August 11, 2010

16. Two Souths on HBO: One Bloody, Another Floody

When one tries to compare the two Southern-themed drama series that HBO has launched since autumn 2008, one will soon come to the realisation that True Blood and Treme represent radically different approaches to the depiction of the setting in a television show.

In True Blood, a Gothic vampire saga now running its third series, the setting functions primarily as a background for the numerous twists and turns of the plot. Although the title sequence of the show - probably one of HBO's best - portrays a wide variety of phenomena that refer to the Deep South setting of the series (for example, shots depicting the bayou landscape, local architecture, religious fanaticism and the predatory nature of sexuality), the show itself is rather inconsistent in picking up these elements and using them systematically to accentuate the authenticity of the action. Instead of relying on the cues available in the environment in which the show is set, a huge proportion of external plot lines was brought in in the first two series of True Blood. Take, for instance, the entrance of Greek mythology into the second season of the series, a move that had nothing to do with the show's original setting. Numerous equivalents of the Southern folklore just seemed to remain unrealised here, giving way to the necessities of entertainment.

Since the plot and the setting of True Blood are, to a large extent, essentially incompatible, the story events of the show could take place in whatever part of the United States. But they do take place in Louisiana, and it seems to serve a purpose. Naturally, the swamp mystique could, on its own, be a great source of inspiration for a vampire-themed allegory - the past and present of Louisiana offer a lot of possibilities for that -, and this seems to be the case here, too. Yet for some reason, it was not a resource that Charlaine Harris, the author on whose Sookie Stackhouse Novels the show is based, as well as Alan Ball, the main creator of True Blood, chose to fully exploit. Instead, references to the locale remain chiefly in the field of mise-en-scene (accents, locations and design); even those directly affecting the plot tend to concern minor details only. Already the fact that Bon Temps, a small town in which the series is set, is a fictional location is a sign of a considerable distance from the attempt to portray the environment in a way that is maximally faithful to the physical reality. Therefore, the poetic approach to the depiction of the setting dominates in True Blood. On the basis of the plot, the setting is under constant manipulation here, and the world the show presents is quite different from the one outside.

Being fiction, Treme too cannot ignore the ultimate incompatibility of the real and the represented. It can, however, follow the details of the physical reality in a more consistent and precise manner than True Blood or even present these, instead of the plot, as the axis of the show. Depicting the daily struggle of the citizens of post-Katrina New Orleans in rebuilding their lives as well as the city itself and its unique culture, Treme is, indeed, so remarkable for its fidelity in details that, in the first viewing, one would probably find it quite hard to orientate in a mesh of references to the show's real setting. For example, most of the series is shot in location in New Orleans; original New Orleanian music (diegetic!) can be heard in large quantities in every episode; local colloquialisms, most of which will probably remain obscure to the bulk of the viewers, are thoroughly used in the dialogues; also, non-actors are involved in supporting or minor roles. One could go further and say that even the major characters are nothing more than accessories of the setting in Treme. In opposition to the rational and goal-oriented protagonists of True Blood, who seem to be little affected by their environment, the characters of Treme are, indeed, highly sensible of, or even defined by, external (and not only post-catastrophic) conditions. Henceforth, stressed by the use of an ensemble cast, the possibility for a romantic identification with one or a few characters remains rare, and instead, New Orleans itself comes forward.

There is, of course, a plot in Treme, but instead of dominating over the setting by reducing the role of the latter to the one of luxurious decoration merely, the depicted events are much more naturally intertwined with the space of the show, compared to most other television series. Thus, Treme represents a realistic approach to the portrayal of the setting: as in the physical world, in which the environment has always prevailed and will prevail in the future over smaller or larger narratives, in Treme, too, the setting is allowed to speak for itself. One apparent consequence of this approach is bigger adaptability required from the viewer; Treme must be enjoyed differently than True Blood. In Nancy Franklin's words, Treme prohibits the viewer from loving the show, while instead, asking him/her to value it. An emotional connection between the viewer and the series is, thus, eventually much closer, but it also needs more time (probably more than the length of ten episodes) to establish itself.

Compared to the difference of representation of the setting, then, the pure fact that True Blood and Treme are both set in the same geographical area remains rather unimportant.