ca4fb511_weetness____Hollywood_Reporter__COMMENT
[RANK] 1 [SHOW] Treme [PREVIOUS] 3 [TREND] ↑ [COMMENT] 
Every vacuum must be filled when it comes to quality. And that's one of the things I love most about The Power Rankings! that gurgled up in whatever flawed stew I dreamt it up in and created for it years ago: the ability for a truly great series to sit in the third or fourth or fifth slot, waiting to rise up. There are rarely huge qualitative gaps between any of the shows in the Top 5, so moving up Treme was an easy decision (well, relatively easy). As a critic, what I like about Treme deep into its second season (the finale is this Sunday) is that I'm still thinking about it. More to the point, I'm thinking about what I actually think of it from week to week. Here's a show that has, I think, one of the least definable set of strengths that can be weighed against one another at any time. It's not like the story is great every week -- sometimes it's the music, sometimes it's the direction or the acting. Sometimes it's just -- and I'm already hating the fact that I continue to use this word about Treme -- the vibe. Eric Overmyer and David Simon clearly know what they're doing. But I think in the end, it's the fact that they can do whatever they want -- not sticking to any rules, precedent or expectation and then see what comes of it. That creates interesting, sometimes difficult television. In this episode, with its overwhelming sadness, I watched Lucia Micarelli as Annie continue her incredibly impressive voyage as an emerging actress. And I especially watched Khandi Alexander -- again -- and wondered (out loud this time) when the hell she's going to get her long-overdue Emmy. And then it pissed me off, and I watched a comedy (after finishing the episode, of course). All hail the new No. 1.
The Power Rankings! A New No. 1, Debatable Flux, Expansion and Sweetness! - Hollywood Reporter
COMMENT