I sure do miss watching episodes of The Wire on HBO.  I’d been wondering if David Simon, creator of The Wire, was working on anything new since The Wire went off the air, and I found out that he, along with Eric Overmyer (writer and producer of Law & Order), has a new series coming to HBO starting next month called Treme.  The series premieres on April 11, 2010.

Oh, here’s a special treat: If you’re a fan of The Wire like me, you’ll be happy to see Wendell Pierce (Bunk Moreland) and Clarke Peters (Lester Freamon) each week in Treme. No, Bunk and Lester haven’t relocated to New Orleans (woulda been a cool idea to have Bunk and Lester tag teaming on crime in NOLA), but Wendell and Clarke are now regulars in this new series. And if you’ve seen the Spike Lee documentary, When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, you already know that Wendell Pierce is a native of New Orleans. So Treme is like going back home for Wendell.

Cast
Steve Zahn
Rob Brown
Melissa Leo
Khandi Alexander
Kim Dickens
Clarke Peters
Wendell Pierce
John Goodman
Michiel Huisman
Lucia Micarelli

Synopsis: Antoine Bastiste (Wendell Pierce) is a smooth-talking trombonist who is struggling to make ends meet; his ex-wife, LaDonna Batiste-Williams (Khandi Alexander) a bar owner concerned over the disappearance of her younger brother David; Toni Bernette (Melissa Leo), an overburdened underpaid civil rights attorney; Toni’s husband Creighton (John Goodman), a university professor and local history expert who’s becoming an increasingly outspoken critic of the institutional response to the disaster; Davis McAlary (Steve Zahn), a rebellious radio disc jockey and musician; Janette Desautel (Kim Dickens), Davis’ occasional partner and a popular chef hoping to regain momentum for her newly re-opened restaurant; Albert Lambreaux (Clarke Peters), a displaced Mardi Gras Indian Chief who returns to find his home and his tribe, The Guardians of the Flame, scattered; and Albert’s son Delmond (Rob Brown), an exile in New York playing modern jazz and looking beyond New Orleans for his future.

Been longing to see more episodes of TV One’s Unsung?  Well, long no more.  From the official Unsung press release:

Beginning Monday, March 22 at 9 PM ET, TV One brings back Unsung, its acclaimed, original series of one-hour biographies that celebrates the lives and careers of successful artists or groups who, despite great talent, over the years have been under-recognized or under-appreciated. Everyone recognizes Aretha, Whitney, Diana, Stevie, and Marvin. But the full picture of black music in America is much larger than those acknowledged superstars, and many of the greatest have failed to achieve that same level of superstardom.

Four all-new episodes of Unsung, TV One‘s top-rated and most highly anticipated series, will premiere, beginning Monday, March 22 at 9 PM with an encore at midnight (all times ET), and will chronicle the careers of:

Rose Royce (premieres March 22) – Rose Royce emerged from South Central Los Angeles in the mid-1970s to become one of the top-selling groups of that decade. Nurtured by legendary Motown producer Norman Whitfield (Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Gladys Knight), the group topped the charts with their first LP, a soundtrack for the movie Car Wash that sold three million copies and spawned such hits as I Wanna Get Next to You, I‘m Goin Down, and of course, the mega-successful title track. With vocalist Gwen Dickey leading the way, this nine member ensemble combined classy pop stylings — the name says it all— with funky R&B riffs, a pop-funk blend that paved the way for Michael Jackson‘s breakthrough at the end of the decade. But after three consecutive platinum albums and lasting hits like Wishing on a Star and Love Don‘t Live Here Anymore, both of which have since been widely covered, Rose Royce succumbed to the too-frequent stresses of overnight success. Dickey, not yet 20 when she joined in 1975, was so burnt out and disillusioned that she left the group at its peak — some band members say she was fired and refused to perform or record for years. As the group floundered, bassist Lequeint “Duke” Jobe, a musical phenom who was widely considered one of the top R&B bass players in the world, fell prey to drugs and wound up homeless and in jail. Despite it all, the core of Rose Royce has managed to stay together for 35 years, while Dickey has developed a successful solo career in the UK, where she has lived for the past two decades. Now they reveal their long, strange journey on Unsung.

