Monsters of Television

“You objectify me then you deny me?”

Yeah, you right.

With a show about New Orleans, you might expect the number of scenes featuring topless women to be much higher, especially when it follows a show like Game of Thrones (which I think is only rivaled by Dream On in the gratuitous nudity department).

That’s not to say that I feel like there’s a certain quota that needs to be met or anything (though I’m pretty sure HBO execs have it on their checklists) or that the show needs nudity to stay interesting. It really doesn’t. I keep watching every week, boobs or no, and stay pretty entertained. It’s just that, as a person that’s never been to New Orleans, the town has a certain reputation. That reputation is invested in plastic beads and some drunk women making some decisions they may not normally make. Other stuff, too, like parades and tradition. But this is what late night tells me is most important.

The reason why I bring this up is because we’ve gotten to another season’s episode dedicated to Mardi Gras and, of course, nudity is far more common when Carnival shows up. But even though there are more scenes with nudity (three), two of them are just flashes or obfuscated by chaos and only one involves actual sex. Whereas other shows use nudity as a weapon against the audience’s distraction and to bring in a certain demographic every week, it’s almost like Treme doesn’t want to call attention to it. Even the episode itself, what you would imagine would be the most important episode dedicated to the most important day in New Orleans, isn’t as climactic as you’d think.

Sure, stuff happens and it’s important but, in a show that’s not really into cliffhanger storytelling, what should be a pinnacle episode is really just another building block. This is a story of the New Orleans that is more than Fat Tuesday and that we don’t end either of these seasons during Carnival contributes to that theme. In fact, that many of the major characters of the show are either disinterested in or not in attendance of the festivities is probably an important point.

You can divide the major characters into three categories: the physically absent, the emotionally absent, and those in attendance. While the physically absent characters have quasi-interesting plots in the episode (Janette tries to celebrate in New York, Annie goes to Cajun Carnival, Sonny dries out) the most tragic, even with such little screentime, is LaDonna. After fighting tooth and nail against her husband all last season to make sure she still has roots in New Orleans, she can’t make herself leave Baton Rouge to go down on its high holiday. If her fear of the night and leaving the bar in the hands of her workers wasn’t enough evidence that something is painfully wrong with her (not to mention hungover/drunken mornings), then this is your liminal moment. That she doesn’t want to be there is worth a note and you have to wonder if she is a new metaphor for the city itself: a battered and violated woman still quaking with fear in the shadow of her attack, distant from the celebration she used to love. While we see Mardi Gras is still pretty raucous, some of the heart of the party are sullen, depressed, still angry, even jittery. Think of Lt Colsen as he reacts to the kids packing heat to the parade. Things are still off-kilter.

More examples of how Mardi Gras is used as a character development tool lies with the people that are there but not present. Sofia and Albert comprise that group, both people that love Carnival very deeply but can’t seem to put their hearts into the celebration due to heartbreak and loss. Sofia’s love mirrored her father’s, a man she just learned killed himself (rather than what she believed to be an accidental drowning). While her mother tries her best to get Sofia into the spirit of the season, Creighton’s abandonment weighs too heavily on Sofia for her to enjoy it. While Toni uses the festival as a mourning event (tossing his ashes ceremoniously into the river), her daughter struggles with the painful reminder of what her father meant to her.

Albert is just as sullen, going through the motions of being a Chief but not really putting his heart into it. Actually, it’s weird that for an episode about Carnival, particularly the first one since he missed it last year while in jail, there is very little focus on Albert. He half-heartedly stomps down the street, not giving much of a show for the filmmaker documenting his stepping out. But we essentially go from that to Albert and “a new friend” in Delmond’s hotel room. Again, the spirit of Mardi Gras is used to demonstrate something fundamentally wrong with a character as Albert’s fervor last season has fizzled terribly after suffering a string of defeats.

Then, as far as the people in attendance, there isn’t much to say except that someone had to enjoy Mardi Gras. Antoine, who’d set up a string of ladies to bed throughout Carnival, ended up being able to enjoy it through the eyes of his children. Davis, who never really suffered any consequences for lying to Annie about why he couldn’t go with her to the far more quaint celebration (which was frighteningly too close to mummering for my taste), was always going to enjoy the festivities since his resolve can’t be squandered. Even Lt Colsen was able to enjoy a peaceful celebration. And Delmond, as if Marty McFly had joined the second line from the future, finally found the sound he was looking for. And Nelson — Nelson. I can’t wait to hate that guy. They’re doing a good job of making building him up to be a decent guy in spite of his hubris but I’m looking forward to his inevitable villainy.

All in all, however, the Carnival didn’t have the resonance this year that it had last year and I think that’s by design. As the city moves further from its disaster, the weight of importance placed on it celebrating beyond its near eradication will be lighter. That swell of pride might taper off when people start to remember that New Orleans may be magical but it was troubled before Katrina hit, too.

Besides, we’ve got to make it last for another three seasons before Drew Brees marks the full turnaround for the city against the Colts.