So, what is Atlanta? Atlanta is a new Dramedy aired by FX Networks and created by none other than Donald Glover, who many of you may remember as Troy in Dan Harmon's brilliant comedy "Community". He left Community midway through Season 5, a news that was received with despair by many fans, to pursue his career as a rapper known as "Childish Gambino", but now he's back in the TV landscape with his new project, in which he also stars. The show draws many comparisons from "Louie" by Louis C.K., a trailblazer in this unique kind of TV show that are created, written and directed by its star itself (sometimes even produced, edited etc.), a genre that has expanded a lot since Louie's debut 6 years ago, partially because of the success of that show, and now counts many more representatives, like Broad City (on Comedy Central), Girls (on HBO) or Master of None (on Netflix).
Donald Glover plays Earn Marks, and as the show opens the first of the two half-hour episodes that were aired Tuesday night, aptly called "The Big Bang" which symbolizes the beginning of the universe, so in some way this episode is the beginning of this universe represented by the show, and also, in a much more practical way, references the “bang” happening at the end of the scene. As I was saying, in the cold open Earn finds himself as a mediator in a brawl between a man that passing by kicked the side mirror of rapper Paper Boi's car and the rapper himself. The rapper wants to be paid for the damage, guns are drawn, Earn tries to cool things off and then BANG, here comes the opening sequence, and we soon find out that the whole scene was a flash forward, serving as an in medias res beginning for the show. One of the things that I liked a lot about these first two episodes, is exemplified during the opening scene, and it is how naturally the show manages to overlap layers of surrealism, dramatics and just pure comedy. Again, working with all these elements is something that all these "slice of life" dramedy have in common, but not one of them has ever been this comfortable and smooth in playing with all these tools within the same scene or sequence.
So, who is Earn? He's a college dropout from Princeton -the first two episodes don't expand on the reasons that brought him to leave school, but I'm sure we'll know sooner rather than later- trying to raise a child with a lame-ass job as a travel agent, a job that he isn't even particularly successful at, living with his parents -his father is played by Isiah Whitlock Jr, better known as Clay "sheeeeeeit" Davis in The Wire- while also dealing with Vanessa, his longtime friend, who also happens to be the mother of his daughter. He finds out that his cousin Alfred is also known as “Paper Boi”, an up and coming rapper, and senses the opportunity of taking advantage of this connection to become the manager of a possibly soon to be very famous and very rich rapper. His cousin, Alfred, sees right through his attempt and denies him initially, but becomes willing to reconsider once Earn manages to have his song played on one of Atlanta's radio –a feat that Earn managed to accomplish with craftiness, and the help of some healthy “white guy guilt”-, and that leads us back to the opening scene of the episode, and the "big bang".
Earn is definitely a "loser". He still kind of lives on and off with his parent, has a daughter he can't take care of, and a job with a very low ceiling, but in the first episode he proves how he can get things done when he puts his mind into it. The second half hour, called "Streets On Lock" has a split focus, while Alfred gets out of jail following the shooting almost immediately, thanks to Darius -his best friend, perennially stoned and kind of a “visionary”- posting his bail, Earn is forced to remain on lock-up, hoping that Vanessa, the mother of his daughter, will come to post his bail sooner rather than later. While waiting, he experiences some of the surreal characters you could encounter while being held by the police, and as I stated earlier in the review, it is amazing how the show smoothly shifts its mood from pure comedy to harsh drama without missing a beat. Like in the scene where a mentally challenged man gives the whole station a good laugh while acting nuts and doing stuff like drinking water out of the toilet, before making the terrible mistake of jokingly spitting some of that water onto an agent, which earns him a very graphic and hard to watch beating that Earn is forced to witness from close quarters. This arch also tackles transphobia, with basically all of the prisoner making fun of one guy because he hooked up with a transgender “Why you think she in jail with the men? She'd be on the other side.”
Meanwhile, out in the world, Alfred discovers some of the perks that come from being a known music star. From the food joint giving him the special VIP sauce on his teriyaki wings, with the waiter complimenting him for the shootout "he heard about on Twitter", to the mother of one and caretaker of three that once finding out of his identity goes from "how dare you parenting my children" to "let's take a selfie together". Despite being kind of a thug, Alfred showed some remorse about the shooting when witnessing the children pretending to be him while playing at "shooting at each other". There are also a couple of elements in his story arch that will probably recur and re-emerge later in the season, like the feeling that Alfred has of being stalked around by some shady guys, and the absolutely hilarious and surreal bit when one man wearing a mask of Batman shows up on his doorstep asking if Paper Boy lives there before running away.
All in all, I found this to be a stellar kick-off for Glover's new show, one that doesn't skimp on laugh, while also showing sensitivity on some of the more serious contemporary topics. Both of the episodes where brilliantly directed by Hiro Murai, and while this isn't certainly Mr. Robot or The Knick, the direction did an excellent job of conveying the tone of decadence that accompanies Earl's adventure in Atlanta, while also showing some great production values, definitely on the upper end as far as cable comedies go. So what did you all think? The show deserves all the praise that is getting online, or it hasn't convinced you yet? Sound off in the comments!
Grades:
1.01 - "The Big Bang" - A
1.02 - "Streets On Lock" - A-
