reifying

The show appears to be promising us the thrill of suspense, but its glacier like pace is making me antsy. Joel Kinnman's character Holder is by far my favorite; he brings a great level of tension to most of the scenes he's in. It will be fun to see when Mireille Enos' Sarah Linden either cold **** him or they jump each others bones. Brent Sexton and Michelle Forbes portray a couple whose long relationship feels like it still has a few embers and flames left in it, but there's also a sense that this is not the first time they've faced tragedy or hardship. Not sure if the Danish version included the political campaign element, but it seems like the weakest part of the plot -- I keep thinking the whole campaign and its staffers will turn out to be a bunch of McGuffin-ish foolishness.

What I -- and most other folks -- loved about David Simon's "The Wire" was the writing, the stories. Everything flowed from that. "Treme" is "The Wire" without the writing. Where is the tension? When is the show going to break out of this slow (but beautifully filmed, beautifully acted, beautifully scored) journey? Unless there is going to be a shift in its direction I can't imagine there will be another season. Case in point: John Goodman's Creighton Bernette drifted through season one without developing into a character we wanted to care about, and it wasn't John Goodman's fault. Yes, we got the whole "I'm pissed what's happened to my city" schtick, but that was the extent of his character? Really? Bernette, and many of the other characters, come across as permanently one dimensional -- more similar to characters in "Law and Order" than "Breaking Bad", the current gold standard for shows with great stories. With such as awesome cast (thank G-d Khandi Alexander's back on the TV) and a potential as wide and long as the MIssissippi, "Treme" could be much better, much much better.