Dark Brown Waffles

The Good

-I feel like a lot of what I’m about to write is going to end up in The Ugly, which is the section where I put things that I want to think about, not that I necessarily know where I stand on. 

-Why? Because nobody had a great episode. Everybody was up to something questionable, morally, professionally, ethically, personally. Life isn’t black and white. Sometimes television is, even television like Treme, but it wasn’t tonight. 

-That said, I liked very much when Antoine’s teaching partner told him that the job wasn’t just about finding the talented ones. His rebuke - “It’s about more than music, Antoine.” - captured a moment of the job, one that’s difficult for the new or the outsider to understand. I say this not as a former music teacher but as someone who has learned the hardway that progress matters (and should be pursued) in whatever form it takes.

-I liked the man’s flat out refusal to sell his home to Nelson. “When I leave here, it’ll be feet first.”

-I liked Larry yelling at LaDonna, even if I didn’t agree with LaDonna. There was something possessive and controlling about what he was saying, but at the same time, his words appeared to shake his wife. It was almost as if he was telling her to be herself, because sitting on the couch drinking wasn’t her. That he was willing to abide her return to the bar spoke volumes. It’s almost impossible to believe that he’d do so. In summation, I disagreed, but I liked it, if that makes sense. 

-I liked the moment between LaDonna and her employee. “Miss La D, ready to open?” She looks at the bar and says, “Gotta go. Sorry.” The scene was shot from far away, and it became easy to realize, for at least a brief moment, that Miss La D wasn’t leaving much. 

-I liked Delmond’s righteous frustration with his father. Albert was being an asshole. No sense mincing words about it. His behavior was outrageously rude toward his son, toward the documentarian, toward the assembled musicians including Ron Carter. Albert was acting like a primadonna, so Delmond’s irritation with him (“Ain’t been there yet, ain’t worth the trip, right?”) was entirely justified. 

-I liked the city councilman’s stinging rebuke of Sofia, reminding her that the issue wasn’t whatever was going on in her father’s head, but her response to it. Point blank asking whether she was the kind of person who wanted to add pain to Toni’s suffering might have been cruel, but so to was it necessary. Sofia, frankly, was acting like Albert and it needed pointing out. 

-In fact…this episode just came together for me. We’re going to skip ahead to The Ugly, then double back to The Bad (because there was bad this week). 

The Ugly

-In retrospect, this episode comes off almost entirely as a rail against New Orleans. The title asks “What Is New Orleans?” and the overwhelming response from the show’s characters tonight was, “A bunch of spoiled brats.” Which seems impossible given the tragedies that have occurred there. But we have various characters acting horribly: 

-Albert’s aforementioned temper-tantrums. 

-Sofia’s flippant behavior in front of both her lawyer and the city-councilman. 

-Davis’s outrageous treatment of L’il Calliope - first stealing his limelight during the radio interview, then his frustration at his band’s song getting significant radio airplay in New Orleans, then his almost certain meltdown after being forced away from front-and-center in his band - was Davis at his worst. This is worth noting after the last few weeks have featured the lovable version od Davis who occasionally emerges. 

-Antoine this season has been great. Antoine tonight? Dude was being an asshole like Albert. First he implies that teaching is all about finding the talented ones. Then he lectures at his band telling them that none of them are on a need to know basis and promising gigs that he almost certainly can’t deliver. Then, and most egregiously, he takes advantage of Kermit Ruffins kindness, stealing his audience after being invited onstage to sing for Kermit’s band. (Kermit returns the favor later in the show, and to great effect.)  

-And of course, in the most stark illustration, there is the murder of Harley, shot dead on the street after mouthing off during a robbery. Harley’s response to his robber, “You’re making a mistake son,” was everything he shouldn’t have said. It was a brutal moment. (It was also entirely telegraphed. HBO warned at the beginning of the show that violence was coming. I looked at the clock at 11:11 and wondered to myself, “Where was the violence?” Then I looked up and saw the shaky camera, the dark street, Annie and Harley by themselves, and knew. It was straight out of The Wire.) 

The Bad

-Speaking of Harley’s death, I view it as a significant problem that everyone in my living room collectively muttered, “It should have been Annie.” It’s one thing to endure a character. Nelson is unlikable but interesting. He isn’t the only character that fits that description. But Annie? She’s unlikeable and boring, all at once. I had hoped we would be relatively done with her for the rest of the season, now that she’d finally triumphed over all of the adversity allegedly facing her and sung her goddamned song. No such luck. She’s almost certain to be front and center during Harley’s funeral and during subsequent shows, no doubt in tribute to her fallen busking partner. The problem is that she isn’t compelling. She’s always been a cardboard cutout for whatever the producers needed, first as the Sonny’s abused girlfriend, then as Harley’s devoted student. I am reminded of Alan Arkin in Gross Pointe Blank, discussing the Energizer bunny, criticizing it, “It’s got no brain, it’s go not blood, it’s got no anima!” 

-Then there was everything Janette was involved in. Which was awful and frankly, to goddamned dense for the audience to fully comprehend. I know that Chang was pissed off that somebody complained about not getting vegetarian food. I don’t think that the French chef who sat down at his restaurant was the one upset, nor do I understand the importance of serving a soft-boiled egg with caviar and red liquid to him. It is entirely possible that I’m the jerk here for not getting any of that but nobody else in my living room understood it either. Meanwhile, Anthony Bourdain is still using this show to fluff the chefs he likes and respects and communicate his own disdain for others (vegetarians) via the show’s characters. I suppose these things matter if you’re a chef but it isn’t making for compelling television. Unless Janette makes it back to New Orleans soon - I seem to remember something about her sous chef (“Your sous chef is forever…” is something that Bourdain had one of his beloved chef friends actually say just a few weeks ago) being jailed in New Orleans - then Kim Dickens is going to end up going the same way as Annie. It’s entirely a waste of the character and serves no apparent purpose. At this point, she’s just a mechanism to garner positive attention on Bourdain’s idols. 

-Anybody know why HBO didn’t show a preview of next week’s episode?