As a New Orleans native I must say this is easily the best attempt at capturing New Orleans and it's essence. Most shows just show a bunch of fat sweaty Cajuns sitting around in the French Quarters speaking gibberish. No, New Orleans is much much more than the French Quarters. David Simon also did a great job of capturing the feeling of the people returning to New Orleans a few months after the storm, when people were pretty much in limbo. We didn't know if the city would be back, will they bulldoze the entire thing, nothing is open, it was just crazy. The only good thing about that time was there was no crime, all of it was in Houston. Simon also did a great job in capturing the sound of New Orleans with local artists like Kermit Ruffins, that dude a str8 trip.
"All you want to do is get high, play some trumpet and barbecue in New Orleans your whole damn life?" -Davis
"That'll work." -Kermit
If you are familiar with David Simon's work, you know his shows start very slow. He usually take a few episodes to set up the characters and introduce you to them. Kinda like the first chapter in a book. Expect this show to pick up episode by episode ,trust me.
Also, Im glad he went into a lot of prisoners that were lost during the storm, some people held for months without even being officially charged with anything. This dude I know got arrested for weed the night before Katrina hit (which was a Sunday so the courts were not open). They had him in the flood portion of the prison, then had them sitting on the bridge for like 2 days in the smoldering sun, then they got bused out to St. Gabriels, where they were cramped into cells and it was a month and a half before he even got to talk to anyone concerning his case. Shit was crazy.
Show has mad potential though, I cant wait for the next episode.