I am one of those people you meet at parties who tries to convince you to rent 'The Wire', and may even offer to loan you my DVD sets if you seem interested. I might not know your name, but give me your address and I'll drop them by, possibly with some handwritten notes about my favourite moments.

You've met people like me, I'm sure. And right now, people like me are trying to figure out if the new show from the creator of 'The Wire' is going to be as important to us. In case you missed the hype, it's called 'Treme' (pronounced 'Tray-may') and it's set in New Orleans about three months after Hurricane Katrina.

I am one of those people you meet at parties who tries to convince you to rent 'The Wire', and may even offer to loan you my DVD sets if you seem interested. I might not know your name, but give me your address and I'll drop them by, possibly with some handwritten notes about my favourite moments.

You've met people like me, I'm sure. And right now, people like me are trying to figure out if the new show from the creator of 'The Wire' is going to be as important to us. In case you missed the hype, it's called 'Treme' (pronounced 'Tray-may') and it's set in New Orleans about three months after Hurricane Katrina.

(S01E03) 'Treme' delved deeper into the injustices big and small faced by each of the characters in this episode. I saw it twice and liked it much more the second viewing. It wasn't as gripping (or funny) as the previous episode, but there were several moments that beautifully captured each of the main character's chief post-Katrina struggles.

When dealing with serious and potentially flammable subject matter, especially something as cataclysmic as 2005's Hurricane Katrina, a TV show has to tread carefully. 'Treme', a 10-episode HBO miniseries focusing on post-Katrina New Orleans, does not tread at all. Instead, it dives deep under the floodwaters and resurfaces with the corpses of those dead and gone -- lest we forget the immense tragedy that unfolded there.

Where most shows would exploit the exploitable (the riots, the pillaging, images of dying or dead people, the Dome), 'Treme' takes a raw look at the aftermath through a series of vignettes. The viewer follows different families and individuals as they try to put the pieces back together. Sometimes those pieces are tangible, like the rotting structure of a flood-damaged home, and sometimes they're purely emotional, like the trauma caused by a relative missing for months.

CBS expects Sunday's Super Bowl XLIV to be the most watched television program in history. And the network is looking to make a mint on the big game after managing to sell every available ad slot for the broadcast.

The problem is a couple of those ads were sold to odd buyers when you consider that this is supposed to be a massive entertainment event. People are supposed to have fun watching the game they've waited all season to see. It's a reach to ask them to think about heavy socio-political issues.

The network estimates more than 100 million viewers will tune in this weekend when Peyton Manning (right) and the Indianapolis Colts take on Drew Brees and the upset-minded New Orleans Saints. The Saints look to be the sentimental favorite as the city struggles to rebuild from Hurricane Katrina.

Meanwhile, the Colts are playing in their second Super Bowl in the last three years -- having beaten the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI.

If there was anyone working in TV today who could create an accurate, in-depth portrait of post-Katrina New Orleans, it's David Simon. Many people call Simon's previous HBO series, The Wire, one of the greatest dramas of all time, and they do it for a reason: it has rich characterizations, well-examined stories, and it gives viewers a real feel for the underbelly of Baltimore.

So, with Treme, debuting on HBO in April, Simon tries to examine the lives of ten people who are trying to pull things together three months after Hurricane Katrina flooded out New Orleans.

"New Orleans, to me, represents a place where it's a triumph of American urban culture," said Simon. It's what - it's the best that an American city can be and also the worst in a lot of ways, as I said before, but it has created a culture that has gone around the world."

More of our best of the decade coverage, which started on Tuesday. You can read the other posts at the link above. We finish up the series by talking about some of the news events that defined the decade, and how TV covered them.

It seems odd to call the news events of the 00's a "best" list. As we started the 21st century, America seemed to have a different tragedy happening at every twist and turn. There was the Year 2000 bug followed by 9/11 followed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan followed by Hurricane Katrina followed by the worst recession since the Great Depression. We've also had various celebrity deaths recently including the iconic and controversial Michael Jackson.

The tragedies of the decade were accompanied by revolutionary change. America elected its first African-American President. New forms of media such as social networking arose like a phoenix from the ashes of the old media.

The decade was filled with many ups and downs, possibly more downs. The full repercussions of the events won't likely be acknowledged or analyzed for years or decades to come. Wherever we end up, it will have been one hell of a ride.

This week is the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting The Gulf Coast, and former Night Court star Harry Anderson has announced that he and his wife, like many people, are leaving the city.

Anderson hasn't done much television since Dave's World left the air in the late 90s. Instead, he opened a club in New Orleans, where he has been performing a one man show and showcasing local talent. They also owned a home in the city, which had a magic shop on the first floor. But now Anderson and his wife are leaving the city, and in this interesting New York Times piece (you don't hear much about Anderson these days, so any story that pops up immediately grabs my attention), Anderson talks about what Katrina has done to the people of New Orleans, why he's leaving, getting mugged, and where he might move to.

