FX's "Atlanta" Remains a Trippy Triumph

This is the kind of TV we39ve come to expect from these guys and they39re still bringing it to us in spades Case in point for this the beginning of their penultimate season they decided to not catch us up on what Earn Van Darius and Paper Boi have been up to this entire time because guess what They weren39t even in the first episode except for a fleeting appearance by Earn at the endThis coming November will mark six years since my first review for MediaVillage was published and of course that column was about this show We still may not know what that sandwich guy on the bus in season one was all about but a lot has happened since thenFirst of all for those who somehow don39t know Atlanta follows Earn Glover as he manages the rap career of his cousin Alfred aka Paper Boi Brian Tyree Henry with their friend Darius LaKeith Stanfield and Earn39s ex and baby mama Van Zazie Beats While the majority of the show takes place in the title location the promos for this season have depicted a more European backdrop for the group39s exploits How they all got to where they are since we last saw them in the finale of the previous season an unbelievable four years ago is still a straight up mysterySo what was the first episode about Simply put it was a reimagining of the Hart Family massacre If you haven39t heard of it it was a murdersuicide in 2018 in which a white married couple Jennifer and Sarah Hart drove themselves and the six children of color they39d adopted off of a cliff to their collective demiseNow a cold open from Atlanta is nothing new we all remember the Robbin39 Season opening of season two but this is the first time that an entire episode was dedicated to one It followed a boy named Laquarius as he got in trouble at school His mother and what I believe was his grandfather were called and after she yells at him and the grandfather gives him three quick slaps to the face his overprotective teacher gets involved resulting in a visit at home from a social worker Laquarius39 mother believing he was the one who called packed lil39 man a bag pushed him out the door and said amp8220Take himamp8221 This is how Laquarius ends up with the two women whom I believe are meant to represent the HartsOnce I figured out what I was watching I began to wonder if it was in good taste I mean these were real kids who were really murdered at the hands of two women who convinced the world that there wasn39t any abuse taking place at home The situation isn39t being made light of but I did still get the gut feeling that this was ground to be very carefully treaded upon if any treading was to be done at allMany little things are done to tie this fictional account to the real one the number of kids the social workers closing in on these women etc but the standout moment to me was the farmers market scene in which Laquarius who these white ladies tried to rename amp8220Larryamp8221 by the way gets sick of the way he is treated at the fake Harts39 home and runs into the arms of a nearby officer The ladies explain to the cop that L is just tired and wants to home even though he clearly said they were working him all the time and not feeding him A picture is taken of him hugging the cop for dear life and is spun by the fictional media as a positive interaction between a boy of color and a white cop and the picture is stunningly similar to a published photo of Devonte Hart for whom I believe Laquarius is the episode39s proxyUnlike in real life Laquarius figures out the women39s plan and escapes the minivan just before the couple drives off a bridge towards the episode39s end In real life Devonte39s body was never found so it39s not completely implausible that he survived as well however unlikelyThen Earn wakes up in bed because this was all some dream he hadI39m not sure what the message or implications of this episode are meant to be but it was executed in that classic Atlanta style Murai gave us more of those uneasy feelings he39s become so accustomed to delivering in this show and if nothing else it allowed Devonte and his adopted siblings to have their story told even if it was through the lens of historical fiction In some ways this is the happy ending they never got and maybe that39s why Earn dreamt it because we should all be dreaming of happier endings for Black childrenNow in the next episode we do see Earn and the gang running around what we now know is Copenhagen and Amsterdam because they39re on the European leg of Paper Boi39s tour Despite the long reallife COVIDdriven hiatus the show seems to have gotten them right back into the flow of dealing with the unbelievably surreal nature of their lives Earn is still bending over backwards managing Alfred PB Alfred is enjoying the hell out of his international fans Darius is still meeting the weirdest people while being constantly high and Van who doesn39t usually run with this whole little crew is trying to find herself due to some existential crisis she seems to be havingRegardless the setting change is a refreshing one and it39s interesting as all hell to see what bringing that Atlanta vibe to a place that39s decidedly not Atlanta feels like It39s dope by the wayLike I said earlier I39ve been covering this show for the entirety of my writing career and I have been a GloverGambino fan for even longer and in that half a decade the man has yet to disappoint me The only disappointment I anticipate from these guys is the sting that I39ll feel when the fourth and final season comes and eventually endsAtlanta is telecast Thursdays at 10 pm on FX New episodes stream the following day on HuluClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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FX's "Atlanta" Remains a Trippy Triumph

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Ainsley Andrade

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