Review - Treme Season 1 Episode 2 Meet De Boys on the Battlefront

I'm not sure if I said this in a post or a comment or it was just a thought in my head, so this may seem redundant. Despite the obvious lack of a central narrative, people seem to be in love with the show because it is David Simon running things. After The Wire and Generation Kill, it's hard not to think that way. It seems like the Davids--David Simon, David Milch, and David Chase--have a mystical aura about them for their creative genius. However, we must take a step back and wait to see how the plot lines turn out and if anything really comes together. Having multiple separated stories later on in the series won't work well if there isn't a degree of interconnectedness and narrative push. Setting, authenticity, and characters alone cannot carry a show for several seasons.
 
There is a starling moment near the end of the episode where Albert finds the thief who stole his tools. A day of pent up anger is released as Albert beats him savagely to a pulp. He washes his hands off and the next day, goes back to playing music. It's scary how he can do this and there's plenty of directions his character can go.

Toni and LaDonna find Daymo, but after visiting him in prison, he's actually Slim Charles (actually another Daymo). I guess they'll have to wait longer if they ever find Daymo.

Davis is an enigmatic character that gets on my nerves, but serves a crucial role in the show. He's ready to burst at the tourists and pull an Albert, but pulls himself back, deciding to be helpful and send them to the real New Orleans, not the tourist New Orleans of Bourbon Street. There is a degree of animosity in the city towards the touristy attitude, shown by Davis and Sonny. Grudgingly, they both deal with it in different ways. Davis shows the tourists what they should be seeing while Sonny caves and plays “When The Saints Go Marching In,” the generic song all tourists request.

There is a bit of family drama between LaDonna and Batiste shaping up, though I'm not invested in them right now.

Does anyone see Creighton as a little hypocritical? In the pilot, he's leaving in a perfectly intact house, at the same time complaining about the U.S. government and the bad state New Orleans is in. Further, he does some wasting of his own, throwing the reporters microphone into the river. In "Meet De Boys on the Battlefront," he's all complaining about how the engineering programs are cut and the cultural studies stayed. His own English department, however, is fine. Through all of this, he's been in a much better place than everyone else, and yet he sermonizes about all the problems. Does this make him any different than the tourists who've never heard of the 9th Ward before Katrina?

Score: 9.0/10