Atlanta

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thirtyframesasecond
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:48 pm

Atlanta

#1 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Sun Mar 05, 2017 4:45 pm

Just caught up with the full season of Donald Glover's 'Atlanta'. It's a great show. A comedy-drama which takes a very honest look at the lives of African-Americans barely making a living. Glover's a College dropout with a (ex) girlfriend and daughter struggling to provide for them. His cousin's a rapper named Paper Boi who's blowing up and Glover becomes his manager. Throw in discussions on transphobia, racial identity and class (even within the African-American community) and Atlanta feels like the most relevant show around. The humour is very strange - there's an episode that seems to riff on the Rachel Dolezal thing but then riffs on Caitlin Jenner at the same time...oh yeah and Justin Bieber is in it....only it's an African-American rapper playing Justin Bieber. Features a lot of Atlanta artists that are currently on the scene (Migos) - and the new Childish Gambino album is brilliant too!

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jazzo
Joined: Sun Nov 17, 2013 12:02 am

Re: Atlanta

#2 Post by jazzo » Sun Mar 05, 2017 9:45 pm

I agree wholeheartedly. It's a beautiful, humanistic work by someone who is clearly an artist, though a lot of folks might hesitate to call him one, with a drive to create things in different mediums, always using his distinct voice. I like loved every episode; every second of it; the way it floats between drama and tragedy, but all tinged with an absurdist's eye for satire.

More later. I have to go play soccer.

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Murdoch
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:59 pm
Location: Upstate NY

Re: Atlanta

#3 Post by Murdoch » Sat Apr 07, 2018 11:39 am

I think given the latest episode it's time for a bump to this thread. This show's ability to significantly shift focus from one episode to the next can give a sense of whiplash, but when it produces something as effective as Teddy Perkins it's worth the inconsistent tone. Glover is using this as a vehicle to explore whatever topic or genre he wants to and when it works, it's the best thing on TV or streaming. It also allows episodes like "Teddy Perkins" to come out of nowhere and bowl me over. Only in this show could you have a horror short about a Michael Jackson-esque recluse and the episode before it one focused entirely on Paper Boi trying to get his barber to finish a haircut.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Atlanta

#4 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Nov 13, 2020 8:46 pm

Donald Glover has been writing seasons 3 and 4 and posted on Twitter the other day pretty excited about the result. Looks like it's slated to drop next year, but no word yet on when filming will start.

I'm surprised this thread has all of three posts in it- this is easily one of the best shows to come out in the last decade. It's difficult to master all the ideas this show covers with such bold clarity, let alone command the diverse range of tones orbiting alongside the wholly unique poignant social-cultural satire that is its core.

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Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: Atlanta

#5 Post by Gregory » Sat Nov 14, 2020 10:21 pm

I agree with you that it's one of the best shows of recent times. If it were ever released on Blu-ray, I'd buy both seasons in a heartbeat.

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Persona
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:16 pm

Re: Atlanta

#6 Post by Persona » Mon Nov 16, 2020 6:02 pm

I like the show a ton. The end of S1 with that OutKast song was a real moment for me.

I think part of the reason the show is both appreciated but rarely discussed is because it's not made for water cooler talk or according to the "trending" appeals of modern TV. It shirks narrative drive and tension for something far more observational and mood-based (and occasionally surreal).

Which then makes me realize that as much as I love most of the episodes I have seen... I still haven't finished S2. There is no urgency to, either, and I think that's how the show likes it. Take each episode not as it comes, but as you come to it. That's the invitation.

As a huge hip-hop fan, I want to say, too, that I don't think there is a work of fiction that better embodies aesthetically the essence of hip-hop. The mood and the simultaneous reality and absurdism of it.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Atlanta

