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Atlanta is a show created by and starring Donald Glover (Troy from Community, Childish Gambino, 30 Rock writer, original YouTube sketch comedian, etc) on FX. Set in the titular city, it follows a broke dude called Earnest "Earn" Marks as he discovers his cousin is an up-and-coming rapper in the local scene and attempts to become his manager. Main characters so far are Earn, his cousin Alfred (aka "Paper Boi") and Alfred's right-hand man Darius (one of the best new TV characters of the year so far). The show is a critical success so far, with many calling it the best new show of the fall season, and the premiere got the highest-ratings of any basic cable comedy premiere since Inside Amy Schumer, as well as FX's highest premiere ratings since Wilfred. Premiered last week with two eps both of which I absolutely loved. They're somewhat of a style with the music videos and short films he was putting out around the Because the Internet era but mostly very unique. They're very funny with some bizarre/surreal moments while also having very believable characterisation and y'know addressing social issues and whatnot too. Third ep aired last night, I've not seen it yet. There will be 10 overall. IMPORTANT RULE OF THE THREAD: Please do not use this thread or discussion of the show as a way to springboard into your personal feelings on "black people". Nobody cares about your weird racist bullshit, or about how you're afraid of black women, or about stupid offensive twitter videos, or any of that poo poo. Cool! if this seems too aggressive to you apologies but even the mildest discussion in couch chat brought some fuckin weird goon poo poo out of the woodwork this thread really needs the hip-hop tag but you can't get it in tviv so Escobarbarian fucked around with this message at 10:05 on Sep 14, 2016 |
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Sep 14, 2016 09:58
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How do you categorize auteur "comedies" like this? The word dramedy makes me think of The OC.
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Sep 14, 2016 10:02
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Here's some media for the show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpEdJ-mmTlY http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/atlanta/ Like so many other shows FX has put out, this appears to be another home run. There's some great dialogue, too- I'd drawn up a dummy OP and used "And this? This a lightsaber. Like Luke Skywalker." CBJSprague24 fucked around with this message at 15:02 on Sep 14, 2016 |
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Sep 14, 2016 15:00
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This is a good show. I like how Donald Glover let the city influence the process of creating the show. They capture Atlanta pretty well.
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Sep 14, 2016 15:35
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FX aired its pilot as a Youtube commercial and this show is definitely something top-quality. It's of a tone and feel that not a lot of shows have, and the writing is surprisingly effective. Glover not only can tell jokes, but he can also communicate a lot of character information in relatively few bits of dialogue. The episode never dragged and it has literally the greatest opening scene to a television series I think I've ever seen. It's something you should take and show a classroom of students and say "this is how you open a series". Too bad I don't watch cable, but I'd binge it on Netflix.
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Sep 14, 2016 15:43
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"Yeah, my name is '12 Years a Slave'. The slave." ep 3 was great
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Sep 14, 2016 15:52
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The Migos bit at the end had me dying EDIT: I didn't actually know what the Migos looked like so I didn't get it until the very end but it was great RedneckwithGuns fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Sep 14, 2016 |
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Sep 14, 2016 18:09
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i like the show's top down shots. the shot of them followin the escalade into the woods reminds me of shows with a lot more prestige weight behind them
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Sep 14, 2016 20:18
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The moment when Donald Glover said "sexuality is a spectrum" to that guy in jail had me howling with laughter. Good show. Will watch more.
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Sep 14, 2016 21:37
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Love Dong Lover and am glad he is back on TV.
