MTV Newsroom › HBO

By Ben Collins

David Simon has become famous for creating the type of television that make viewers want to breath inside his detail-heavy landscapes — even if those settings (like his gritty but all-to-real Baltimore streets in "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "The Wire") tend to get bloody and gruesome pretty frequently.

Simon's new show "Treme" (named after the New Orleans neighborhood where most of the action takes place) debuted on HBO with an 80-minute premiere on Sunday night (April 11), and its dedication to those inviting hues is no different. It's about a post-Katrina New Orleans (a title card at the top of the show reads "Three Months After"), and there are full five minute blocks of footage that show characters wading through wrecked houses and their own belongings, now unrecognizable by all the flood damage. But the there's something about it all that makes you want to be there regardless, and a lot of it has to do with Simon's commitment to music.

Every character on "Treme" has some tie to the music culture that runs even deeper than flood waters. Some are directly involved: Davis (Steve Zahn) is a DJ for a locals-approved independent radio station, Antoine (Wendell Pierce) hops from jazz funeral to jazz funeral as a second line trombonist who brings in only enough money to make it to his next gig and iconic trumpet player Kermit Ruffins appears as himself. Those who aren't wielding a brass instrument — like John Goodman's activist character Creighton — are throwing journalists' microphones into rivers in defense of the culture.

Simply put: Music runs the show. That's why we’re breaking down the songs that appear in the show to try to delve even deeper into Simon's already-rich characters.

"It's All Over Now" by Bobby and Shirley Womack
Just seconds into the premiere, following only a brief conversation about the minutiae of having two funerals in one day, a second line emerges out of a crowded room to play "It's All Over Now" (a song made most famous by the Rolling Stones on their 1964 album 12 X 5 but covered by dozens of artists).

Yep, it happens this quickly. The first thing we see is the aftermath of death, and the second thing we see is the resiliency of community. Before we know it, the entire band is huddled, drinking beer in Antoine's ex-wife's bar. "I used to love her/ But it's all over now," they holler, and hold street signs to bang on with drum sticks as percussion instruments. It's just that curt.

There's then a cut away to Janette (Kim Dickens), a restaurant owner somewhere across town, away from the parade. She's told by a line cook a waitress won't be able to come in.

Cook: "Fender bender on Canal. Says she was distracted."
Janette: "We're all distracted."
Cook: "How's your house?"
Janette: "Don't ask me about my house."

Again, it's just that curt. As the rest of the episode unfolds, that scene is replayed over and over again by multiple characters. There's a certain bond between Katrina survivors that brings them together, but the weight of the disaster (and their own personal problems) continues to threaten to tear them apart.

"Treme Song" by John Boutté
The theme song for "Treme" will go down in history as one of the all-time greats, and the credit sequence is instantly memorable (not unlike the similarly-great intros to other HBO shows like "The Sopranos" and "True Blood"). Read More...

Tags HBO, Mystikal, Rebirth Brass Band, Treme