Sylvester (premieres March 29) – Sylvester James was the undisputed King and Queen of disco. He strived for fame, fortune and freedom during a time when it was highly unlikely for a large, openly gay, sometimes in drag, African American male to make it in the world of entertainment. But with a powerhouse falsetto voice to back him up, that‘s exactly what Sylvester did. On this ground-breaking episode of Unsung, Sylvester‘s family takes us to his childhood home and the church where it all began in Los Angeles. We visit his old neighborhood and the Palm Lane Church of God where he got his start singing and performing in the choir, becoming a gospel sensation around town. But it was also here where Sylvester would learn that being “different” was both a challenge and an opportunity for someone with courage and personal flair. Moving to San Francisco, Sylvester began his rise to stardom performing with a theater troupe, which ultimately led to a recording contract. Gold albums, movie roles, and TV appearances followed. Then the glow faded as he endured the loss of close friends through the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. Sylvester ultimately succumbed to the disease as well, while leaving a legacy of music, which embodied a generation‘s determination to live their lives on their own terms. Now, through interviews with music colleagues such as Narada Michael Walden, The Pointer Sisters, Martha Wash and Jeanie Tracey, along with close family members and friends, Unsung chronicles a music career which reached heights that few expected, but in retrospect was fully earned.

Stacy Lattisaw (premieres April 12) – She was a child star who was signed to a major label at the age of 12, and enjoyed a top ten hit a year later. Stacy Lattisaw was a charming teenager with the voice of a singer far beyond her years. She seemed to be living a dream, opening for and befriending Michael Jackson, and sharing songs and romance with another teenaged talent, Johnny Gill. But after a decade long career that produced thirteen albums and nearly two dozen charted singles like Let Me Be Your Angel and Love on a Two-Way Street, Stacy abruptly turned her back on the music business and walked away – even as her farewell single Where Do We Go From Here? – a reunion duet with Gill – topped the R&B charts. Fans and music industry types were stunned, but family and friends were not so surprised. They knew the price she had paid for a decade at the top of the music business and how she’d fulfilled everybody’s dreams…except her own. In this remarkably intimate portrait, Stacy Lattisaw reveals the drive and emotional forces that pushed her to stardom – and ultimately drove her away from popular music.

Bar-Kays (premieres April 19) – First rising to prominence as a house band for the legendary Stax record label, the Bar-Kays have survived 40 years, 27 albums, 25 members, 23 hits, a tragic plane crash, a stroke, a murder and at least five major shifts in Black music. By consciously adapting their style to the trends of the day and constantly tuning their voice to the will of the streets, they‘ve managed to make hits in every prevailing genre: R&B, Soul, Funk, Disco, Techno and even Hip Hop. Many bands had greater hits, but none have earned greater longevity. The miracle is that this band nearly ended before it began, when all but two members – Ben Cauley and James Alexander – died in the plane crash that killed singing great Otis Redding. Yet those two members rebuilt the Bar-Kays into a remarkable hit machine – and never looked back – until this exclusive episode of Unsung.

The episodes will have a primetime encore Sunday nights at 8 PM and 11 PM (all times ET), as well as re-air Tuesdays at noon, Wednesdays at 3 AM, Thursdays at 5 PM, Fridays at 5 AM and Saturdays at noon.

Last recap of the season.  Hell, it may be the last one period for Heroes.  Anyway, here we go….

The final episode of the fourth season (or possibly the last episode of the entire series) of Heroes picks up right exactly where the last episode left off.  Noah is still holding on for dear life while her daughter Claire shouts for help.  It’s pointless, though, because they are about 50 feet underground, thanks to Samuel, who obviously put Claire with Noah so she can watch him die.

For the time being, Noah and Claire make use of their time left to sort of their father-daughter issues.  It’s pretty emotional to see Noah, who is usually described as a man with a plan, feel hopeless and helpless.  He asks for Claire’s forgiveness for the things he’s done in the past but reassures her that he did all those things to protect her.  He also tells her that he loves her and that he can now die a happy man because Claire changed everything in his life for the better.   And before taking what looks to be his final breath, he makes Claire promise that her true identity will remain hidden from the world as Samuel makes his big carnival reveal.

While this should have been a heartbreaking scene, I didn’t really feel like Heroes was going to kill off Noah.  And my suspicions were correct, because out of nowhere, Tracy arrives to save the day, quelling whatever suspense there’s left in this storyline.

Meanwhile, Peter and Sylar are trying to get info on the carnival through Matt Parkman, who remains skeptical about Sylar turning a new leaf.  But Sylar begs for another chance to redeem himself, since he’s not the same person he used to be.  They eventually learn about Samuel’s wicked plan to gather people with abilities by looking into the mind of Eli, who was sent by Samuel to stop Peter and Sylar from saving Emma.