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Sep 14, 2016 22:01
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I don't find my self laughing out loud too much with Atlanta, even though there are some really funny bits, I think I just worry too much for the characters. Still amazing and hilarious, and I love watching every moment of it. Excited to see next week's.Console Role Player posted:The moment when Donald Glover said "sexuality is a spectrum" to that guy in jail had me howling with laughter. Good show. Will watch more. I definitely laughed at this bit though. Unrelated, I was talking at a party to a dude who was talking about being gay, and I said I see sexuality as a spectrum and his first knee-jerk response was, 'are you making fun of my sexuality?'. Is talking about sexuality as a spectrum some tropey poo poo or something? curse of flubber fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Sep 14, 2016 |
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Sep 14, 2016 22:05
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Megaspel posted:Unrelated, I was talking at a party to a dude who was talking about being gay, and I said I see sexuality as a spectrum and his first knee-jerk response was, 'are you making fun of my sexuality?'. Is talking about sexuality as a spectrum some tropey poo poo or something? I don't think so. Only thing that comes to mind is that the word "spectrum" itself has been increasingly associated with autism in recent years. This show is loving great and I can't wait to see more. Brian Tyree Henry (Paper Boi) is also on Vice Principals on HBO, he has some great comedic reaction faces. http://i.imgur.com/Fy7hr5O.gifv e:Stolen from imgur, ignore the arrow
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Sep 14, 2016 22:19
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Console Role Player posted:The moment when Donald Glover said "sexuality is a spectrum" to that guy in jail had me howling with laughter. Good show. Will watch more. That whole bit through episode 2 just reminded me of every lovely jury duty experience I ever had (it's the closest I've come to lockup yet). I was dying.
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Sep 14, 2016 23:34
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I've been an off-again, on-again fan of Donald Glover. I find a lot of his old stand-up stuff to be hackneyed, kind of immature, and overly reliant on the "I'm a special snowflake Black nerd" poo poo. His stint on Girls was useless, but I thought he did a good job on Community. His music has shown a lot of growth and he's willing to experiment with different sounds, which appeals to me. All of that to say, I was really dubious when I saw the first promos for this show, aside from the extremely choice Tame Impala track. After talking to a few friends, I watched the first two episodes back to back. The only criticism I have is that this show isn't an hour long. It's loving great. I can't remember the last show that dealt with working class or poor Black people, that treated Black culture as something normal (rather than abberant or pathologized), and that managed to be funny while also offering up a lot of touchstones of common frustrations, challenges, failures, etc without being overly preachy. They manage to nail the surreal aspects of everyday life without pushing it so far that it feels unbelievable or inaccessible, and get some really good laughs out of it that still make you think "man that's hosed up", Episode 2 in particular. The easy parallel would be Blackish, but that feels out of place to me given that it's a sitcom. I also think the "Master of None" comparisons are a bit lazy. This feels like something new, or at least something that hasn't had a moment to shine like this in a long time. I hope it continues to do well. Edit: Dying at this "daddy" conversation in Episode 3. Mat Cauthon fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Sep 15, 2016 |
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Sep 14, 2016 23:52
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This show is amazing. Still thinking about it as a whole but I'm wildly into how the show deals with Earn's blackness. I know Donald Glover has taken poo poo for not being 'black enough' and he's turned that into a fascinating narrative with Earn without going preachy. Every bit that deals with it cuts off perfectly. A bad show would've driven home the white DJ's changing story, or had some explicit line about race while Earn was waiting on bail, etc. Darius is hilarious as all hell. If you don't know him, Keith Stanfield has been real good in a couple projects -- especially Short Term 12. Paper Boi has a ton of depth to him already, too. This show could just be about him and it'd still be great. I'd like to see more of Van, though. She's not given much beyond being negative (which is legit because she's got real beef with Earn, but I want to see more of her individual character). edit: someone on Slate's culture podcast compared this to The Wire which might be the whitest loving thing I've ever heard.
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Sep 15, 2016 21:18
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This is a pretty good show. I was hesitant to watch but I was hooked after watching the first episode on youtube. Glad the characters are more than stereotypes.
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Sep 15, 2016 23:33
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i am the bird posted:edit: someone on Slate's culture podcast compared this to The Wire which might be the whitest loving thing I've ever heard.  Yeah and Blackish is pretty much Oz.
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Sep 15, 2016 23:37
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i am the bird posted:This show is amazing. Jesus Christ, white people. I love this show and all of the little nods to life here in Atlanta is great. I never thought I'd see hood staples like J.R. Crickets or Zesto's in a mainstream TV program.
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Sep 16, 2016 03:03
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It'd be fair to compare it to the Wire in that it is a show with a majority black cast (literally only one white guy shows up in the first episode), and also it has Clay Davis as Dong Lover's dad. Other'n that though, sheeeeeeeiiiit.
