The HBO show that is 'Treme' and Steve Zahns lips

I'm late to the party as usual, but this week I have been watching Treme which wound up in the US on June 20th.

I have enjoyed it so far, but it's not The Wire. There's plenty of great things about the show. Simon and Overmyer have created some memorable characters, but their involvement with and understanding of these characters seems less well formed - and New Orleans often feels like the back drop to a long music video made by some out of towners who got the 'off-grid' tour of the city and wanted to pay homage to it.

The characters are as you'd expect interesting, varied and apparently draw on 'real life' people that the writers met before and during shooting the programme. However one or two have annoyed me, particularly the character of Davis played by Steve Zahn . Davis really shouldn't annoy me the character should work as an excellent foil for the serious shee-it that's going on in New Orleans post-hurricane Katrina, but Davis fails where Ziggy from The Wire succeeded and this is in equal parts down to the acting and the script. Steve Zahn has huge scope to develop his character into something beyond the gurning clown he portrays - he presumably had plenty of solid material to prepare with since the Davis character is based on the irritating and feckless talent that is WWOZ DJ Davis Rogan - (check out his Myspace page - Zahn definitely gets the weak arsed vocals spot on). Despite this and getting some of the best dialogue in the show Davis still grates on me - I want to love him the way I loved Ziggy but I can't, the script lets him down with moments like the smug 'revelation' that follows when he wakes up on the couch of his Gay neighbours or the ham handed scene where we see him and his mates record his election anthem like a scene out of Fame. There's that and the fact that Zahn has one of the most annoying mouths in show business something he shares with his evil doppelgänger Robin Williams, whose lips reportedly became so thin that they were absorbed back into his body. Who knows though - since the next season of Treme has been commissioned, Davis may become less prominent or be developed in the same way that some characters in the Wire were.

Anyway despite Zahn's lips there's a lot to like about Treme. The music is great. Wendell Pierce's Antoine Batiste is fully formed and for a man who apparently never played the trombone he really looks like he can play. This attention to musical detail occurs throughout the show thus avoiding one of the most shameful aspects of TV or Film where actors display a complete lack of musical talent whilst attempting to portray musical talent (see Jimmy Nail and Co. in 'Still Crazy'). The use of cameo appearances from famous ,usicians such as Dr John and McCoy Tyner was worrying at first but in the main I think it works - although I could have done without seeing Elvis Costello mugging alongside the constant gurn of Zahn. The stories weave well within each other and are interesting and often taut - even the hackneyed storyline of the deadbeat Dutchman and his talented girlfriend has had me talking to the screen at times.

So two episodes left to go and maybe I will still learn to love Davis the way I know some people do, but it's doubtful - what's more likely is that I'll continue to see Robin Williams mugging for a laugh but not really knowing why. It's worth it though, Treme like it's antecedents, still tells a powerful story, it is well played and has the potential to evolve into something sharper and complex thereby helping to fill that gaping hole that The Wire left.