Here on Frenchmen Street, it’s tough to avoid the production of HBO’s Treme. Two days ago, I ran into John Goodman, who was waiting for someone, and there’s a dinner table set for shooting later today right outside my window. As such, the show’s on my mind, and seeing Goodman reminded me of one of the questions I had while watching the pilot.
In his first scene in the show, Goodman’s being interviewed by a confrontational British documentarian and it doesn’t end well. I wondered at the time if his over-the-top response was the nature of the character or a manifestation of the madness of late 2005, and if the latter, would people outside of New Orleans get it. One of my dominant memories of New Orleans after the storm was how crazy everybody was. All emotions were heightened, which made many nights out exhilarating and exhausting (and drunken). In January, I’d ride my bike to the OffBeat offices through traffic-less parts of Uptown and the CBD, including Magazine Street, and catch myself tearing up at finding parts of the city center empty. There came a point when my wife and I realized we couldn’t trust our emotions and when we went to bleak places, we had to agree not to make life-affecting decisions.
I didn’t ask Goodman about this, but I’m not sure he could answer the question I had. During my interview with Wendell Pierce for my story on Treme in the current issue, I asked him a question I had about his character (I’m writing delicately so as not to give away too much before the show debuts). Pierce said the question was one he was wrestling with because he didn’t know the answer. The actors don’t see one script until the one before it has been shot, he said. They don’t know what’s going to happen to their characters, so they have to react to new revelations just as people do in real life.
The early anxieties about Treme – the ones that don’t have to do with the production inconveniencing people’s neighborhoods – are all tied to how we perceive and experienced that period. Gambit and Rob Walker at N.O. Notes both expressed concerns about the word “heartwarming” being used to describe the show, and on the surface, that’s a fair concern. But only the 2006 reopening of the dome for the Saints-Falcons game, the NFC championship game and the Super Bowl were more deliriously joyous nights than the New Year’s Eve bonfire in Mid-City in 2006 and the night Susan Cowsill covered Wings’ Band on the Run at Carrollton Station. And now that I think about it, there was something upliftingly cathartic about watching Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke in the arena, particularly when someone in the upper level shouted “Bullshit” when President Bush was on the screen, and part two turned into Mystery Science Theater 3000 as the crowd joined together to vent its rage and frustrations swearing at politicians on the screen. If the word for the collective glad-to-be-alive/glad-to-be-with-friends spirit of those nights isn’t “heartwarming,” then the word’s close enough for me.
Obviously, though, not everybody had those moments. Or, the painful, frustrating times made those occasions hard to remember. It will be interesting to see if it’s possible for Treme – or any show, book or movie – to address the breadth of experiences, priorities and dominant memories of that time. I think the show’s pilot is a promising start.