Unfortunately, Emma is already playing her solo at the carnival against her will.  Doyle, the puppet master, is manipulating Emma while Samuel is trying to convince his people that revealing themselves to the world is a good thing.

Elsewhere, Hiro finds out that the love of his life, Charlie, is at the same hospital floor as he is.  She’s still the same sweet chirpy chatterbox she used to be. only this time she’s 65 years old.  Hiro apologizes to Charlie and beats himself up for how things turned out between them, but Charlie is just happy she got a chance to see Hiro again before it’s too late.  Apparently, her brain aneurism is gone but everything else in her body is about go give up.

Hiro never learns, because he wants to correct the past again in order to save Charlie, but Ando convinces him not to, and Charlie seems to be at peace with her life now, having been married with children and grandchildren.  Just like that, Hiro bids farewell to a storyline that should have never been dug up in the first place.

Back at the carnival, Noah and Claire try and stop Samuel.  Claire tells everyone about Samuel’s plan to gather people with abilities so he can be the most powerful and then reveals Samuel’s crimes such as killing his brother Joseph and putting a hit on Lydia.  No one wants to believe Claire until Edgar and Eli step up to confirm everything.

To weaken Samuel, Claire tells everyone to leave, but she needs a quicker solution to get everyone away from Samuel.  Noah calls in Hiro, who then teleports everyone into an unknown place with the help of Ando’s supercharging ability.  Meanwhile, Sylar saves Emma from Doyle and now loves the idea of becoming a hero.  And that is the conclusion of the Redemption volume.

The end, however, is only the beginning of yet another chapter.  After her father spent years trying to shield and protect her from the world, Claire actually does the one thing that Samuel wants to do: expose herself to the world………….by jumping off the top of a ferris wheel, no less, with television crews watching.  Now, the cat finally out of the bag and it might be nice way of rebooting the series, though I’m not sure if the people behind this show can actually pull it off, that is if and when Heroes gets renewed for another season.

Recap time, kiddies!

We start off with Sylar doing what he used to do best; fixing watches.  Ironic, since it becomes clear upon meeting Peter inside his lonely dream world that time is incredibly relative here.  Three hours in the real world also feels like three years in the dream world.

Peter vows to free Sylar from the mental prison, though he initially does it more out of duty to his vision of Emma rather than a moral purpose.  When he can’t liberate them from the solitude of the city, he starts to despair.  A month goes by with no further hope of ever returning.  Peter starts to suspect Sylar doesn’t actually want to leave, a suspicion Sylar confirms.

As soon as Sylar agrees to help Peter free them both, a giant brick wall appears, surrounding the outskirts of Faux York.  Peter notes that the bricks resemble that which trap Sylar inside of Parkman’s basement, so hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work he goes.  Peter Petrelli turns into Peter Gabriel, trusty sledgehammer in hand, battering endlessly away against a wall that just won’t budge.

The conceit of the time lapse soon becomes apparent.  Heroes needed to get to a place in which two things could logically happen before the end of the volume.  First, Peter Petrelli had to achieve closure over his brother’s death.  Still reeling from it, he’d moved on numbly through life with little to no purpose.  Second, the show had to earn any semblance of Sylar’s redemption through a penance that lasted literally years.

Putting the two of them in a situation to spend approximately a decade getting to their points while only using up 12 hours of plot time isn’t the cleanest way to do it, but I do give props to the show for at least realizing that the two men couldn’t realistically reach these emotional points through a measly conversation.

This has been the worst season ever for Heroes.  They have not recovered since the writer’s strike of ’07.  You’d see glimmers of hope every couple of episode, then they crash and burn the following week.  This season has been full of crashes and burns.  Matter of fact, they should burn the scripts and call it a wrap.  Anyway, recap time….

At the carnival, everyone’s kind of on edge since Samuel brought forth the destruction of an entire town. He gets into it with Lydia because she doesn’t trust him anymore, and everyone is looking up to her for their next move. Samuel decides he’ll do whatever he has to, to get back in the family’s good graces, which I’m assuming will mean things get worse before they get better.