#7 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Nov 16, 2020 8:55 pm

Persona wrote:
Mon Nov 16, 2020 6:02 pm
As a huge hip-hop fan, I want to say, too, that I don't think there is a work of fiction that better embodies aesthetically the essence of hip-hop. The mood and the simultaneous reality and absurdism of it.
That's a really great way to describe the rhythm of the show. I'm in the middle of revisiting season 2 and, as mentioned earlier, the one-two punch of Barbershop and Teddy Perkins is an eclectic mashup like none other. While the latter is singled out as the show's best episode (for good reason, it would have made my horror list if eligible), the former is so funny and cringe-inducing simultaneously that it builds to a crescendo in one of the show's wildest moments
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when the barber gets in the accident, says the driver is probably okay, and the woman from the hit car stumbles out grabbing her stomach in pain and screams the most ridiculous scream ever, as he reacts with shameless unethical ignorance and drives away... there's something inherently funny about the scream's specific pitch and duration that is definitively surreal, and the situational contrast to the calm expectation that "she's probably fine", but the moral implications, and physiological effects threatening physical safety and legal security, swarm me with multiple shades of terror. It's a rare scene that forces empathy across lines all at once- for the driver wanting to get away and save his hide, for Paper Boi getting out of a situation where he should be arrested, and for the victim who is stranded without medical aid. So fucking overwhelming, and a bold and genius anti-focus of value, going against the formula that most shows would use to emphasize one tone or character's predicament above the others, to allow audience feel more secure. Not this show.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Atlanta

#8 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Nov 21, 2020 9:08 pm

Production will reportedly start in early 2021 and seasons 3 and 4 will be filmed back to back. Hopefully this means there will be less of a gap between, since last time that was due to Glover’s busy schedule spread between other projects which disrupted writing season 2 as a priority.

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thirtyframesasecond
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:48 pm

Re: Atlanta

#9 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Tue Dec 15, 2020 5:25 pm

The Teddy Perkins episode is superb. The BET parody is my favourite, with Antoine Smalls as the trans-racial kid.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Atlanta

#10 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Dec 15, 2020 5:53 pm

thirtyframesasecond wrote:
Tue Dec 15, 2020 5:25 pm
The Teddy Perkins episode is superb. The BET parody is my favourite, with Antoine Smalls as the trans-racial kid.
I agree that these two are probably the best (especially the reveal of Antoine Smalls' own prejudices, bursting the sensitivities of the progressive bubble of likeminded folks not allowing to be different in any way!) though I have a soft spot for the Barber ep's relentlessly absurd discomfort, and of course the image-reveal at the frat house in North of the Border is maybe the best juxtaposition of signifiers in a single frame, both hilarious and deeply unsettling at once. It could be hung in a museum.



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therewillbeblus
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Re: Atlanta

#13 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Aug 17, 2021 12:03 am

Filming for seasons 3 and 4 reportedly wrapped and in post-production, season 3 will debut in first half of 2022

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Atlanta

#14 Post by zedz » Mon Sep 27, 2021 6:05 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Aug 17, 2021 12:03 am
Filming for seasons 3 and 4 reportedly wrapped and in post-production, season 3 will debut in first half of 2022
I just found out last week that my nephew has a (small) speaking role in one of the episodes shot in the UK.

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swo17
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Re: Atlanta

#15 Post by swo17 » Mon Sep 27, 2021 6:13 pm

Cool!

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Atlanta

#16 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Nov 01, 2021 12:05 am


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therewillbeblus
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Re: Atlanta

#17 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Dec 26, 2021 3:58 am

Season 3 Trailer Premieres March 24

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Atlanta

#18 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Mar 05, 2022 1:22 am

therewillbeblus wrote:
Sun Dec 26, 2021 3:58 am
Season 3 Trailer Premieres March 24
Full trailer

Also, apparently with back-to-back filming of the third/fourth seasons, the plan is for the fourth (and final) season to premiere this Fall. I'll gladly take a drastic condensing from a four-year timeline to a four-month one between seasons!

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Atlanta

#19 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Mar 26, 2022 12:05 am

The first episode of the third season might be the most singular, tonally-versatile emblem of the show’s ethos yet, and also the most drastic left-field departure from the core narrative. As someone who’s worked on nearly every side of the social work field pertaining to what takes place here, it’s sickeningly earnest in its realism taken to surreal horror heights. I also love how the episode ends, self-reflexively reminding us this show is, and has always been, all a concoction from the imagination of a black man ruminating on the tragic absurdity of western black experiences, and an urgent declaration that Atlanta- in all its unique, twisted, comprehensive sauce- is back.

