FX aired an episode entitled “The Last of the Wild” on March 29, 2018. Atlantacalled “Barbershop,”Alfred, a rising rapper star “Paper Boi”Miles (Brian Tyree Henry), goes through a series a ridiculous ordeals for his talkative barber. Seven nights later, AtlantaWe were grateful “Teddy Perkins,” a chilling haunted-house story in which Paper Boi’s weed-dealing sidekick Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) meets the title character, a ghoul who functions as a fictional stand-in for Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, and other Black musical stars whose great art was inspired by their even greater pain.
“Teddy Perkins” — with Atlanta creator-star Donald Glover unrecognizable under facial prosthetics and whiteface makeup as Teddy — was almost instantly anointed as one of the best episodes ever produced for television. It is: A mesmerizing 35-minute descent into madness and racial self-loathing. It’s the one-two punch of “Barbershop”And “Teddy Perkins,”However, this cemented Atlanta’s reputation as a show for the ages. There had been many comedies and dramas that were able to bring tears to your eyes, as well as some that were a source of great laughter. These were the years that led up to Atlanta’s 2016 debut had given us auteur-ish series, like LouisAnd Master of NoneThe episodes featured different characters and the storyline changed from one episode to another, making them feel like anthologies. But it was the extremes in genre, and the unmistakably high quality, that set this particular double-act — and Atlanta itself — apart from its peers. It is impossible to find a show that can present in consecutive weeks as funny and humorous an episode. “Barbershop”Then, follow up with another as thoughtful and tragic. “Teddy Perkins”It would be like LeBron James lifting a trophy for the NBA championship and then receiving a Nobel Prize in Chemistry a few days later.
Between Glover’s busy film and music schedule and the global pandemic, it will have been nearly four years without AtlantaBy the time that the third season premieres, it will be March 24. An era when there are 500-plus TV shows per year, it is possible that a series last seen in 2018 could as well have aired on the DuMont Network. But Glover (who plays Al’s cousin Earn), Henry, Stanfield, and Zazie Beetz (who plays Earn’s ex and co-parent Van) have all been prominent in movies in between, while AtlantaIt has been regarded as something more recent than other shows of its age and remains in the collective memory.
At a press conference before the first season premiered, Glover was asked about the series’ frequently shifting tone. “The thesis with the show was to show people how it felt to be Black,”He stated, “and you can’t really write that down. You have to feel it. So the tonal aspect was really important to me.”
During this time, the public has been more openly discussing the difficulties of being Black America. Atlanta’s long absence, with unabashed white nationalism returning to the spotlight, and a series of filmed police killings of Black men and women. That notion was always evident throughout history. AtlantaThe series’ first-season finale featured Earn, Al, Darius, and Darius watching cops shoot a Black man. Sometimes, the theme demonstrates itself through implicit racism, like when Earn’s attempts to spend a hundred-dollar bill at an upscale movie theater are met with suspicion by a white cashier. Sometimes, it’s about the blurry borders between white and Black culture, like how the biracial Van feels caught between the two halves of her heritage, or when Earn has to listen to a white man quote Malcolm X to him at a Juneteenth party. Sometimes, it’s about the exponential challenges of being both Black and poor, with Earn having to live in a storage locker between seasons. Other times, it’s about very culturally specific ideas like the lengths a Black man like Al will go to in order to get the right haircut. And often, it’s many things at once, like Al telling a fan, “I scare people at ATMs! So I have to rap!”
But while Paper Boi’s options are limited, AtlantaThis show is full of possibilities. Hiro Murai and the series’ other directors (including Glover) present the whole thing under a slightly dreamlike haze, allowing stories to feel like they could go anywhere, even if the action is largely confined to a small geographic area. The show can do verité filmmaking, like a flashback showing cousins Earn and Alfred as late-Nineties teens. It can also include bizarre touches, such as Paper Boi appearing at Justin Bieber’s charity event. Or a joke about an invisible car that has a literal payoff. It can even be real and surreal at once, like Earn and Van’s relationship crumbling in raw fashion while they’re attending an inscrutable German holiday festival and Van is being stalked by a monster.
AtlantaThe show is able to have it both ways quite a bit of the time. Each episode seems to be completely independent of the previous. But, Glover and Co. tell bigger stories from a distance. “Barbershop,” for instance, is one vignette among many in Season Two about Paper Boi coming to grips with the downside of celebrity — and with the limitations of having his inexperienced cousin act as his manager. The show can be scathingly funny in one moment (both Henry’s exasperated scowl and Stanfield’s relaxed line delivery are inexhaustible comic weapons), whimsical or sad in others. But there’s a depth of feeling to it that’s incredibly rare, even in this age of abundant TV artistry. It’s at its best AtlantaIt is not a show to watch, but an experience to be had, then be shaken, and then freed from the next time.
Because the surprise of what each episode will feel like is among the show’s many joys, the less said about the new episodes, the better — other than that they are still great, and that AtlantaContinues to be surprising. FX will be airing two episodes in the eagerly awaited season premiere. They somehow have less in common than they seem. “Barbershop”And “Teddy Perkins”They did. It was equally as funny and chilling as each one of the memorable moments.
The new season takes place largely in Europe, where Paper Boi performs. Al and Earn were about to board a plane to go overseas when last we saw them. Al explained the situation. “You my family, Earn. Yeah, you… you the only one that knows what I’m about. You give a fuck. I need that.”
Our reunion with this family has been long delayed, but thank goodness it’s here. We are a bunch of fuck. It is what we need.