HBO's "Treme" was an unlikely proposition from the start. It was predicated on a natural disaster, Hurricane Katrina, that happened five years before the show started, and that lag has always been awkward. The meticulous re-creation of not quite recent outrages — perpetrated by politicians no longer in office and cops already indicted — has made the show seem to be in a weird time warp all its own.
Then there's the contradiction that can make watching the show a slightly queasy, off-putting experience. Created as a celebration of American authenticity, it often feels like the sort of theme park drive-by it is supposedly condemning. Here's a bounce club, here's a second line, here's Mardi Gras, here's Cajun Mardi Gras. Extra credit if you know that Toni the lawyer holds all her meetings at Li'l Dizzy's. With its earnest ethnography and hipster aspirations, the show can seem like a video guidebook for Japanese or German tourists.
The news — good news if, like me, you're a fan of the show, despite its foibles — is that those tendencies have receded almost completely into the background as "Treme" begins its fourth and final season on Sunday night. In these last episodes, there's a noticeable decline in the lecturing and hectoring, as well as in the name-dropping and celebrity cameos.
"Treme" has always been a sad as well as an angry show, but this coda has a decisively valedictory tone. Battles are still fought, as Toni (Melissa Leo) and the good cop Terry Colson (David Morse) keep pushing for the truth about the police department's post-Katrina atrocities. But for most characters, it's now about moving on. Antoine (Wendell Pierce) settles into his new role as music teacher and unexpected role model; LaDonna (Khandi Alexander), recovering from her brutal attack in Season 2, gets the bar running again; Albert (Clarke Peters), mortally ill, tries to reconcile with his son, Delmond (Rob Brown), and prepare his chief's outfit for one last Mardi Gras.
It's to the credit of the show's creators, David Simon and Eric Overmyer, that these characters have become so familiar and alive in only 30-plus episodes. But it's primarily a tribute to the three actors, Ms. Alexander, Mr. Pierce and Mr. Peters, who have made "Treme" a must-watch series, regardless of how you felt about its politics, its purity or its poky storytelling. Ms. Alexander, in particular, with her ability to combine fierce intensity and kittenish vulnerability, practically in the same moment, has been riveting throughout the run, and that continues in Season 4.
Not every role or story line is as moving or authentic. The struggle of the Cajun fiddler Annie (Lucia Micarelli) to stay true to her musical roots is still mostly a bore, and you wonder why we had to follow her trajectory rather than that of her former boyfriend Sonny (Michiel Huisman). But the fight of the chef Janette (Kim Dickens) to open yet another restaurant has a rueful charm, helped immensely by the lack of atrocious cameo appearances by celebrity chefs.
"Treme" defined New Orleans, and organized its own narrative, along three poles: corruption, food and music. It's always done best by the music, and the frequent renderings of performances by a panoply of New Orleans bands, filmed on location in the city's clubs, have been a remarkable bonus. It feels as if there are more songs than ever in the final five episodes, from BeauSoleil, Trombone Shorty, Aurora Nealand, Zachary Richard and on and on. If you can't enjoy that kind of party, well, "Girls" will be back soon.
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