Donald Glover's FX dramedy ATLANTA

There's a looseness and ease to this show right from the jump that's not like anything else I've watched in a while, but then it gets real AF on a dime.

The scene on the bus with the man and the Nutella sandwich was super weird—I thought it may have even been a dream sequence—but then I remembered some of the real stories I've heard about Marta buses.

Really liked the first couple episodes. I'm hoping it can go at least six or eight eps before he actually raps.

Same. He seems to keep Donald Glover and Childish Gambino separate, though, so maybe he never will!

I have to say, if some dude in a Batman mask showed up at my door asking if it was true that I lived there, I'd move asap.

'I like Flo Rida. Moms need rap to.'

I loved the first two episodes, especially the second one.

Can I measure your tree?

FX is showing the first episode on YouTube for those (like me) who don't have cable and didn't want to pay for it via Amazon Video or something:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qaqwio0bbG4

Glad this thread is here to remind me this is happening. Dude's been off my radar long enough that I'd almost forgotten how much I liked him on Community and hoped he'd skyrocket to whatever kind of success best suited him.

Third episode is out there and just as good

You know where the word ‘manage’ come from?
‘Manus’ latin for ‘hand’?
… Probably, but I’m gonna say no for the purpose of my argument… Manage come from the word ‘Man’, and that isn’t really your lane
My lane?
Yeah, I need Malcolm. You’re too Martin, and you know what they did to him? They killed him.
Didn’t they kill Malcolm too?
Nah, they say that, but nobody’s seen the body since the funeral!
… That’s how funerals work…

This is really well filmed as well. Earn with a gun in his face, Darius waiting with a knife and a mask over his face, the shots from the prison with people staring out of windows. There's a visual comedy to it, though it's incredibly dark.

I was late catching Episode 3, but is it out of the realm of possibility that show could maintain this level of quality for its whole run? Because this is absolutely the best new thing I've been into on tv (cable or broadcast) since The Americans and Orphan Black started, not that it's in any way like either of those. It's just that I want to COMMIT to loving this.

i really need to give Americans another go

This is pointed the right direction and very well executed. Cautiously more excited here than with the equally hyped but somewhat more underwhelming first two eps of Better Things.

the bullet in the cereal box gag really cracked me up

Some brilliant laugh out loud moments in Episode 3 (the valet guy, for example)

I...had no idea that was Dave Chappelle. What the hell is wrong with me? I'm actually jonesing for a new episode right now. Solid show so far, although my initial reaction was "this won't last past the first season". It has apparently been surprisingly well-received though.

Is it gauche to name top drop that I know the director and he's a great guy?

Name drop too

That wasn't Chappelle.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4790467/?ref_=tt_cl_t7

In my defense, it was all Wikipedia's fault.

This. Show. Is. BRILLIANT.

Yup. I want to watch the car ride with Shabazz Palaces over and over.

Four from four

Stoner philosopher dude is the fucking best.

Well this is the best thing on the box right now by miles. The tonal shifts between comedy and drama are executed in a seamless way and it has a brilliant cast. I have never been much bothered about Childish Gambino, but he is fab in this.

darius is my favorite character on television not named "elliot alderson"

glad someone made a thread for this show bc it rules

at the end of the most recent ep, darius saying, "we're friends now!" was the most delightful thing

Everything's made up stay woke

fourth episode best yet

with this and better things (and i guess Louis) FX is killing it rn

I think Louis is done, no?

i guess

So did the show actually portray Justin Bieber as a black character or were they just calling him that? Either way, well done. And odd.

http://www.vulture.com/2016/09/donald-glover-atlanta-black-justin-bieber.html

I <3 this show.

this show is great

tonight's ep was incredible, didn't think pulling an Adult Swim midseason would be a good look but damn

hit to miss ratio here is ridiculously high (in a good way) but i kinda thought most of the "adult swim" episode was weak, Chocolate Coco Cereal bit exempted.

Was that the latest one with the ads?

Yeah I thought that one was kinda weak. Just realizing Glover grew up like 15 minutes away from me in the Atlanta burbs

Yeah, he's a Stone Mountain kid, right?

The level of anti-trans bigotry in that last episode was a bit much. I mean, the guy who wanted to switch races was basically just a proxy for trans people right? I guess they figured that outright transphobic "humor" would be unacceptable but as long as they aired their bigoted views in the context of switching races it was ok. The rest of the humor in that episode was pretty weak too (except the cereal commercial).

Yeah, he's a Stone Mountain kid, right?

yep, he wrote a plurality of the jokes about Kenneth coming from Stone Mountain on 30 Rock

I thought the episode was a bit queasy as well, but it's worth noting that the link between transgender and transracial is made by 'Montague' not 'Atlanta'. The episode is first and foremost attacking respectability politics, it seemed to me, but it all becomes weird when the commercials seem so self aware, while the talkshow doesn't.

I haven't seen the episode yet but I highly doubt "trans racial" is mocking transgender. The term first had currency when Rachel dolezal claimed she was black and the kid they use (@r3trosp3ctro) who is "trans racial" had an online sketch at the time that went viral where he inverted the dolezal line as a joke

I thought the part where the trams racial dude was acting white was the best part. Esp ratting out the black dude to the cops. "But I called the cops!"

worth noting that "adult swim" elements in that last episode went well beyond homage: the montague theme song incorporates the bumper music from Eric Andre and the reporter on the trans-racial bit was "Nathan Wielder"

Paper Boi/Alfred is a great character.. his reactions are priceless.

Glover's Earn is the least interesting character, here.. his personality feels vague or lacking somehow

The callback joke towards the end of this episode was amazing.

