Monsters of Television

“How you get to sleep at night, man?”
“I drink.”

A star is born.

Three episodes and I don’t think I’ve even mentioned my favorite character on the show yet: Jacques. He’s the sous-chef in the restaurant of my least favorite character, Janette. He is certainly that voice of reason character, the grounded, quiet tranquility behind Janette’s whirlwind disaster. Never has enough lines, never has enough screen time, but always wins the scenes he’s in, especially when it’s a competition between him and Kim Dickens. It’s not that I really don’t like Janette. But she’s like everyone else on the show: a little abrasive. And her storyline of “my bustling restaurant is failing” gets lost in the “I lost my brother in the Storm” and “struggling to survive” storylines. The only bit of drama she’s really had, other than missing bills and screwing around with Davis, is hitting her parents up for cash. She is the character that, if they had to drop for money, no one would miss her. She is what the Lizard Man was to Carnivàle except she’ll probably make it out of the first season.

Her spot as filler on this show really stood out to me in an episode that lacked the power the previous three have had. If this had some build behind it, I’d say this was a breather episode but, really, it’s just a “shuffling” episode. People do things, go on road trips, see who they are in different situations, show a different shade of themselves. And, for once, they didn’t put the episode’s theme in Davis’s mouth.

But that might be because the theme for this episode is a little unclear. Antoine, unable to play his ‘bone after the police last week f’d up his mouth, finds time (at Ladonna’s behest) to visit Baton Rouge and his two sons. Sonny goes on a road trip to Houston with some friends, leaving his in-demand girlfriend behind. Davis traverses banks to give Sofia her piano lesson (and, I imagine for Davis, that’s all the traveling he wants to do). Each meet their own trials when “abroad” so this might be a “no place like home” episode for them. Meanwhile, Albert and Creighton stay put and, in their own ways, try to revitalize/invigorate their home.

So let’s run through the interesting parts of this episode.

The show starts with Antoine in a waiting room, where he improvs a song that’s infectious to the sick and injured. People beat on trash cans to keep a beat and Antoine’s on-the-spot yrics inspire call-and-response from the listeners. Compare this to Davis’s song last week, the one about the stripper in his neighborhood he plays for Simply Red, and you’ll see the difference they’re trying to draw between the two: Davis knows how to play music and Antoine knows how to create music. Davis has all the best intentions but looks up to the soul of New Orleans sound while Antoine is embodied by it.

Later, he goes up to Baton Rouge to see his boys, both of whom are frozen in time to him. He gets them Christmas presents for which they’ve both outgrown. Antoine doesn’t see them very often and doesn’t make an incredible effort to leave New Orleans either. When they go out to dinner at Olive Garden (a slap in the face to Baton Rouge since that is the height of their cuisine and all the kids really know), Antoine insists they are always in his heart, even if he doesn’t carry pictures of them around. And that is probably true except that Antoine is inherently selfish, prone to chasing his carnal desires and putting his family behind his own comfort. But, certainly, in some respect his boys is still there in his heart. He honestly tries to connect but he gets in his own way. In the end, Antoine’s trip is good for reminding his kids he still cares but is a bust for reestablishing what bond they might have had.

Davis had his own travel tribulations as he fell for the old “break your car in our pothole so you leave all of your stuff in the backseat and we sell it off ha ha” trick. A mouthful but very effective.

Sonny’s trip is just as disappointing. Promises of taking the stage at this Houston bar are realized but only for a song or two because there are several New Orleans musicians in the house that want their turn. At thbe end, his biggest accomplishment on the road is convincing the bouncer he needs to just go to New Orleans even takes him back with them. Meanwhile, Annie is a hot commodity in New Orleans as a classically-trained but New Orleans-converted fiddle player. The weight around her neck named Sonny isn’t there to keep her down so she plays with a good band, a lot of people deeply appreciative of her talent. Sonny comes back and sees her playing with their anonymous piano player and we get a sense of his betrayal (also seen when she played with Tom McDermott). It’s almost like he caught her flirting with another man at a bar: not quite cheating in bed but still enough to bring out his jealousy.