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Sep 16, 2016 03:35
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This show is loving amazing, for real. I rewatched the first episode again and was totally blown away by the first scene because I had forgotten all about the deja vu and the surreal stuff about it looping. So good. Did you just come from that dumpster? No. How are you? Conald Glover's delivery of pretty much all of his lines that first episode is amazing. And that DJ is such a loving prick. What a show.
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Sep 16, 2016 03:52
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Vanderdeath posted:Jesus Christ, white people. same. i hate to compare this show to the wire, because it isn't, but it really brings atlanta to life in an authentic way like the wire did for baltimore
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Sep 16, 2016 20:42
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Popular Thug Drink posted:same. i hate to compare this show to the wire, because it isn't, but it really brings atlanta to life in an authentic way like the wire did for baltimore I think the comparison was based more on this idea. Atlanta and The Wire both focused on black life in America in a way that few shows go into.
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Sep 16, 2016 20:52
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well the wire is a show that ultimately tries to describe entire systems while, so far, atlanta is a personal story about mostly one guy. and obviously there's very few well crafted shows that tell black stories from a black perspective but really the thing that strikes me as the greatest similarity is the sheer versimilitude and authenticity of the purported setting. like this isn't being filmed on a sound stage in la, and they want you to notice the level of detail by introducing things like "the zesto's on moreland south of 20" as little nods that locals will appreciate. and the constant trees everywhere
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Sep 16, 2016 21:22
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The comparison re: the exploration of each city Baltimore/Atlanta is good but I'm not sure why The Wire would be someone's first example without subconsciously making a racial connection. edit: I guess this isn't totally fair because The Wire is certainly exceptional at portraying a city in all its detail. I'll just end by saying that it's goofy that Blackish, The Wire, and "black Master of None" are the comparisons. i am the bird fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Sep 16, 2016 |
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Sep 16, 2016 22:29
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gently caress, the mental case getting clubbed was too real, at least for me. Show is going places. Who the poo poo even categorized this as a straight comedy?
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Sep 17, 2016 07:42
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I've been very much enjoying Atlanta for reasons already talked about but was anyone else a little surprised that as of episode 3 the show already seems to have had two murders in it. Given the lead Migo referenced Paper Boi having murdered the man he shot in the pilot, and while we don't know for sure it didn't read to me as he was mistaken on that. Probably most of the shows I've watched involve a protagonist ordering and/or committing murder but it's very rare for a slice-of-life type dramedy and does a weird thing tonally to me that we see an execution and Paper Boi killed a man over a wing mirror and it has an utterly muted impact on the plot or the tone or the psyche of any of the characters, apart from scoring Paper Boi instant street rep. I guess there's a very dark strain of satire to exactly how blasé everyone is about black-on-black crime? Along with the aforementioned schizophrenic getting stomped the show does seem to be pushing a really pronounced emotional disconnect around social justice to the point where I can actually see where the Wire comparisons come in, at least on that specific thing rather than just Chocolate City Cable Show. Please forgive my white European-rear end self if I am saying anything overly naive
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Sep 17, 2016 21:04
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Didn't two dudes get murdered in the first episode of Breaking Bad? I feel like there's a pretty strong precedent on American TV to have murder or extreme violence right from the jump in any sort of drama. Maybe it's because I grew up in a bad area, but I didn't feel any sort of way about the violence in the show. It's just showing a slice-of-life that is more removed from what most people know, but it also depicts stable, peaceful lifestyles and doesn't glamorize any of them. It's up to the viewer to make their own determinations and reckon with their own biases about the environment, which is probably the point. The mentally ill guy getting stomped in processing I think is just meant to show people how poorly the system handles anyone who is unable to comply or meet a certain norm, and how people can rationalize their involvement or ignore their complicity in it. If you've ever been in lock up for even a day in a large city, you've probably seen a lot worse. Atlanta just put it on display for folks who don't have exposure to it. Also didn't Paper Boi say that he just wounded the guy, rather than kill him, at the start of Episode 2?