"2 gangbangers hold a pastor & a drug dealer hostage in a stripclub during Katrina"

The level of anti-trans bigotry in that last episode was a bit much. I mean, the guy who wanted to switch races was basically just a proxy for trans people right? I guess they figured that outright transphobic "humor" would be unacceptable but as long as they aired their bigoted views in the context of switching races it was ok

Surprised this was just left to sit there unchallenged, because it's basically doing exactly what the episode is criticising. They flipped it perfectly at the end by making the '35-year old white guy' virulently transphobic and homophobic (you know, like a lot of 35-year old white guys). But they point is that everyone on the show assumed he wasn't, he was given the benefit of the doubt. Which rather pointedly isn't extended to Paper Boi (who picks his words extremely badly but isn't actually transphobic and basically doesn't give a shit either way).

Paper Boi is then expected to be the voice of and the stand-in for all of "rap culture", and once that phrase enters the show it's basically carte-blanche for the liberal antagonist to project a load of views, with "rap culture" as a stand-in for working-class black guys, because rappers are often the only working class black dudes that a lot of white middle-class people have any real exposure to. (As an aside, this show in general is very sharp when it comes to black class politics). It's about who gets the presumption of bigotry and who is given the benefit of the doubt. It's satitirisng online kneejerk outrage culture, where people are so keen to prove their "progressive" credentials that they're blind to a load of, ahem, dodgy racial assumptions in the process.

When the Rachel Dolezal thing broke there were a lot of people on social media making false equivalencies with trans people rather than treating it for what it was, another white person taking a job that should by all rights have been given to a black person.

After the season finale I feel confident in calling this the best show of the year, unless Rectify knocks it out of the park in the next couple of months. I have never seen hand-to-mouth existence depicted more realistically. I'm sure there is some French new wave film that isn't coming to mind right now, but this season alone excuses any amount of shitty hipster rap.

i will say this show has done what i would've considered impossible: it's making me curious to check out childish gambino again

he was on fresh air this week and sounded so super depressed

the ny mag interview he gave made him sound a bit manic depressive yeah. this show is fucking great at its best and merely good when its not.
also - https://open.spotify.com/user/g0u1d1e1/playlist/547VqHwet5L1YssmZhpjc1

use of elevators in the finale was just beautiful

thoroughly enjoyed this, esp the first 5 eps. maybe a touch uneven after that for me, but yeah, still really really good. strong closer too.

Not seen last two eps yet but this show has been amazing. Wasn't entirely sold on the Trans episode, but everything else it did/has done was masterful.

What was the song on the end credits of the club episode? someone help!

wiki p sez it is - Closing song: "I Can Dig It, Baby" by Little Beaver

thanks johnny!

hand't noticed this thread. Def the best show out there.

matt dc otm

late pass on the this but holy shit as someone who was so fucking sick of being told how great community was and generally hostile to childish gambino naming albums "because the internet" i bow down to glover on this one, best TV show i've watched in a while

(4 eps in, really just blown away by how great this is)

it'll do that

(oblique finale spoilers)

I was so relieved when Earn opened up that storage unit and it wasn't a recording studio inside, wouldn't be able to handle Gambino creepin into this thing

several weeks later, i still chuckle to myself thinking about the invisible car

^ Very much this

Ending season w "Elevators" was very affecting & appropriate

great show. coming back in 2018..
http://shadowandact.com/2017/01/12/donald-glover-inks-new-overall-deal-with-fx-productions-atlanta-wont-return-until-2018/

they took this off on-demand while i was in the middle of watching it wtf

Started this the other night, it's excellent. I'd been putting off "Handmaid's Tale," because bummer, but (at my wife's insistence, ironically) we finally watched the first episode of that, which was fine. But then my wife asked for something shorter and lighter, so I suggested "Atlanta," and it was worth it just to watch her eyes light up with enjoyment. Three episodes in, and perfect blend of realism, comedy, drama, etc ... Weirdos or no, these seem like real people, which is unusual for TV. Strong acting, writing and direction all around.

You know where the word ‘manage’ come from?
‘Manus’ latin for ‘hand’?
… Probably, but I’m gonna say no for the purpose of my argument… Manage come from the word ‘Man’, and that isn’t really your lane
My lane?
Yeah, I need Malcolm. You’re too Martin, and you know what they did to him? They killed him.
Didn’t they kill Malcolm too?
Nah, they say that, but nobody’s seen the body since the funeral!
… That’s how funerals work…

― Frederik B, 12. september 2016 01:09 (ten months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just wanted to repost that. I should rewatch all of this.

the pitbull episode was gold for me

Returns in February!

Premier date confirmed as March 1st

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQZJxDjv7uo

what does 'robbin' season' portend?

Christmas, iirc

ah ok

http://www.vulture.com/2018/01/atlanta-season-two-robbin-season-how-it-got-its-name.html

I also love that their inspiration for a full season story arc is "Tiny Tunes: How I spent my Summer Vacation"

We've all read this, yes?

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/05/donald-glover-cant-save-you

Not yet.

Slant's review of the new season is pretty ecstatic.

I swear i sometimes get lols at random times when paperboy rapping we muckin' we muckin'...massage and fuckin' gets in my head

I finally watched the entire first season and I think I had some false assumptions about the tone from what I'd heard/seen in promos. I loved it.

The underlying feeling where many of the characters just want to get by, and are completely tired or ambivalent about what they're doing is something I've seldom seem done well, and it's so good here. Alfred's ongoing comments about how he doesn't really want to rap, he just wants to be able to do something to pay the bills. And then every stupid cliche repeatedly happening to him and he's just suffering through it. Earn just wanting to get by and trying to hitch his wagon to his cousin's possibilities.

I still regularly chuckle thinking about that invisible car callback joke

new yorker article kind of annoyed me.

yup

I find Glover a bit insufferable in general, although I enjoy the show

Anyone else seen the first of the new season, or just us earlybird Australians?
Glad to see it returned with all its DNA intact, and maybe the funniest episode I'd seen.

