Dark Brown Waffles

Before we get going, this. I suppose caring about sports is a silly thing to do. It provides though, occasionally, moments where most people can sit back and go, “That felt right.” It was true tonight when messages starting rolling into my phone from friends celebrating the fact that the Miami Heat didn’t win. Every social media I checked tonight echoed the same feeling: happiness, relief, celebration, whatever. It was a brief respite from the suck. The last time I felt that way about a sporting event was when the Saints won the Super Bowl.

The Good

-The bumper for tonight’s episode described Sofia as falling in with a bad crowd. It sounded liked something from a 1950s scare film. It also hinted at what commenters at Back of Town have mentioned in hushed tones: the possibility that Sofia becomes on of the victims of bad heroin that killed teenagers in the city in the second year after Katrina. I suppose it might still happen. Still, I sat down bracing for the worst possible outcome for Sofia and it didn’t come to pass. Whew. What did come to pass was Sofia’s arrest, which seemed reasonable enough, and the fact that she’ll likely get away with what she did because of who her mother is, which seems realistic enough. Maybe not right, but realistic. If she was a black kid in the city without a connected mother?

One of the themes left relatively unexplored this season - after appearing frequently last year - was one in which the experiences of white characters just don’t seem to be as bad outwardly as the experiences of black characters. Creighton bemoaned losing his favorite dining establishments; LaDonna’s brother disappeared, then died unheard from under unusual circumstances. Davis felt like his city was losing its culture; Albert lost his home, most of his friends, and his life. Etc. We’ve largely moved beyond that in the show, even if that reality still holds. 

Seeing Toni break down in her own angry way when challenged by Sofia to explain her father’s suicide was, dare I sound like a hack, revealing. Toni’s upset, yes, but angry. Understandably so. There was a long kerfluffle amongst the show’s fans about Creighton’s suicide. “It was reasonable given the situation!” shouted some. “Creighton’s a goddamned asshole!” I shouted back. The truth is probably both although I’m still firmly in the Creighton’s an asshole camp, especially given the damage he left behind. Sofia’s realization tonight that Creighton’s loss hurt and confused and angered her mother was a great moment in the show. Perhaps she’d previously believed that her mother was trying to protect her from the pain of her father’s death, but she seemed to realize in that parking lot, if only briefly, that maybe her mom was struggling, that maybe her life hadn’t been the only one affected by Creighton’s suicide. I’m not going to say Sofia forgave her mom in that moment, but I feel relatively certain that I saw Sofia realize, “Oh shit, this is far more complicated than I believed it was when I asked my question two minutes ago.” That’s good writing.

-Also good: Toni’s hiring of Anthony King, the private investigator looking into the Abreau murder. Am I right to think that King was the first person in two seasons to put Albert in his place? Albert’s attempt to silence King with, “Do you know what it was like here?” was trumped easily by King’s mention of his family enduring the storm while he was serving in Iraq. Not sure we’ve seen Albert so stumped before. 

-And then, it happens again a few minutes later, as Delmond, stymied by his father’s apparent refusal to perform Indian chants for his new record, threatens to go to other chiefs for their chants instead. Albert is stumped, then relents, pleading that he wants to know it will be done right, as if Delmond wouldn’t do it right. It’s always fun to learn about characters, to see them develop or regress or, perhaps more accurately, both. 

-LaDonna has every reason to be furious at the New Orleans criminal justice system, as they’ve so far: not come to her aid when she called before the attack, repeatedly demanded her testimony after the attack, barely stayed in touch during the investigation, and then blew her cover on the sexual assault to Larry. That said, Larry’s helpless, “I don’t how many times I told you to sell that bar…” line, muttered as if it mattered, was heart-breaking. The entire situation is bad. Meanwhile, based upon the preview for next week’s episode, LaDonna now finds herself at precisely the place she was last season: one in which she pursues justice and the truth, or one in which she lets it go. She shot down Toni’s request to pursue her brother’s mysterious death. She can’t possibly refuse to testify though, can she? (Meanwhile, if LaDonna taking the stand gives me shudders to think about. It screams of David Simon fans having yet another one of his character’s performances to go unrewarded by mainstream Hollywood.)

-Let’s just say that I liked Sonny’s part this week, and since he go on that boat, I’ve liked Sonny. Okay? Okay. Let’s move on. I’m not ready to fully deal with ramifications of my most-hated characters being seemingly redeemed. I’ve got faith that he can screw it up via some spectacularly stupid behavior though.

-Meanwhile, Davis was busy being Davis: his band’s performance was great (although his singing/rapping was a weakspot), his proposed generosity with Jacque was touching (although Jacque’s request not to be named seemed more than reasonable), and the fact that he apparently sneaks around waiting for Annie to sing her (terrible) song makes him impossible to hate. Also, he works out a lot for a stoner who barely seems motivated to do much. Dude has guns. That becomes all the more apparent when he’s dressed the way he was in several scenes tonight. His highlight? His appearance as George W. Bush, in which he shambles out on stage while somebody anonymous screams, “Asshole!” Killed me.

-Finally: Antoine Baptiste, in a show busy with all sorts of action, stole it with his soliloquy about failing his sons. Neither plays his music. He’s taken aback by this, laying in bed with Desiree after she gets their baby to bed. (“I remember my father giving me a spoonful of whiskey and honey.” he says. She replies, “That explains a lot.”) He indicates more than a passing interest in keeping his job at the school, in helping those kids become a real band, in bettering his world around him. (It was on display when he speaks with one of this students, making him play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” on the spot, then asking why he has a knot on his forehead. “My brother hit me with a coconut.” Antoine says, “Duck next time.”) Laying there though, he laments his sons not playing. He says he failed them. It’s not a dark moment but there’s real fear and regret in what he says. There’s genuine concern that he hasn’t been the father he should have been. It’s not like anybody watching the show can easily go to bat for the man: he’s philandered, he’s tried to sneak out on his sons (as recently as last week before Desireee told him it was parenting time), he barely sees them. 

One of the promised storylines this year was one in which Antoine’s forced to choose between the music he plays and the job he can get. We’re seeing it play out, and for the first time, we might have seen real evidence hinting that he makes the unexpected selection. He’s already out on managing the Soul Apostles, which seemed innocuous at the time, but now?

The Bad

-Next week on Treme, Anthony Bourdain’s friends do other remarkably generous things, including buying Janette a new home in New Orleans, fronting Janette enough money to marry Jacque, and paying both of them six figures to open their own restaurant in the city. Because honestly, what else can Bourdain’s friends do? They’re simply to good, to humane, to perfect not to do those things. Ugh. 

-I don’t like guitar based, singer-songwriter laments. And I won’t. So the Annie and Harley storyline is going nowhere for me. Fast. I’m glad I suppose that Annie finally sang her song, I guess, if only because we’ll have to stop hearing her say, “Oh, I don’t knooooow if I’m ready yet.” 

The Ugly

-As far as I’m concerned, it was a very solid week. But I saw some other writers hinting that it wasn’t. I don’t read anybody before I write these, for fear that I’ll be talked out of what I saw. I’m happy to have my mind changed but not before I get it down on paper. I’m interested to see what people were unhappy about.