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Sep 17, 2016 21:48
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Sure, to feature murders in American cable drama pilots is typically less shocking than not having them, and you're right Breaking Bad had murder (albeit self-defensive) from the off, but I always considered that to be explicitly representing an extreme and not especially grounded plot path rather than the sort of comedy-drama where you're representing / moderately exaggerating a certain social group or subculture. Also Breaking Bad was absolutely about murder radically affecting the plot trajectory and tone and characters of the show, which is probably what makes Atlanta a more significant departure from what I'm used to, moreso than straying from the particular dramedy avenue I assumed it would be working. I might be misreading it. In episode 2 Paper Boi does say the cops didn't have a victim, which I take to mean the dude was winged and ran off, so presumably when the Migo mentioned murder that was only implying some street gossip exaggeration that he declined to try and correct. Still feels a little odd though. I don't really mean any of this as a criticism, I'm just still trying to work out what Glover is going for and I'm interested if anyone has thoughts on that
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Sep 17, 2016 22:31
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The shooting is going to be the crux of the season. It's already the biggest plot point. In what way do you feel like it's not affecting anything?
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Sep 17, 2016 23:04
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i like nice words
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I thought that was the guy that kicked a mirror in the interrogation room right next to Earn and Paper Boi at the beginning of the episode and that the point of all the murder talk was both the media and the fans blowing the whole thing out of proportion due to the whole illusion of street cred in the rap game.
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Sep 18, 2016 00:27
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Anne Whateley posted:The shooting is going to be the crux of the season. It's already the biggest plot point. In what way do you feel like it's not affecting anything? I did not say that it is not affecting anything, I said it's muted. The show is so far a fairly loosely plotted comedy largely revolving around the social embarrassment of a rising-star rapper getting more deference and attention than he's comfortable with and his manager-cousin getting less than he would like. That some fairly stark violence features prominently in the show while also maintaining the absence of where more serious dramas usually take it - like skipping past anything resembling a police procedural, not presenting the witnessing / performing of violence disturb or hang over the characters or anyone close to them or even anyone they incidentally encounter but instead having them get on with the social comedy stuff - that's what I'm talking about. So the shooting is in there as an Inciting Incident, but as a way of heightening Paper Boi's profile and making it more awkward for Earn to exist in his wake, i.e. for comedic purposes more than dramatic ones. Which seems in itself pretty dark in how it reflects on their world. I'm down with the general notion that Paper Boi is probably headed for a fall before the season ends and it might even circle back to the shooting, but the introduction and undercutting of the stakes typical of the most grimdark dramas rather than half-hour slice-of-life comedies suggests an end unto itself to me, rather than straightforward foreshadowing. I'm into it but a little thrown by it.
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Sep 18, 2016 00:32
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How do you think it didn't disturb the characters? Does Paperboi not look hosed up to you every time it comes up? The whole thing about how he didn't want to go out, he didn't want to be around people, he didn't like the woman's turnaround, he didn't like how the Migos were impressed . . . he's not like having a breakdown, but I don't think it could hang over him any more. All the time Ern spent in custody wasn't enough about police procedures? I guess if you approached it as a slice-of-life comedy it must seem pretty weird, but it's not a sitcom. It's not like Barbershop. Donald Glover's goal and often-repeated quote about it is "Twin Peaks with rappers." Twin Peaks is also not a standard sitcom or social comedy.
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Sep 18, 2016 00:47
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Anne Whateley posted:How do you think it didn't disturb the characters? Does Paperboi not look hosed up to you every time it comes up? The whole thing about how he didn't want to go out, he didn't want to be around people, he didn't like the woman's turnaround, he didn't like how the Migos were impressed . . . he's not like having a breakdown, but I don't think it could hang over him any more. All the time Ern spent in custody wasn't enough about police procedures? Paper Boi was totally at ease putting a gun to the guy and in the jail talking to Ern and when heading out to do a drug deal. He is the furthest thing from hosed up when in the company of his relatives and Darius, so I don't see anything to suggest he's not just uncomfortable with his rep taking on a life of its own. Ern's time in jail was also social embarrassment situation comedy, apart from the beating, and skipping over questioning to sitting around waiting to get processed out of jail is absolutely not police procedural material. Stuff like going to a restaurant you can't afford and trying to mask it from your girlfriend is also situation comedy. Saying it is situation comedy is not a value judgement. I do understand that the show is weird and new. That is what I am talking about. Do you think people in 1991 watched Twin Peaks and did not remark on its approach. If you read the show totally differently from me that's all good, but please do not make out like I am sad or confused that Atlanta is not Barbershop.