Katt Williams was amazing, this show is tops

premiere was awesome

Florida Man conspiracy A+++

haha so good. also 'he's alligator man'

how did the opening section connect to the rest though?

just illustrating that it is, in fact, robbin' season

The denouement of the cold open, with the girl crying like a kid at having been shot, was so weird and believable and mundane, it did a lot of things to me that no other show does.

Watching Season 1 on Hulu. Which means I'll see Season 2 a year from now, or thereabouts. Just finished Episode 4, which was as amazing as everyone upthread has said. Earn's ranting monologue about poverty, the pizza delivery kid screaming "I know where you live!" after getting robbed, everything Darius says or does...this show kills me.

having spent a lot of time in helen, ga, the last episode slayed me

this has been a really good season

van and earn's argument was too real. amazing season

Amy Seimetz directed that one!

nothing else is even close to being on this show's level rn

seeing the director credit is a little added boost at the end of the episode

I really love this show

This week's episode was a complete change of tone and absolutely hysterical.

Brian Tyree Henry was so good.

the seamless tonal shifts in this are very impressive, it can be funny as fuck and quite moving, and to do this in the half hour format is such good work.

Forgot this returned so just catching up but man that alligator scene was beauty

some proper LOLs there!

I liked the Keanu ref in the recent one

two guys in the movie, and they put the cat on the poster

One of the only shows that balances the truly bizarre and the mundane with serious panache

this is easily the best show on television right now
darius is maybe the most interesting character on television
last night's episode was as good as anything I've ever seen
so happy that they're letting him get away with any goddamn thing he wants... no ads!

darius is awesome - totally chill existential dude

agreed this is the best show rn, second only to nirvanna the band/high maintenance which both wrapped up recently anyway.

ahhh jesus, Teddy!

I enthusiastically endorsed this show so many times over the weekend and was at a loss for words about, although I definitely tried to explain the premise of, the most recent episode

There's something about how there are so many moments about the absurdity of normal experiences that makes me kind of daydream about the characters

recent article here is good, btw:
https://www.theroot.com/atlanta-donald-glover-and-the-invisibility-of-black-ge-1825116384

The Teddy Perkins episode was more rewarding to watch than the entire third season of Twin Peaks

Yeah great episode but ... nope

was teddy perkins ep double-length or am i just remembering that way because there was SO MUCH in it?

it was not quite double, but it was commercial free and long

35 minutes where the rest are usually 23 - 26 minutes, looks like

trying to remember if this was the first show I noticed variable run times on...maybe that was girls?

have you seen Fawlty Towers

yes. did it have variable run times? I don't remember any of those being longer than 25 minutes.

netflix has broken time.

a bunch of shows have had longer episodes lately, or variable length. Mr Robot, Legion, lots of HBO stuff, and I think years back there were some Lost episodes that ran long

high maintenance as well

yes. did it have variable run times? I don't remember any of those being longer than 25 minutes.

wtf why would any of them be so short?

they range from 29 to 36 minutes.

those are the numbers including commercials, I believe the one I mentioned was without

standard half hour shows are 23 - 24 I believe

Fawlty Towers aired in 1975 and had no commercials

current US network sitcoms can be under 20 minutes, in order to fit in more warnings about how you should buy these drugs that can kill you

yes sure, I forgot it was up to about 30 minutes. my point is that some of these other shows run 35 minutes, 47 minutes, 90 minutes, whatever. that's a fairly new development in television.

36 minutes is over 30!

I'm not trying to win a fight or anything, just suggesting a programme with variable episode lengths, which you might have seen, that's slightly older than Girls.

(televised Dr Who episodes vary in length from 19 minutes to 90, and that's older still, but not as likely to have been seen by Americans)

it depends on how you define the contemporary era, really

i remember lots of people complaining about variable episode lengths with Sons of Anarchy

http://www.indiewire.com/2014/11/why-sons-of-anarchys-excruciatingly-long-episodes-are-ruining-the-show-68125/

seems like a fairly common thing among FX shows

I was going to praise them allowing variability in creative, cool shows but.... Sons of Anarchy

Game of Thrones always had variable times

The first couple seasons of SOA were OK. I like to pretend they all died in a plane crash on their way to Ireland.

Otm

fair

Just watched last week's episode. Simply an astonishing piece of television. Was emotionally drained at the end. This season has been incredible so far.

Does anyone know if it really was Donald Glover beneath all the prosthetics?

pretty sure it was.

Yeah, it was
One of the articles about the episode mentioned that he stayed in character the whole time and a couple people on set didn’t know it was him

Found the egg eating scene forced af - weirdness for weirdness sake - but credit where credit is due - at least they're trying new things

i mean it was a weird episode transplanting michael jackson into a tim burton wonderland

omg the bibby episode

the outrageous formalism of it

like something unearthed from a contemporary account of commedia dell arte, Molière, i don't know what, somehow it felt like it was reaching across time

I got kind of a Candide vibe where Bibby was constantly explaining that everything was going fine

lol

that was a good episode but man was it stressful to watch! I guess we learn something about the kind of guy Alfred is beneath the posturing because I was shocked he didn't put Bibby up against the wall about a dozen different times before he actually did.

it's illuminating to see the near infinite level of patience people have to attempt in order to cope with the mundanities of everyday life, especially when you know them in a different context and they're _not_

like thinking one of your coworkers is kind of quick to judge things, and then finding out they have to run eight errands after work, have two sick kids, and their wife can't find a job but none of that seems to provoke a strong reaction

this show is really great. find it hard to binge which is a relief, each episode is so self-contained it's easy to take yr time with it

The real genius of that episode was in taking the played out barber/client dynamic and mining its absurdity by taking it out of the actual shop.

