(no subject)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6806017
This is an old article from several years ago, one that's rather painful to post.
Did anyone watch the most recent episode of Treme? If you're not familiar with the show, it depicts life in New Orleans immediately after Katrina and the failure of the Federal levees.
One of the things the show does is includes sub-plots and characters based on real NO personalities. One character is a police officer, and often there will be real crimes that have happened added into the plot, sort of as background material. I've really found this show to be poignant, thoughtful, and brutally honest.
This last episode really got to me though. Helen Hill was a friend of a friend. I never met her, but watched helplessly as a friend of mine grieved intensely after her murder. I heard second hand through my friend of the pain her husband and infant son went through after her death. It was a really sobering, painful experience for many. Helen was a wonderful , well liked person who was very active in the community. Her husband was a Dr. who worked at a low cost clinic that helped the poor. These were GOOD people.
Treme decided to include this brutal murder as a sub-plot, with one hitch: the police were fingering the husband as the murderer. How DARE they do this. How DARE they. This man, this family, has suffered enough. How dare these writers and producers use their tragedy (with an ugly untrue twist to it) and make light of it in order to film a stupid show. God, I hope Helen's husband did not see this episode. Just featuring the murder alone was very traumatic to watch, yet alone this nasty spin they put on it. It opens old wounds and memories that many people have worked hard at to overcome. It was bad enough when Treme sent letters to residents in neighborhoods where they are *constantly* filming and disrupting in effect warning them; " sorry to be a bother, but we're recreating the mess from Katrina, don't want to upset you people with PTSD and such". But to use people's personal, private tragedies and treat it as nothing but a way to get ratings disgusts me. I don't even know the point I'm trying to make, I'm just angry and upset for those who loved and knew Helen and Paul.
This is an old article from several years ago, one that's rather painful to post.
Did anyone watch the most recent episode of Treme? If you're not familiar with the show, it depicts life in New Orleans immediately after Katrina and the failure of the Federal levees.
One of the things the show does is includes sub-plots and characters based on real NO personalities. One character is a police officer, and often there will be real crimes that have happened added into the plot, sort of as background material. I've really found this show to be poignant, thoughtful, and brutally honest.
This last episode really got to me though. Helen Hill was a friend of a friend. I never met her, but watched helplessly as a friend of mine grieved intensely after her murder. I heard second hand through my friend of the pain her husband and infant son went through after her death. It was a really sobering, painful experience for many. Helen was a wonderful , well liked person who was very active in the community. Her husband was a Dr. who worked at a low cost clinic that helped the poor. These were GOOD people.
Treme decided to include this brutal murder as a sub-plot, with one hitch: the police were fingering the husband as the murderer. How DARE they do this. How DARE they. This man, this family, has suffered enough. How dare these writers and producers use their tragedy (with an ugly untrue twist to it) and make light of it in order to film a stupid show. God, I hope Helen's husband did not see this episode. Just featuring the murder alone was very traumatic to watch, yet alone this nasty spin they put on it. It opens old wounds and memories that many people have worked hard at to overcome. It was bad enough when Treme sent letters to residents in neighborhoods where they are *constantly* filming and disrupting in effect warning them; " sorry to be a bother, but we're recreating the mess from Katrina, don't want to upset you people with PTSD and such". But to use people's personal, private tragedies and treat it as nothing but a way to get ratings disgusts me. I don't even know the point I'm trying to make, I'm just angry and upset for those who loved and knew Helen and Paul.