Peter has a weird, messed up dream about Emma and Sylar at the carnival.  Sylar is going to save Emma somehow and oh, I get why this volume is called Redemption now.  Peter wakes up and calls Emma, but she doesn’t answer.  I don’t know how he was going to talk to her via his cell phone anyway.  What the hell?   Did he forget that she’s deaf?  He goes to see his mother and they discuss the mutual dream they shared.  She reminds him that just because Sylar might help Emma, it doesn’t mean he will be reformed.  Somehow, Angela knows where Sylar is and she tells Peter.

Sylar is at Parkman’s place where he talked up Mrs. Parkman by telling her he was on the force with Matt.  Matt comes home of course, and isn’t all that excited to see Sylar.  There’s a tense lunch were Mrs. Parkman is amazingly clueless before Sylar and Matt retreat to the basement.  Sylar admits that he needs Matt to go back into his head and take all of the abilities away. Matt says he’ll try, but only after Sylar threatens Janice’s life.

Matt goes into Sylar’s head and on try number one, nothing happens. So, he tries again. Strike two! Janice walks in with bad timing and Sylar throws her against a wall with his telekinesis. His threat doubles, and he says he’ll REALLY kill Janice. Matt tries to teach Sylar that he’s more than his abilities, and Sylar lets Janice go. She tells Matt that Sylar is broken and he has to be buried so deep that he can never come back. Matt tries for the third time and we see flashes of Sylar’s life in black and white before Matt pulls away.

Sylar says he doesn’t feel any different but when he tries his abilities on Matt, they don’t work.  Instead of taking his abilities away though, Matt trapped Sylar in his own head.  I’m not exactly sure what happened, but now he’s trapped in a nightmare and Matt bricks him up in his basement.   Then, who should show up but Peter who immediately takes Matt’s ability and finds out about Sylar. Matt tries to warn him, but Peter goes into Sylar’s head and it’s an empty city.

Gretchen decides to force Claire to tell Noah about her Sylar escapades.  There’s hand holding and supportive gestures before Claire goes up to her dad’s apartment.  TWIST: Lauren answers the door and Noah isn’t even there.  Claire sees all the carnival stuff lying around and starts asking questions.  Lauren explains via some fantastic Sprint product placement that Samuel buried a town and that the more specials he has around him, the more powerful he gets.

I guess this episode’s title says it all, but if you ask me, this season has pretty much FAILED. Anyway, recap time….

Gretchen tries to get Claire to talk about the death of Nathan, or her time with the carnies, but Claire shrugs her off.  Literally.  And who should appear but Sylar and his eyebrows.  He’s in Claire’s classroom when she gets there.  She explains how much she’d love to kill him, and he says he needs a friend.  And just to drive home that he’s being sincere, he kidnapped Gretchen.  Because nothing says “I don’t want to be alone and I need your help” like kidnapping your college experiment in sexuality.

Sylar makes a list of things he and Claire have in common.  Claire tells him their difference is that he’s a psychopath and she goes to let herself out, but Sylar knocks her down with his ability.  He leans over her and kisses her and oh God, this is the most vomit inducing thing I’ve ever witnessed on this show, and that includes when Sylar was poking around in Claire’s brain.  He goes on for way too long about Claire and her sexual subtext with Gretchen, and is anyone else getting secondhand awkwardness?  Claire stabs Sylar in the eye, which is what I’d love to do to myself right now after that kissing scene.

Running back to the dorm, she unties Gretchen but Sylar is pissed now and blows out the windows.  Gretchen decides the best way to run and hide is to yell, “Someone’s coming!” as she ducks into a closet with Claire.  Claire explains that she’s afraid of being hurt, so she can’t put herself in this relationship with Gretchen.  Gretchen then suggests that maybe for Sylar to become human again, he has to get rid of all his powers.  And then she turns into Sylar and he peaces out.

Claire runs to find Gretchen in the cafeteria and tells her she wants to hold her hand and doesn’t care who stares or talks.  Sylar sits back and takes the credit for bringing the little love birds together before going to find Matt.

Hiro, Ando, and Mohinder are still hanging out at Noah’s place.  Mohinder makes a compass from scratch and leaves just before Hiro blacks out.  He wakes up in a room with Adam Monroe.  He says it’s up to the judge to decide whether or not he’s living or dying.  It’s the world versus Hiro, and his dad is the judge.  Adam says to a jury that Hiro used his abilities selfishly.  Hiro pleads not guilty and suddenly Ando appears to be his lawyer.  Hiro’s sister and Ando come in as children and testify that Hiro altered time during the slushy incident.  Ando objects and Hiro says that as long as no one gets hurt, it’s okay to alter time.