Plays on that bubbling anxiety you feel off of shit you wouldn't tolerate in any other professional environment, cause until you get a good cut you're completely at his mercy.

your barber has multiple side-hustles and is never shy about trying to put you on
your barbers personal life often plays out in real time as he cuts your hair
your barber will waste the fuck out of your time
your barber is always on the fucking phone
All of this is better than the alternative of sitting in some strange chair with a more reliable guy who doesn't understand your hairline.

From the nose, the height, the head shape and hunched shoulders did nobody else immediately realise that Teddy Perkins was Donald Glover?

I was pretty sure, but was open to there being a twist in the plot

Barber episode is easy to relate to. It’s like any experience with a dealer

From the nose, the height, the head shape and hunched shoulders did nobody else immediately realise that Teddy Perkins was Donald Glover?

There were a couple of times when I thought "I wonder" but tbh I was so caught up in the episode itself I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it.

It was a lot more apparent on a second viewing with the knowledge it was Glover.

I could tell by his voice that it was Donald Glover (he uses a similar voice in Community when he is getting freaked out by something), also... Earn wasn't in any scenes with him. not that they couldn't do that

the best part was the assumption that the whole wheelchair guy bit was a hokey ploy, until.. the twist!

and if the epic piano man episode wasn't enough, the woods...

big ol' black boi deer guts...

https://i1.wp.com/urbanbellemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Atlanta-Season-2-Episode-8-Recap-Woods.jpg

freaked me out.

the guy in the woods wasn’t his father but he kind of worries it is! and it doesn’t matter because all metaphorical journeys end

anyone else notice how Teddy had a similar voice to John Merrick from Elephant Man?

man that ostrich egg in the piano man ep was brutal, I'm still reeling from it. But what an ep!

Man I found that totally forced

As trish Keenan once said “little bit of weirdness for weirdness sake”

It made me feel seriously queasy, not had a boiled egg since.

lol fair point

Gozu had a similar effect on me with milk, dairy products horror is some scary shit.

Where did Trish Keenan say that?

Wire invisible jukebox - believe she was talking about LOOP

The Teddy Perkins episode was more rewarding to watch than the entire third season of Twin Peaks

― erry red flag (f. hazel), Tuesday, April 10, 2018 1:16 PM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

maybe excepting ep 8 of s3 actually but the pt still stands

I know the episodes run long, but god damn was there a lot going on there

felt so sympathetic toward Earn up until halfway through the last scene, then he got pretty much wedgied and I cracked up

I tweeted this but the last 2 episodes really remind me of Afterhours

i love how georgia centric this show is. he really nails the absurdity of the place.

you can tell he loves it and hates it at the same time which is a shared feeling

I’m not sure if some of the things I’m getting out of my viewing is in the story or if I’m projecting

it really seems to capture how grueling it is just to live, and how doing the things you’re supposed to do to play a role doesn’t mean anything will work out

Earn thinking he really needed to fight it out was so awkward

Yeah Earn is really on a bad trajectory :(

how could @atlantafx cut such an iconic scene pic.twitter.com/it9tiSY24d

— 🌊 (@mattwhitlockPM) April 30, 2018

oh man that is great

OMG I love this show

Easily best thing on tv

End of papi made me super sad

for us by us

Easily best thing on tv

by miles

when I was in high school I had a joke about starting a company called Fujbuj, pronounced fudge-budge, meaning For Us Jews, By Us Jews. I thought that was pretty funny.

a bit high-handed maybe, but another brilliant episode.

Donald Glover had a hell of weekend.

Chances of a third season?

Imagine a lot of the people involved are going to be pretty busy

it really felt like a series wrap-up episode

Looooollll the haircut episode - "He's a magician."

this show was so so great

https://tvline.com/2019/08/06/atlanta-season-4-renewed-fx/
going into production on both seasons early next year

That link is from a year ago, but I clicked through to this
https://tvline.com/2020/09/09/atlanta-season-3-premiere-date-delay-not-january-2021/

oh, i got to there from this link actually:
https://www.timeout.com/news/two-more-seasons-of-atlanta-are-on-the-way-091120

Just started, two episodes in. Should be able to get through it in a couple of weeks.

the price is on the can tho

I'm down to the last few episodes. Really good, and quite unusual. The weirdest show I've ever watched from start to finish is Mr. Robot, which ended up spinning off into a dozen incomprehensible directions; Atlanta is weird precisely because it's so low-key and not weird. I'm so used to heavily plotted shows like Mad Men and The Sopranos, where running storylines unfold over multiple episodes. I could be wrong, but I think Earn getting the cheque for the dog a few episodes after they dropped it off might have been the first call-back to a previous episode. And I don't think I've ever seen a season-ending scene as low-key as S1's (I honestly thought at first, with the prominence of streetlights, that it was going to be an extended homage to Antonioni's L'Eclisse). Probably my two least favourite episodes have been the most self-consciously weird: the PBS talk show (I was faked out by the commercials, though) and the reclusive songwriter in the decrepit mansion. All four principles are excellent--I think Darius is my favourite. A lot of great music that almost always leaves me wanting more, although the way snippets are weaved in and out is basically perfect. (None of the hip-hop is familiar to me, which doesn't mean it's obscure; I just don't keep up.) My favourite music moment of all was Sam Cooke to end the one episode--came right out of the blue.

So many quotable lines. I'll go with one from the Drake episode, which is where I left off earlier today.

Vanessa's friend: "Can you help me stop thinking?"
Darius: (pause) "Perhaps."

thanks clemenza, i enjoyed reading that

agreed, such a good show

and the soundtrack is the fifth principal actor of course

This is one of those shows that I keep meaning to watch. Maybe this spring.

