If you missed the premiere of “Atlanta” last night on FX, you missed one of the most promising and original shows of the fall season. With sparse but effective use of hip-hop, sharply-written dialogue and a relaxed pace, Donald Glover has created a series that floats from one thought-provoking topic to another while eliciting some dark laughs along the way. Here’s what “Atlanta” has tackled in just the first two episodes.
Subverting Expectations
“Atlanta” begins with the most frigid of cold opens. A smashed side mirror starts a conflict between two black guys that ends with a gun going off. To some, it may seem like this is going to be the incident that the whole series revolves around. Instead, it’s only a small part of a greater whole, and by the end of Episode 2, the shooting and subsequent arrests are seemingly resolved and put in the past.
The Cost of Following Your Dreams
It’s easy to miss, but a throwaway line reveals that our protagonist, Earn (played by Glover), is a Princeton dropout. He works part-time selling credit cards at the airport for pocket change and throws what little money he has to help pay his girlfriend’s rent into a scheme to become the manager for his rapper cousin, Paper Boi. Glover quietly shows the despair and big risks that come with trying to make big dreams come true, especially when you risk losing what little stability you have left in your life if you fail.
The N Word
One of the best satirical sequences in the premiere comes when Earn tries to get help from a white friend who works at the radio station. The White Buddy doesn’t feel threatened by Earn, and thinks it’s appropriate to tell a story about a DJ playing Flo Rida that ends with White Buddy saying “Really, n—–?” Earn teaches him a lesson later when he asks him to retell the story to Paper Boi. Suddenly White Buddy isn’t so comfortable with dropping that word around a much larger black man.
The Price of Fame, Pt. 1
Thanks to Earn’s schemes, Paper Boi is getting his music played on the radio all day and is an overnight local hit. Unfortunately, that instant fame gets him a bunch of awkward encounters with some weird folks, starting with a grinning cop who brags about locking up Gucci Mane.
The Price of Fame, Pt. 2
Later, when getting chicken wings with his buddy, Darius, Paper Boi gets some high praise from a waiter who loves his commitment to classic rap (particularly rappers who are dead). It’s nice at first, but it quickly gets uncomfortable when the waiter says, “Don’t let me down. I don’t know what I’ll do.” Some fans just take the music more seriously than the musicians themselves.
The Price of Fame, Pt. 3
Then, in a nod to the sort of bizarre humor Glover built his career on while doing Derrick Comedy and “30 Rock,” Darius and Paper Boi get a visit from a guy in a Batman mask who just wanted to know where the new hot rapper in town lived. As Batman sprints off, Darius puts the episode’s moral succinctly to Paper Boi: “Man, You’re Too Hot.”
Movie References
That’s not to say Paper Boi’s newfound stardom is entirely bad. He gets a cool gift from that clingy waiter: wet lemon-pepper wings with the sauce. To drive home how much of a cherished foodstuff these are in Atlanta, we see gold light shine out of the box as Darius and Paper look inside. It’s a clever reference to the briefcase from “Pulp Fiction,” a film that “Atlanta” also nods to with its witty, rapid-fire dialogue.
The Slow Wheels of Justice
Oh, yeah, this show started with a shooting, right? Episode 2 opens with Earn casually talking with Paper Boi in the police station about how he’s never been arrested before. He then spends the rest of the episode alone, waiting for his girlfriend to bail him out. That dramatic opening confrontation didn’t lead to Earn getting interrogated by cops. It led to him sitting in a drab room waiting for permission to get on with his life.
Police Brutality
That’s not to say nothing happens at the station. The cops have a laugh at a mentally unstable man in a hospital gown who drinks toilet water. Earn’s bewildered suggestion that someone get him help is laughed off, but the cops stop laughing the instant the man spits the water all over one of the guards. Batons get whipped out, and the man is left wailing as three cops beat him down and rapidly slap cuffs on him.
Cult of Celebrity
While out and about, Paper Boi sees some kids pretending to shoot each other with toy guns after listening to his music. He tries to use his newfound celebrity for good, until the kids’ mother tells him off for trying to stick his nose where it doesn’t belong. Then he tells her who he is, and the next thing you know Angry Mom wants a selfie with a famous rapper. Funny how fame changes how we interact with people.
Keeping It Casual
“Atlanta” doesn’t shy away from a lot of social issues, but doesn’t aim to make some grandiose statement that brings it all together. Glover told the Daily Beast that he’s “not interested in making something important” and is most proud of the fact that the show “got away with being honest.” “Atlanta” is upfront about the real-life issues and struggles that its characters face, and in doing so is able to laugh through it.
