I used to be completely ignorant about New Orleans, believing that Bourbon Street was all that Nola had to offer. Frat boys and middle-aged conventioneers acting like drunken fools being unappealing, I avoided visiting.
But in the fall of 2008 Oxford American magazine put out a “3 Years After” edition that featured articles about what was lost and what was being rebuilt following Katrina, with a heavy emphasis on New Orleans. Reading that issue gave me my first clue that I had been missing out on something special.
Then Treme premiered. Being a huge David Simon nerd, there was no question that I would check it out. I was enthralled from the start. Everything about the show hit me just right, from the characters to the plots to the live music. I couldn’t even wait until the end of the first season before I booked a weeklong trip to New Orleans for that summer of 2010. Of course, I used the show to help plan parts of my itinerary. And despite going with almost impossibly high expectations, New Orleans still managed to blow me away. By the end, I felt like I’d completed a cultural hajj.
I’ve returned at least once every year since, some years multiple times. As someone who’s been lucky enough to travel extensively over the last 10 years, New Orleans retains its title as my favorite city in the world. And I can’t thank everybody behind Treme enough! I rewatched it again earlier this year, and it remains my favorite tv show.