Finished up last night. "The Woods" made me think that there's a new rule on TV that every show must have an episode where a main character or two gets lost in the woods or the desert (there has to be five or six examples now going back to The Sopranos' "Pine Barrens"; weirdest might be Mr. Robot's). The episode at the college was really good--reminded me of Spinal Tap, of all things, and I felt bad for Earn when Al hinted that he'd had enough (because basically Al was right). I picked up quickly that "FUBU" was a flashback because of the Tracy Chapman song (the time-stamp of a FUBU shirt was lost on me), but I initially thought the kid, who had kind of a roly-poly face, was Al, not Earn; sad episode. And another great low-key season-ending scene, which I had to double-check online to make sure I understood correctly what happened and what it meant--I did. I hope Vanessa's minimal presence in the last two or three episodes is temporary. Really looking forward to S3. Meantime, I will embark on the completist-driven task of collecting all the songs and burning a mix-CD or two (or three).

to see this show is to love it, is how i break it down to an extent

i have really mixed feelings about Glover overall but this is a flat out masterpiece

agree with clemenza (great posts) that the teddy perkins ep. which people freaked out about was one of the weaker episodes

the college trip episode is so good

this deleted scene from that ep. where they dance to "creep" by TLC is so cute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYWkfMg-AvQ

love this show so much i almost am jealous of people who get to watch it for first time

Man, I've never seen that deleted scene! Thank you for that!

yeah this thread is making me sure I want to watch it all over again. in the uk they screened it around the same time they started showing Better Things, and both are high-points of the 2010s hybrid sitcom form for me - very different shows, but both brave and loose and inspired

Season 3 trailer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApSy_TuGCoQ

Looks hilarious, the king is back

Back on March 24.

https://www.avclub.com/after-a-three-year-break-fx-s-atlanta-will-return-this-1848261983

yaaaay

Good, show is genius.

Finally settling in to watch this. (Thank you, library DVD section!)

Good timing, I think season 3 premieres at the end of March. and they just announced that the already filmed season 4 will be the final season.

This show is wild.

The invisible car!!!!

<3 so amazing

Oh man I must’ve watched that clip a million times.

I burned through the first two seasons in two days

the invisible car bit is so great because the payoff hits juuuuust long enough for you to forget about the set up

*just late enough

he does that again with the "drake is mexican?" bit

It’s really all about Darius, isn’t it?

he’s the special sauce in the magic Atlanta burger

The suffering girl in “FUBU” - who has a good day, and then a bad day - makes me think of an episode of The Wire, late in Season 4.

I don't wanna wait as long as we just did for the next season but man, those two eps was more than worth the wait

best TV show

Just amazing. Credit to FX. This and Better Things are the two most unique things going right now.

We were watching ep 1 and thinking wow this is over the top but of course nope.

Did this start up again and I missed it?

I need 300 pieces of fried chicken
All legs

Yeah that first episode. Was wild and had some serious Jordan peele vibe and halfway through my wife was like wait, I think this actually happened.

just started watching and
what. the. fuck. did these white women do to that chicken

Enjoyed the first episode, have learned about the real-life connection, but how was it connected to the show's main characters? This is just a dream Earn had? Confused.

Not confused--baffled. Did I miss the connection?

it’s a dream of Earn’s — or is it?

I don't want to deprive anyone of this: I will say that the cut to Earn made me gasp--a jump-scare that wasn't really even a jump-scare. Something they did with the sound.

it was a dream within a dream, nolan style

this show has completely primed us for an episode that doesn’t feature any of the main characters at all. that public access tv episode was basically that, with a brief appearance from paper boi

I had a dream last night that involved African-Americans. I was sitting in the audience at the Academy Awards and--never mind, it's so far-fetched it's not even worth describing.

still cracking up at "is Hugs your father?"

And the dog is named Corn Pop.

Also wtf with that suicide machine? I cannot imagine a worse possible way to go. Please tell me that isn’t a real thing. I’m not googling it.

lol

that series of events combined with the chime ringing made me laugh harder than I had in a while

I have to say, this show is amazing at setting up a series of very serious events immediately followed by something insanely absurd

then the perfect drop of "hail mary" lol

With the noise from the beginning of the song played by the guy!!

S3E1 is dark AF

Lol @ S3 ep3 where they agree about everyone hating Moby

S3Ep5 was so good -- I feel like I need to watch it again. When will we ever get to see Paper Boi perform on this tour?! It's so weird to me how we keep getting closer but we still don't get to watch a performance. The venue & characters especially in this episode.

feels like it's deliberate, I as actually surprised we heard as much of his music in this episode as we did.

Amazing episode. Amazing season. Amazing show.

it has to be deliberate -- everything about this show seems very on purpose imo
we did get a tiny bit of performance and a LOT of Darius dancing <3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBCPMQp2l7Q

The most we’ve heard of a paper boi song is still the horrible white woman cover from way back, right? It’s very intentional

i still need to catch up on this show - i remember their parody of a justin bieber song was v funny

The Darius dancing was such a gift, I wanted even 10-15 more seconds

It like he’s heard all this music and seen these performances countless time but this is his good friend and he’s STILL hype when the moment comes

I didn't think as highly of E5 as some of you, but I thought E4, "The Big Payback," was excellent, especially when "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" (one of my favorite songs ever) played overtop Earnest/E holding court with Marshall. That would have been a great scene anyway, but having it play out to Roberta Flack covering a 1957 British folk song made it that much more complicated.

i think part of the reason why they don't show too much of paper boi's music is because it is so clearly donald glover rapping. the voice doesn't fit brian tyree henry at all haha

lolo yeah i had forgotten that & was very confused for a few minutes during this last episode

re: episode 4, i thought that the point it was trying to make was interesting, and i liked the epilogue a lot, but in general it was leaden and not super enjoyable to watch.

