Tuned In

Treme Gets an Encore

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I haven’t yet seen ratings figures for the premiere of Treme, but HBO must have seen something it liked—creatively, commercially or both—because two days after airing the pilot it’s picked up David Simon’s New Orleans drama for a second season. [Update: 1.4 million viewers Sunday, it turns out, so that would be “creatively.”] From the renewal release:

Michael Lombardo, president of HBO Programming, said, “I can’t think of another show that is more emblematic of what we aspire to be as a network than TREME….”

…and more hortatory descriptives (“profound artistry and intelligence” &c.) follow. Production resumes in the fall. (As I recall, productions in New Orleans, like the first season of Treme, tend to schedule to avoid, ironically, hurricane season.)

HBO, like Showtime, often picks up series early, so this is hardly unprecedented. But the network definitely seems to be turning things around from the bare-cupboard days after the end of The Sopranos.