You can take the characters out of Atlanta, but you can’t take the Atlanta out of the characters. As FX’s critical darling “Atlanta” returns for its third season, filmed and set almost entirely in Europe, that’s an important concept to remember. Earn (Donald Glover), Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry), Darius (LaKeith Stanfield), and Van (Zazie Beetz) may be thousands of miles away from Atlanta, but the series makes clear from the jump that the titular spirit is still present. Perhaps even more so, as the series’ characters deal with being fish out of water in an international setting.
When “Atlanta” Season 2 ended back in 2018 (all of Season 3 was written in 2019, but COVID-19 led to production delay) Alfred (aka rapper Paper Boi) was on his way to Europe as the opening act for successful rapper Clark County, with cousin/manager Earn and best friend Darius in tow.