episode 5 was good, i thought that wiley was a compellingly weird character. paper boi could maybe overcome his writers' block by using wiley's little song as a hook!

the last scene of ep4 with the minnie ripperton song was really beautiful somehow

Ep6 was super on the nose (this whole season has been kinda on the nose) but I get why

As I was telling a friend -

I feel like we’re in a moment where creators are pointedly hitting the nail in the head because if they don’t many audiences will 100% not understand what’s happening - because they don’t have time to understand.. A lot of people exist on the surface of media because there’s too much media to absorb or they’re caught up in the chaos of life

this season is getting to be a little too much. enough of the one-off white ppl episodes

It's been an amazing season so far.

i was wondering if this was a one off or if we would see, maybe one of Sylvia's daughters or the Tribeca guy or maybe the dad again? the dad was the least cartoonish of the two parents. the scene where they were talking to Sebastian about death made me want to puke, their voices, blecch. but what is the value to the show of feeling yucky about those parents? i get it and yet i don't.

i'd did lol when i found out the Tribeca guy is Chet Hanks

Tonight’s episode, you guys

Died at “I’ll just let fate take care of it.”

Lol that was funny

You kinda have to watch this with the volume cranked or you miss a lot of incidental adlibbed dialogue

Or “adlibbed” dialogue

When drugged-up Al was walking along and listening to Stereolab, that felt so much like Joe Buck's arrival at the fake-Warhol party in Midnight Cowboy--may even have been an allusion.

“You didn’t have to call the boy Clarence Thomas. He ain’t THAT white.”

lol that last shot

lol'd at 'which soda is good for you?'

That last shot is amazing

one of the best parts of ATLANTA is how it shows all of these ways to be, and people moving between them, and they’re all so idiosyncratic and somewhat distorted so at no point do you think “hmm, yeah, that character… they’re a role model”

except maybe Van, and I have no idea where she’s going to end up. she probably doesn’t, either

life imitates art imitates life etc.

A white mom on Fox News is complaining that her mixed son now sees himself as “a Black man.” She’s suing the school, says CRT taught her son to not do his chores.

— Sophia Tesfaye (@SophiaTesfaye) May 16, 2022

i think i liked last week's ep more than any of the other anthology episodes

Is this gonna be a Van-centric episode? Feels like it.

https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/stephen-glover-atlanta-writer-interview?utm_campaign=complexmag&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR2UY69xgA-0WJL-9lDQiZhaPwPqCWV-Wo1NsF4Zjc_sdpD8eyDoNwZgTpU

regarding the weird show descriptions:

Stephen "Glover wrote the episode descriptions for Atlanta’s third season. The description for “Three Slaps” reads: “Wow it’s been a minute. I mean, I like this episode about the troubled kid but we waited 50 years for this?” “I told him to write them like somebody who hates Atlanta and he was like, ‘Bet,’” Donald Glover says."

I just caught up on the last two seasons. S2 was consistently excellent and hilarious. As for S3, most of the anthology episodes have been watchable, but I didn't like this week's Van ep at all and I usually like her character. it was a strange season overall, I didn't feel like they were always playing to their strengths

https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/stephen-glover-atlanta-writer-interview?utm_campaign=complexmag&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR3kiqrhQoRGgDW2iDeNqdAmA0CuEcntvIuQDbcisOeIEGQ6nhxGjrdqRbk

get this girl a cigarette she’s freezing

I didn't like the finale at all.

yeah I was pretty disappointed, the Drake episode that focused on Van in S2 was one of the series' best

the van/darius episode in s3 keeps floating back into my mind

i watched the first half of the Van episode and honestly idgi
Maybe the second half will explain it
maybe

Kinda does but also not really worth it

I'm not sure if I did end up getting it. Dream/fantasy sequence is the obvious answer, her Amélie-like adventure brought on by guilt over Lottie, but the transition didn't make that clear.

Damn! Italicized instead of hiding the text. Sorry.

Skarsgård’a last few lines were great

it was absolutely not a dream sequence, there wasn't even any ambiguity like there was in the edible adventure episode

anyway, i thought this episode was hilarious, one of the funniest of the season if not the funniest

for anyone wondering, my prior post about how maybe Van was going to show us how to be was definitely tongue-in-cheek. even I wasn't expecting this level of meltdown

I don't think any of it's a dream/fantasy sequence, just an ongoing state of absurdity that this season has leaned into

Read up a bit, and you're right, it's not a dream. I thought the whole thing was silly, even if it has all these artful references I just read about. I sat there the whole time thinking "this is ridiculous." And yes, I loved those other Van episodes like the Drake one.

The funniest line drop for me was Van admitting she started this Amelie shtick a few weeks ago

one thing this finale revealed is that van 100% definitely did steal that wig that the karen accused her of stealing lol

and it was likely the amelie wig

Good catch...I feel like I'm coming down too harshly on a show I've really admired. I thought about it some more, and here's the problem for me: stylistically, it's done in a broad, over-the-top manner that strongly suggests dream/fantasy. If it is for real, I think you need to tone that down quite a bit and somehow anchor it in the here and now. The celebrity cameo is not helpful in that regard.

i don't think it was particularly out of step with the heightened reality that has always existed in this show, but mileage may vary, i guess

feels a lot like satire through magic realism to me tbh

have we already forgotten the invisible car

or, say, the entirety of that teddy perkins episode

I actually have forgotten the invisible car (Teddy Perkins was one of my least favourite episodes).

Maybe I'm over-explaining something much simpler: I like the real Van a lot, and hated her as that character.

I had fun with this season but understand the frustrations many have with it.

Hopefully S4 will be more straightforward.

I loved everything about this season. It was very discomfiting, as m/l explicitly intended.

