TREME - "All On Mardi Gras Day"

"Happy Mardi Gras, honey"

That sentence would normally be read as an excited exclamation. You would think it'd be said in the middle of Bourbon Street by a bead-wearing, scantily clad woman. Instead it's a sympathetic consolation given by Annie to a New Orleans man forced to flee his city when the storm destroyed his home. Thus is Mardi Gras in a post-Katrina New Orleans.

Luckily, the episode was not all doom-and-gloom, and quite a few of TREME's characters found themselves having a great time. Unfortunately, Creighton was not one of them. The brief moments spent with him were the highlights of what was an otherwise decent episode. Who can't relate to what Creighton goes through in this episode? You look forward to some impending event and hinge entirely too much on it, and when it arrives, it doesn't quite live up to your expectations. Only Creighton hinged the soul of a city on one event, and, of course, it failed to be what he had hoped. He's been descending into a depression for a few episodes but this episode seems to be the steepest drop so far. The drinking and passing out is one thing but the way he interacted with Sofia was most most alarming. It lacked much of the affection he usually treats her with, something's seriously wrong if that's missing.

And as Creighton seems determined to carry New Orleans problems on his back, so does Ladonna seem determined to carry her family's. I can't stress how great Khandi Alexander is in this role. Ladonna tries so hard to hide any problems from her family, her voice goes up a few decibel levels whenever they ask if everything's fine. As if a high-pitched voice could be mistaken for care-free. It's almost heart-breakingly human.

Unfortunately, not much else this episode really stuck out. It was great to see characters like Janette, Annie and Albert let go of their problems for a bit and embrace the Mardi Gras spirit (and, of course, Antoine and Davis are more than happy to embrace it). But it didn't necessarily move much forward. Maybe that's the point. Mardi Gras can come and go in New Orleans without changing a thing... only making you forget for a moment.

B

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

- The scene with Antoine and his #1 Japanese fan was nice. I like how he continues to surprise Antoine with his knowledge of the NO Jazz scene.

- Annie and Davis together was pretty great but I'm not sure if we're supposed to think that it will lead to more or was just a Mardi Gras moment.

- I continue to not give a shit about Sonny.