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Sep 18, 2016 01:08
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GimpChimp posted:Paper Boi was totally at ease putting a gun to the guy and in the jail talking to Ern and when heading out to do a drug deal. He is the furthest thing from hosed up when in the company of his relatives and Darius, so I don't see anything to suggest he's not just uncomfortable with his rep taking on a life of its own. quote:Ern's time in jail was also social embarrassment situation comedy, apart from the beating, and skipping over questioning to sitting around waiting to get processed out of jail is absolutely not police procedural material. quote:I do understand that the show is weird and new. That is what I am talking about. Do you think people in 1991 watched Twin Peaks and did not remark on its approach. If you read the show totally differently from me that's all good, but please do not make out like I am sad or confused that Atlanta is not Barbershop. Anyway we're only three episodes in, so I guess we'll see it play out during the course of the season. My prediction is that the crux of the season if not the entire show is the shooting, and that everything will be about the consequences of and the characters' reactions to the shooting. If instead Ern sets up dates with two women on the same night and has to run between them with hilarious disguises, I'll graciously concede. Anne Whateley fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Sep 18, 2016 |
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Sep 18, 2016 01:40
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Anne Whateley posted:If instead Ern sets up dates with two women on the same night and has to run between them with hilarious disguises, I'll graciously concede. Here's the thing. An episode where Ern tries to win his girlfriend back by taking her to a restaurant he secretly can't afford is already a non-strawman edition of this, rather than a drama where everything flows from the aftermath of a shooting with sporadic laugh lines in it, because it's based on premises that existed outwith the shooting and is driven by a fundamentally comedic situation. You don't have to concede to me if the show dives headlong into your sardonically wacky sitcom premises because I think that seeing nothing but sitcom material in the rest of Atlanta would be at least as unlikely as dispensing with it. When I say a show is not a "police procedural" I mean the dramatic concept of police procedural in which something like skipping past a criminal investigation entirely in favour of the social humour of what is going on with an accessory to the fact before he can beg his girlfriend for bail is not a thing. When people reference wanting to make a show like Twin Peaks I think it is because Twin Peaks is the cultural touchstone for weirdness through its genre experimentation and surrealism. Saying that you might consider a show to be weird unless you understand it is like Twin Peaks with rappers is, to me, weird. If I'm talking about this at all it's because I think there's deliberate effects generated by said experimentation in Atlanta, not because I think the show should be doing anything else than what it has been, although I now deeply regret ever raising the topic, obviously. UNRULY_HOUSEGUEST fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Sep 18, 2016 |
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Sep 18, 2016 02:48
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The dinner was neither unrelated to the shooting nor the entire episode. I also don't think the criminal investigation is entirely skipped; I think that's one of the things that will happen later. We'll see. Obviously I agree it's not going to turn into a police procedural show. I think a lot of what's going on is very weird if you consider it a straight-up sitcom or a traditional social comedy. I don't think it's weird if you consider it part of an existing genre that blends comedy and drama and social commentary and magical realism and unorthodox structure.
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Sep 18, 2016 03:00
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i am the bird posted:The comparison re: the exploration of each city Baltimore/Atlanta is good but I'm not sure why The Wire would be someone's first example without subconsciously making a racial connection. i dont watch much tv and i haven't seen those other shows
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Sep 18, 2016 16:57
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I like this show a lot in spite of Glover, who I have come to regard as "often very very annoying". I lived in Knoxville for over a decade and Atlanta was where I'd go every few weeks to see bands or hang out, this show definitely has the atmosphere down fuckin pat.
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Sep 18, 2016 17:34
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The direction in this show is phenomenal and I hope the rest of the episodes are as good as three. Good poo poo
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Sep 19, 2016 07:21
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Awesome show. While we're on the topic of strained comparisons to other shows, first thing it reminded me of is Louie in its blend of drama, comedy, surrealism. TBH I only watched Louie somewhat sporadically so maybe I'm off, but it left me feeling the same way -- thinking it was really funny, but not LOLing that much. The scene where Paperboi and Darius are getting the chicken and the gangsta rap fanboy hooks them up. Says something like how refreshing it is to hear a rapper that's not afraid to blow someone's brains out. The way Paperboi reacts to that is hilarious. But in a way that I don't think made me laugh
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Sep 19, 2016 07:34
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