I just finished Ron Brownstein's Rock Me on the Water, about film/music/TV/Jerry Brown in early-'70s L.A., and one of the things it goes into is network interference in the early days of All in the Family/Mary Tyler Moore/MASH. I take it that such a thing barely exists these days. I'm not even talking about sex or profanity, more conceptually; it's almost inconceivable you could have a show where the three lead characters are not in four out of 10 episodes.

I don't think Atlanta's level of rule breaking would be allowed in most other places, even now. Glover(s) got special allowances from FX/Hulu.

i would guess that it's less about "allowing" 4 episodes where the main cast doesn't appear, more like "lakeith is only available for 5 episodes, zazie can do 4, brian can do 6–how can we make this work?"

these folks are busy, and this fractured approach is probably more a result of busy schedules and covid regulations than anyone on the creative team would likely admit

Hadn't considered that, but it's still something to get the go-ahead; I would think most shows would just shut down (like Mindhunter did, so yes, xposts, maybe Atlanta's the exception right now) until everyone's available.

this fractured approach is probably more a result of busy schedules and covid regulations

Yeah I figured that was the case, much like how Arrested Development S4 focused on one character at a time to accommodate busy schedules

It would be strange to hate the finale because of the surrealism, it's a show built around that. I just found the episode a lot more annoying than amusing, seems that everyone's mileage varies. I think I'd feel the same about Amelie if I watched that movie again now heh

I think they probably have a decent script backlog, and apparently all of this season (according to what I read) was written in 2019, when everyone was even more busy

It would be strange to hate the finale because of the surrealism, it's a show built around that. I just found the episode a lot more annoying than amusing

Same for me, if I've been ambiguous about that; I didn't at all object to the weirdness or surrealism, just the specific idea and the execution of it.

What was the significance of the photo in the post credits scene?

the white guy from the beginning of the season has the same name as him?

Ah, cheers

We be in the city. OFFICIAL TRAILER for #AtlantaFX: The Final Season. September 15 on FX. Stream on @Hulu. pic.twitter.com/LdxidH63oI

— AtlantaFX (@AtlantaFX) August 2, 2022

for the final season, they’re taking it back to where it all began

wait that’s still the title of the show, wtf

Can't wait!

I was pretty up-to-date with Top 40 hip-hop in 1993, so I'm surprised I have no memory at all of Paperboy's "Ditty," which I stumbled over when I started looking into the origins of the name Paper Boi--an amalgamation, I guess, of Big Boi and Paperboy. Anyway, I started down that road because of a book I'm reading on the USFL. I wanted to know if the name was maybe a reference to an obscure corner of league history having to do with Greg Fields' nickname for a couple of teammates: "The two were heading for a meeting, and Fields looked at Kraus--who was being paid $1 million over six years--and said, 'Wellllllll, fuck--there's the big paper boy!'" Fields starting calling the two teammates "the big paper boys," and he became known as Big Paper.

Maybe the 1993 Paperboy took his name from all of that.

I thought paper was a straightforward reference to money? (all about that paper, boy)

I'm looking for meaning in all the wrong places--I'm sure it's a straightforward as you say. (In which case 1993 Paperboy was at least thinking along the same lines as 1984 Greg Fields.)

great use of Cousteau in the trailer

in the us, the paperboy delivered your morning paper. in atlanta, paper boi gets that paper

Halfway between, Tony Soprano, standing at the end of his driveway.

https://phildellio.tripod.com/paper.jpg

There were/are many rappers out there named Paperboy (with various spellings, etc).

This will never not be hilarious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1kmT_Yv3Ss

yes!

This has started up again--final season, right? I'm just finishing a rewatch of The Americans, will get started right after.

Yep. We’re back!

First episode was hilarious

last two episodes so good

"8 minutes"

Haven't seen the last two episodes but Alfred's storyline in episode 3 was amazing. I've been enjoying this season more than the previous so far

“Safe farm is there”

That’s a keeper.

I liked that they apparently bargained shoe man from 8 minutes down to 3 seconds.

Hahaha this episode

This was such a random swerve at this point in the season

I'm four episodes in. Liked the first two (and was glad to see all the principles back), so-so on the third, thought the fourth started slow and got better and better. There was a great line about dementia. The idea of building an episode around spite reminded me of Jerry trying to return the jacket in Seinfeld.

I guess FX being owned by Disney has had one positive outcome now

amazing

googling after the episode led me to this incredible Roger Ebert three-star review of A Goofy Movie, written after the projector broke two-thirds of the way through: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-goofy-movie-1995

Bravo! What an episode (again)!

Not sure what to make of E5. Pleasantly weird, but I didn't really laugh.

Was that the Mr Chocolate episode?

Seem to remember lots of laughs in that one

Yeah it was. Liked that episode but found it more weird and amusing than laugh-out-loud funny. Now, episode 6... some of the most laughs I've had from this show

A little embarrassed how long it took me to realize the latest episode was not a real story

Ha. It was so well crafted (and acted) though

Most of the laughs in episode 5 were at how absurd it all was but the end when Mr Chocolate loses it and screams "I shall have her! She can't be not-eighteen forever!" definitely cracked me up

Ha, wait -

Did a throwaway joke from the “Crank Dat Killer” episode pay off?!?

Thought the weirdness of S6 was funnier than S5, especially the very last scene where Darius responds to Paper Boi and Some Guy Named Doug's recording.

maybe thirty minoots

lost it completely at that bit

I was never more fucked up by any scene than by the one just preceding that thirty minoots line. The only comparison I can think of is the nightmare sequence in Mulholland Drive, but this one was tied to much deeper feelings. I can't believe someone put THAT on screen. Easily the greatest show of all time, like it's not even close.