Had Sonny gotten back into town a day earlier, he might have seen Davis hitting on Annie at a bar (in front of Janette no less). Davis had his own travel tribulations as he fell for the old “break your car in our pothole so you leave all of your stuff in the backseat and we sell it off ha ha” trick. A mouthful but very effective. So, with that in mind, Davis, Janette (who suffers from the local utility company not clearing her gas line, hindering her cooking, and making her close the restaurant early), and several other fellow NOLA residents drink to the services that are failing them (utility companies, FEMA, local government, etc). The booze and Davis’s natural state inspire him to discuss overhauling the government with infectious enthusiasm but the type we know will amount to no action. Instead he goes home and writes another song, this one we only hear him piecing the instrumentals for (and sounding quite a bit more inspired than the stripper ditty).

While Davis works on promoting his message, Albert was essentially silenced. After an entire episode where things seemed to be looking up for him (except for the insurance not paying for damage to his home) and he didn’t even chase down one kid in blind rage, the biggest slap in the face knocked him down at the end. Despite “Wild Man” being an integral (and, guessing from his name, I would imagine fervent) part of the Indians, Lorenzo tells Albert the chief is not to even speak at the funeral. Apparently, Lorenzo’s grandmother didn’t approve of the Indians, found them unseemly. On top of that, Lorenzo confesses he is to leave town in search of a clean slate. Albert’s plan of reconvening the Indians is slowly falling apart episode to episode and I can only imagine what will happen if something more drastic or damaging were to befall Chief Albert. Mothers! Lock up your teenagers!

Before we discuss the most interesting thing Creighton has done all series, let’s discuss the Damo thread. Toni and Ladonna out the man weaing David Brooks’s wristband as a guy trying to escape a murder charge. Naturally they want to know what happened (signs don’t point to hopeful when a murderer is carrying a souvenier). The man spins his yarns about how he came to meet David Brooks. I put it like that, spinning a yarn, because the heretofore diffident and difficult prisoner tells the story creatively, almost passionately, sure to let his audience, Toni, Ladonna, and her mother, know what befell them after the storm. While a nice story, the result, essentially, is that Damo got on a different bus and cut out of there, but wearing this other guy’s wristband. The search continues.

Meanwhile, as his wife continues to be the hardest working lawyer in coastal Louisiana, Creighton has lost a ton of fire. The normally angry man has lost some pep since last we saw him though I’m not sure why. Maybe he’s depressed about Tulane’s cutbacks, maybe about his novel, maybe about the Storm. It’s probably just a pre-semester malaise. Anyway, inspired by his daughter last week, Creighton decides to create his own shout-out to the masses via YouTube, this one an open-letter to anyone who has even thought about New Orleans since Katrina. A lots of curse words and vitriol for the country, some even invoking 9/11, specifically how disaster aid came to them quickly while NOLA waits, is a little hackneyed but most YouTube videos like this are. My favorite line is about how New Orleans has more culture in one neighborhood than Atlanta does in all of its sprawling suburbs. Because it’s true. After posting the video, the sad man, back at work, suddenly starts to garner fame and free coffee. “Get ’em, big man!” A big smile crosses his face as Creighton realizes he’s just been given an unfettered voice. I”m not entirely sure where this thread can go but color me intrigued. Finally, this character is moderately interesting.

All in all, this was a pretty lackluster episode but a decent viewing. It didn’t necessarily have the same emotional impact of, say, last week’s episode, but still a good watch. Antoine is asked a question once he gets on the bus to head home. “Is your trip business or pleasure?” Antoine smiles. “New Orleans. Always for pleasure.” If I didn’t know any better, I would say this was underwritten by the tourism board. You know, except for all the depictions of hardship and destruction.