Treme

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HBO, Sunday Dec. 1, 9 p.m.

The combination soap opera and ethnographic film about New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina is frustrating and amazing and weird and not like anything else on TV. A sprawling cast of characters, from a muckraking lawyer to a struggling chef, from a bar owner with PTSD to a host of jazz musicians, interact like characters in an Altman film, passing each other in the night or spending the night with each other. There are only five more episodes left, so set the DVRs.