I’m definitely going to think “don’t worry, I’m still in the tank” a few times this week

What a way to go out.

This is so weird so often, E7 (camping) was strange in how decidedly un-weird it was. I liked it; thought they controlled the tone really well. Thinking about E8...Deadpan-perfect, just a lot to process.

E7 felt like the quiet, rewarding end of Earn and Van's plot arc and I appreciated that

Maybe the whole series was Darius retelling the events of the last few years, while having a very tenuous grasp on what happened during tank time and what was real

I haven't kept up with this thread because we hadn't seen S3 yet, let alone S4. But we just jumped back in and started S3, and we were immediately reminded, boy, is this show good (and weird). Can't wait to hit S4.

yeah i’m way behind in early s3

looking forward to whats in store

As I watched E7--and always anticipating the weird turn--I was thinking "Get Out...no, wait; Deliverance...no wait..."

The tension is so thick in that one, both because of how it’s directed and what this show has trained us to anticipate.

you might say the episode was a metaphorical snipe hunt

🥁

E9: bucolic, like E7, but with the scary stuff left in. Broke one of my cardinal soundtracking rules early on with the Geto Boys--used a great song only to cut it off almost immediately (they could have had Alfred wander around aimlessly for two minutes while it played, I'd have been happy)--but made up for it with "Under Me Sleng Teng" (great! new to me) and Ray Charles.

Omg the mall scene - ep 6 so full of moments
Love this show so much!!!

Just started watching with my daughter (21). We just finished Wayne, which she now says is her favourite show ever. We watched S1E1 & 2 and she’s spellbound. I’ve only seen season 1 & 2 myself so I’m stoked to do the whole journey.

We just finished season 3. I know other seasons have leaned into horror here and there, but this entire season was written and directed like a horror anthology.

Tbh that’s why I haven’t gotten past the first 2 episodes of s3.

yeah there is a noticeable "throw every idea i have ever had into the bag" feeling to this show in general but i tend to appreciate that -- the impulse to seize the day and make the stuff you wanna make before someone takes the opportunity away from you is real

otm. Season 4 has some of this still but it calms down. Worth finishing.

s3 was in the tank

these backhoes aint loyal

Lol

i knew donald glover was overseeing a remake of mr & mrs smith (which seems completely unnecessary ..)

but had no idea he was also involved in a slasher/comedy show about obsessive music fans referred to as the swarm (uh, beyhive) and its coming out in march???

just saw trailer for it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OggFj5z2SLg

I'm only at the end of s3 right now but did no-one itt talk about the Cancel Club cameo?! This show has gotten more wtf. I kind of like it but also feel like maybe I'm not 'getting' everything.

I finally finished the show last week. Give Glover all the money.

Atlanta writer Stefani Robinson creating a remake of Peep Show, or at least using the Peep Show format (with approval of Mitchell and Webb), but with two american women.

Easily the greatest show of all time, like it's not even close.

― gospodin simmel, Friday, November 11, 2022 1:46 PM

marathoned everything (which was all rewatch except for the last season) to coincide with the finale last year and i had a similar reaction after the last ep.

i've kind of kept quiet ever since, but honestly: gospodin otm. such a perfectly fluid execution of comedy and commentary, seriousness and surrealism.

you know a show is good when you try to think of a single favorite episode and all of your candidates are spread evenly across the show's lifespan.

Atlanta writer Stefani Robinson creating a remake of Peep Show, or at least using the Peep Show format (with approval of Mitchell and Webb), but with two american women.

― dan selzer, Wednesday, March 8, 2023 6:45 AM

this sounds amazing lol!

I just finished it too, actually. So many purgatorial spaces.

Almost everyone I know was put off by the last two seasons but idk, I really liked it and was happy to roll with everything.

My wife likes the stuff centered around the core cast *least* and loves all the stand-alone and solo episodes.

The last two seasons, I guess I let the show be whatever it wanted to be--definitely not liking every episode, but admiring (most of) its weirdness along the way--but the real highlights were in the first two seasons for me. Right to the end, my favourite moment remained the end of the Drake episode, something I quoted earlier in the thread:

Vanessa's friend: "Can you help me stop thinking?"
Darius: (pause) "Perhaps."

as someone who grew up maybe 10 miles from Glover with only a 4 year age difference i have to say he did a really good job of representing Atlanta. esp the Helen episode and the ep that i assume took place at georgia southern university for a wider look at the state. so many scenes in the inner burbs where everything's green and lush, tons of trees. the industrial areas surrounded by forest. made me miss the place

Atlanta writer Stefani Robinson creating a remake of Peep Show, or at least using the Peep Show format (with approval of Mitchell and Webb), but with two american women.

Are you an AI generating stuff that it seems like I might like but in reality is likely to make no sense? :)
There have been a few US versions of Peep Show iirc, the one I saw sucked badly.
I'd give it a chance...

https://www.google.com/search?q=stefani+robinson+peep+show&rlz=1C5GCEM_enUS1019US1020&oq=stefa&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j46i39j69i57j46i433i512j0i131i433l2j69i60j69i65.1084j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I loved the spite episode so much. any over-elaborate plan like that - was trying to think what other series had done something in the same ball park then realised I was probably thinking of that episode of WWDITS...

Loved seasons 1+2 but never picked it back up when season 3 came out, so I am very late to the party, with that said: I need an 8,000 word oral history about how the hell the season 3 premiere got made and aired. Possibly also a "Clipped"-style BtS drama.

Just saw Stephen Glover wrote Guava Island and House Party. These worth watching? His work on Atlanta is pretty amazing.

When Darius and Van are thrifting in Amsterdam together, they leave the thrift store and Darius randomly does a little dance and sings "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" == everything I love about this show

❤️

Love this show. I’m determined to rewatch the whole thing this year