Once again, it is possible to immerse oneself into the magical synthesis of language, people and artifice that is the David Simon city-fiction.  What worried me, before seeing the 80 minute pilot of Treme, is that Simon would stray from the “write what you know” rule — it’s inarguable that he is a master of all things Baltimore, but tackling post-Katrina New Orleans?
 

I have never been to New Orleans myself, so I can’t even guess at its accuracy.  Simon has already defended his factual errors and makes a pretty good case for the liberties he and co-writer Eric Overmyer have taken.  It only took me a few minutes into the episode - probably at the sight of Wendell Pierce raising his trombone to his lips - before I realised that I didn’t care about how realistic the city’s portrayal might be.