Tremendous?

I finally watched the pilot for Treme, the new David Simon series. He created The Wire, a gritty series about drug dealers, cops and eventually everything else in Baltimore. Treme follows a large group of characters in New Orleans three months after Katrina.

I liked the show, but watching a city being rebuilt isn't quite as compelling as cops and robbers stuff. I guess the show will depend on how much the characters grow. The cast is pretty good, using some regulars from The Wire as well as a lot of other well-known TV faces.

There was quite a lot of jazz in the pilot. They did one of my favorite Louis Armstrong numbers, "Skokiaan." (It was performed by Kermit Ruffins, who's also associated with the song.) I love jazz, but I don't know how much I'll like it if it's regularly used to stop the action.



(Here's a comment on YouTube that sums it up pretty well: great song, luis Armastrong Was and will be forever a great and better musician in century xx.)

PS Treme has been picked up for a second season. Not a big surprise, since it's a prestige item. (So it won't be exTreme for a while).

Also, Curb Your Enthusiasm is getting an eighth season. I suppose this Emmy-nominated show will run as long as Larry David is willing to put it out.

More surprising, the little-watched and not highly-regarded half-hour series How To Make It In America has been renewed. The press releases are describing it as a comedy, but I'm not sure if that's accurate.