Someone paid $35,000 to be able to play the same video over and over for one hour on VH1 Classic. What video? The 1984 classic, "99 Luftbalons" by the German group Nena. Naturally.

But why, you ask? It all has to do with a Hurricane Katrina fundraiser that VH1 is just wrapping up. With a $25 pledge to the Pay to Play fundraiser, donors could request a video. VH1 sent them an e-mail notifying them of when it would be played. But, for $35,000, donors could have their own portrait painted and choose from three decades' worth of videos to program on VH1 for one full hour. The one person who paid the $35,000 just chose one song. Whatever floats your boat, dude.

VH1 holds up its end of the bargain on Sunday, March 26th from 2 pm to 3 pm, when VH1 Classic will play the English and German versions of the video for "99 Luftballons" over and over.

Last night I was watching CNN as they continued to cover the horrible aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This particular segment was not about the victims, or FEMA, or even the efforts to rebuild. No, this was about the reporters themselves, and how many of them have broken down crying on the air. Apparently, CNN thought that coverage shouldn't go to the people who were actually hurt by the disaster, but to the reporters themselves. The segment also included "man on the street" interviews about whether or not it was appropriate for correspondents to show their emotions on the air. What I thought wasn't "appropriate" was the segment itself, which was nothing more than an exercise in unmitigated solipsism.

However, despite this lack of judgment, CNN is making efforts to reunite children who were separated from their parents during the hurricane. It's probably the most crucial effort going on right now, and at least it shows that the cable network isn't always mesmerized by its own navel.

If you watched the Hurricane Katrina concert last night, you probably saw an emotional moment from singer Kanye West. He and Mike Myers were supposed to come on the concert like all the other celebrities and urge Americans to give money to help the victims of the hurricane. Myers started reading off the teleprompter like everyone else had done and then looked over to West when it was his turn. West, on the other hand, decided that this was the perfect opportunity to voice his opinion on the matter. "I hate they way they portray us in the media. When you see a black family, it says they're looting. You see a white family, it says they're looking for food," he starts. You can easily hear the emotion in his voice and you can see Myers nervously standing by as West continues. Afterwards, Myers attempts to get back onto the teleprompter but it's obvious he's rather schocked by what just happened. He says his little bit and then West finishes by saying simply, "George Bush doesn't care about black people". Myers tries to tack on the Red Cross phone number but the camera immediately cuts to Chris Tucker, who looks caught off-guard.

I think most people felt it was refreshing to see West use his right of free speech in that manner, regardless of whether or not they agree with his opinion or thought it was rude. You can watch the video at the Read link.

Because God knows you don't want to interrupt a Being Bobby Brown marathon.

Some other NBC-owned stations, like USA and The Sci-Fi Channel, won't be showing it either, though NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC will.

[via TV Tattle]

For the first time ever (as far as I know), Jerry Lewis will devote a portion of his marathon show for the Muscular Dystrophy Association this weekend to also helping another worthy cause. He'll be devoting the first four hours and the last four hours of the telethon to raising money for Hurricane Katrina victims through celebrity appeals.

It's not clear whether there will be two giant signs showing the current level of contributions for both causes or if the Katrina donations will be handled in a different way from the MDA ones. Go Jerry!

I'm watching Anderson Cooper lose it right now. He just went bananas on Mary L. Landrieu, the Senator from Louisiana - she was talking a lot of wishy-washy policy and Andy just totally faced her by telling a story about watching rats eating a woman's corpse in the middle of the street. And Anderson's not even in New Orleans, but in Waveland, a ravaged area of Mississippi. After returning from commercial break, he had to take a second on camera to compose himself, and then choked back tears throughout a long interview with a couple who had just found their baby after being forced to leave her in a hospital four days before. "Reporters are suppossed to remain distanced," Cooper said. "There's just no distance in Waveland anymore." In general, it seems like the anchors on CNN are starting to get not only emotional, but angry. Earlier today, both Kyra Phillips and Aaron Brown were openly, aggressively critiquing the Bush administration's handling of the situation. It always feels good to see anchors break out of their shells in times of crisis, and admit to being real human beings with passions and opinions. This kind of anger on CNN is almost as shocking as the images that are spawning it.

• MTV Video Music Awards (MTV)
• Sharpie 500 (TNT)
• The Closer (TNT)
• Monk (USA)
• WWE Raw Zone (Spike)
• NFL Preseason - Atlanta vs. Jacksonville (ESPN)
• FOX News Live - Sunday, 6pm (FOX News)
• Hurricane Katrina coverage - Sunday, 5pm (FOX News)
• The Real World (MTV)