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| Scene from Atlanta |
The year 2018 may as well be the moment everyone recognized Donald Glover's charisma. In the past few months, he has released a heavily dissected music video called "This is America," as well as will headline one of the summer's biggest movies in Solo. Still, what grounds him is the strange, unorthodox charm that is Atlanta - back for its second season following a long hiatus. One can't help but wonder: was it worth the wait? To be honest, it is. FX has become the home of great modern TV by artists who allow their content to cook before being released. Glover may as well be at the top of the current pile after the past 11 episodes, which not only expanded the story of Earn and his famous cousin Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) but showed the unlimited potential of a lackadaisical, hard to classify comedy series that pushed boundaries into the most surreal directions. It wasn't just a series about people bumming around Atlanta. It was about creating great and challenging art out of it.
There's something misleading about the season's moniker: Robbin' Season. While every episode has loose continuity, it was hard to see a show that experimented with form so much become something so regiment. At least, that's what the first few episodes felt like amid alligator plot lines and trips to offices with visual cues from Get Out (which also starred Lakeith Stanfield). It was nuanced and had a depth that only made the comedy stronger, and the commentary more fascinating. Glover and frequent director Hiro Murai's vision is grounded in a naturalism that makes this similar to other recent FX series like Better Things. However, this is the show that likely took a few bong hits too many and mixed intellectualism with a dash of dumb social commentary. There's a whole episode that centers around Paper Boi getting a haircut, and it results in a trip that would be difficult for the viewer to predict. That's the best summary for Atlanta's current run. It's best to just let things go their own way.
What's also incredible is how antagonistic it all is. Sure, Paper Boi is a local celebrity in his own right, but the show manages to challenge itself through restraint and excess. This is most noteworthy in the episode titled "Teddy Perkins," which is likely to remain one of the show's greatest works, if not for its ability to take a commercial-heavy program and free it from that structure. It's an episode that is... "weird," however it is also one that has depth regarding celebrity and mental health. It creates a vision that maybe lacks the hilarious punchlines of 2018's best comedies, but it creates a perverse fun house mirror where the very idea that a series would create 30+ minutes to one long and awkward plot about getting a piano is equally bold and hard to believe after the fact. Atlanta doesn't want to just be television. It wants to create an art form where black culture is allowed to be as abstract, cryptic, and human as anything that Twin Peaks or Legion could be. In that way, it surpasses both flagship series of the avant garde model by miles.
This is also the season where Glover clearly became more than an actor known for experimenting with music and writing. He was now becoming something grander and showing that a man getting mugged and getting lost in the woods can both be hilarious and horrifying. Nothing is entirely clear, but it creates a drive to hopefully understand the lives of these characters. Even the Fubu episode where it ends in a child's suicide after being bullied captures a deeper resonance. It's unclear how Earn ever got out of the victimhood of his past, but what's clear is that it involved Paper Boi by his side, watching out for his loved one. It's sweet while capturing an unapologetic, flawed view of the characters. Nothing is normal about this world, and it's why the very idea of sticking together is effectively sentimental enough without tipping into farce.
Atlanta should hopefully be a series that will come out every few years with precision this strong. There is a wandering sense to the episodes, making the idea that the series could be a bizarre study of toxic relationships one week and an absurd comedy where a naked fraternity dances to "Laffy Taffy" the next. This is the type of series that clearly goes the extra mile on a writing level. It doesn't settle for conventions, but instead asks why we hold them to such high regards. It does it while recontextualizing the black experience, notably that of musicians who maybe don't have their lives in order, or have a frustrating way of getting things done. It's a world where follies happen regularly, and they kinda deserve their comeuppance.
Glover feels like an artist that has only begun to show his best form. With the simultaneous release of "This is America," he has created a vision of black America that isn't defined by what is known, but what can be explored through abstract art. It's a bold show in that it takes chances where often they hadn't been done before. He leaves subtext and confusion underneath the logic, and it creates something beautiful. This is what great TV in 2018 is. Even if there's something odd about how Robbin' Season applies to the whole season, it only adds a level of intrigue for people to mull over until the next season comes. It may take awhile, but there's a good chance that season three will be met with Solo fans and those who have watched "This is America" a dozen times in a week. One can only hope, for they would be missing out on era-defining, network best TV.
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
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