing blues guitar to his friend, he culminates with:
I got strippers movin’ in our neighborhood <br /> You can call it gentrification<br /> I’m gonna call it good
Treme is proving to be a rich and heady stew that is surprisingly effective at avoiding becoming overly dense or complex. In only three weeks we’ve also seen a variety of tones and moods on display. It’s the stuff of great drama, and it’s only just begun.
More thoughts on “Right Place, Wrong Time”:
* Even three episodes in, it’s a running gag that Antoine Batiste (Wendell Pierce) gets carted all over town in a taxi for music gigs and… other things. Opening the episode this week, we find a taxi waiting for Antoine outside of a FEMA trailer, within which Antoine is having, let us say, a liaison.
* “How’d you get a FEMA trailer so quick?” – Antoine Batiste
* “What part of Louisiana are you from? We invented the go cup. Well shit, we invented the drive through daiquiri shop!” – Davis McAlery, explaining his arrest / “violation of civil rights”
* “Davis, you do not ‘motherf—‘ the national guard.” – Toni Bernette (Melissa Leo)
* “There’s no place like New Orleans.” – Jazz musician <strong></strong>
* Love love love that Davis continues to leave his house with music full blaring to the full consternation of his fussy neighbors. <strong></strong>
* Davis finally clues us into where we are: “This is the Treme, dude,” he says, right after explaining in excruciating why he doesn’t care about the fact that the neighbors are gay. “The most musically important black neighborhood in America.”
* Annie and Sonny exulting over his surprising her with a bottle of wine for her birthday underlies how close to the poverty line these two street musicians are living.
* “Did you change the sheets, at least?” – Janette (Kim Dickens) to Davis
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.