Episode One - Big Chief

The pilot---premiere, first episode, whatever you want to call it---introduced us to some of our characters and the place they came back to. I came back to New Orleans in October after the storm. The pilot takes place "Three Months After."

No need to elaborate.

You ever seen fifty pounds of meat left in 100 degree heat inside a freezer for two months? Looks about like you'd expect. Smells like nothing you can imagine.

I wonder what's pass this point?

Simon got it right. The place was bleak in the daytime, dark at night. Helicopters pretty much always overhead. No A/C, no power. Contractors were the only people really moving around, their signs clamoring over one another at every intersection---house gutting, 504-523-2635. Tree removal.

Creighton Burnette (Goodman) lives on Octavia. Since he's a Tulane professor and his wife is a lawyer, most likely they live in the Uptown area.

New Orleans streets are sort of like the spokes on a wheel, or maybe like the bottom half of a spider web. It follows the "U" shape of the river, giving rise to the nickname Crescent City. You can see the crescent in the NOPD badge as well.

The oldest parts of the city, other than the French Quarter are nestled up against the natural river levee. Not surprisingly, they're among the highest-elevated areas of the city and experienced little to no flooding. The waters from the broken flood walls did not reach these areas.

After the storm those areas regained services the quickest, and the area was known as "the sliver by the river," or as Deputy Lafourchette tells Toni Burnette, "the isle of denial."

So, the combination of wealth and lack of major flooding allowed some areas to come through the storm relatively undamaged. Prof. Burnette lives in that area, and most likely he would live between Magazine Street and St. Charles.

Uptown New Orleans is shaded by ancient oak trees.

Most of the homes are over a hundred years old, and share the common trait that they are all unique. No such thing as tract housing in New Orleans.Creighton's neighbors probably live in houses like these.

Uptown is where Tulane and the other major private New Orleans university, Loyola, are located. Audubon Park and golf course are Uptown. Due to the affluence and large caucasian population, "Uptown" has become synonymous with "white" in the local parlance.

We can take Jefferson (one street down from Octavia) toward the lake, across Claiborne into Broadmoor. We're going to head down Broad Street and check out OPP, where LaDonna Batiste's brother was locked up. Great acronym, worst jail facilities in the country. Immediately after the storm, all of the OPP inmates were herded up onto the elevated interstate to avoid flooding.

Here is OPP now:

Mind you, this is the new OPP. The pre-K OPP was an utter shithole. After the storm, before things had fully gotten back to normal, prisoners--including people who had been picked up for seatbelt tickets and other minor offenses, and kept incarcerated for months without seeing a judge or a lawyer--wer all kept in outdoor pens in 100 degree heat. For food, the guards tossed peanut butter sandwiches over the fence and let the stronger inmates do what stronger inmates do.

OPP is adjacent to the criminal courthouse, known colloquially as Tulane and Broad after the intersection where it's located.

It's a grand old courthouse, art deco style. Looks like Gotham City's courthouse. I expect to see a few epsides involving this building. I saw them filming there a few months ago.

Across Broad from the jail, you can see the Times-Picayune offices and their distinctive tower.

Prof. Burnette mentions Brocatos as his favorite ice cream store---he won't even touch Chef Deshautel's lemon ice out of loyalty. Brocatos is on Carrollton. Take Broad to Canal, then left until you get to Carrollton.

Check your floodmap - serious water in that joint. They're back in business now, though. Head in for some of the best ice cream you'll ever taste.

New Orleans soil is terribly unstable. When combined with the fact that the city is so old, this crappy soil means power lines are all above-ground.

Bonus Carrollton seafood store menu shots:

Two bucks a pound for live crawfish? Sweet! Do you have any Sasage?

Good to know. PS don't call them crawdads or crayfish, yankee.

If you follow Carrollton toward Lake Pontchartrain you'll eventually get to Esplanade. Right on Esplanade, back downriver toward the Central Business District (the city's downtown area, adjacent to the French Quarter), and you'll get to Li'l Dizzy's. This is where Toni Bernette met LaDonna Batiste to talk about her missing brother. We're in the Treme now.

These restaurants and favorite haunts were all wrecked by that bitch Katrina. Living in NOLA after the storm was an exercise in frustration--everything you wanted was right there but covered in dried mud, or was working with a "limited menu," or was closed five nights a week.

Simon hit the attitude of people in the city three months after. Sort of a detached frustration, where you go through the motions and accept that basically nobody is in control; not the government, not the police, and certainly not you. It was a weird time to be in the city, and rife with stories to be told.

Should be a great ride. HBO renewed for a second season within a day of the premiere---good sign.