The second episode features perhaps the show’s ceiling of extremism blending alienating cultural horror with absurdist comedy in a gutwrenching visual gag that effectively juxtaposes responses to stimuli. We’re off to a promising start.

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thirtyframesasecond
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:48 pm

Re: Atlanta

#20 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Wed Mar 30, 2022 3:45 pm

I haven't seen the new episodes (not broadcast in the UK yet) but it appears the first episode is based on the
SpoilerShow
horrific Hart murders
.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Atlanta

#21 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Mar 30, 2022 4:43 pm

thirtyframesasecond wrote:
Wed Mar 30, 2022 3:45 pm
I haven't seen the new episodes (not broadcast in the UK yet) but it appears the first episode is based on the
SpoilerShow
horrific Hart murders
.
It is, and I could probably write a book on that episode's multifaceted approach to faceless oppressed narratives, given my personal experience across different professional roles with social work in black communities over the last 15 years including working on all sides of DCF home removals. However, Stephen Glover's script toes a line that takes the horror around that incident and zooms out and back in to peripheral focal points underdiscussed around these kinds of events. An interesting but strange comparison might be what Tarantino did to history in Once Upon a Time in.. Hollywood specifically, in contrast to his other history-tweaking projects, whereby through cinema he was able to accentuate the innocent principals' narratives and disempower the louder perpetrators who we naturally magnetically attend to since their disturbing triggers are louder and perversely alluring. The difference is that the Glovers are using the artistic medium to coat very real, active circumstances with this intrusive narrative magnetism outside of fantasy, forcing the audience to pay attention to real shit and dynamic perspectives they would otherwise not have such intimate access to (or if so, likely through an objective article written by journalists removed from the experience) ironically through fantastical manipulation of the art form.

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MitchPerrywinkle
Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:26 am

Re: Atlanta

#22 Post by MitchPerrywinkle » Wed Mar 30, 2022 5:05 pm

Wonderfully put, twbb. It also helps that
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in this version all of the children make it out alive, a fairy tale ending that, like the Tarantino, doesn't dispel this lurking feeling that what we've just watched is too close to reality for it to be totally reassuring. That slow tracking shot with the sound of the floorboard creaking made me worry something truly awful was going to happen before we cut away to Earn.
I spent the last few weeks catching up on the show before diving into the new season, and I hesitate to talk in great detail about either of the new episodes because they're both best experienced going in as cold as possible. But this is the most formally audacious show on television since Lynch and Frost came back with Twin Peaks, and in that long line of shows which have been influenced by that series, I would argue that Atlanta is the one which has most successfully taken that show's oft-mentioned mixture of absurdist comedy and surreal terror alongside quietly profound reflections on Good and Evil and given those elements a vital urgency that are entirely its own.
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The opening of the new season also seems like it was strongly influenced by the Winkie's Diner scene from Mulholland Dr, and it transposes that aura into a ferociously political context of intergenerational trauma that shades the rest of the episode and, I would wager, the season to come. It's also just as viscerally spooky. And what better way to summarize the season premiere than with the sentiment shared by Cooper and Jeffries that "we live inside a dream."
Of course, Glover and company are situating Evil within a more explicitly sociopolitical vein than Frost or Lynch did (even though The Return has its share of damning things to say about American culture past and present), and the new season continues their deftly realized mixture of intersectional observations on normalized behavior within a racist and capitalist society. I have never seen an American television show that has claimed to be a sitcom yet has the skill to visually evoke Salo in one of its best episodes from the second season and to fully earn that comparison. Plus the second episode of this new season is, up to a point (the moment I think twbb is referencing is, indeed, genuinely shocking), arguably the goofiest episode of this show yet and there were a few moments I had to pause from laughing so hard, specifically
SpoilerShow
Alfred's incredibly luxurious prison accommodations, complete with soothing night-light.


Like The Return, this is a show where I have absolutely no idea what to expect from week to week, episode to episode, and I'm looking forward to every Thursday night for the next month to see what the team behind this extraordinary show has in store for us.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Atlanta

#23 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Mar 30, 2022 10:00 pm

Great thoughts, MitchPerrywinkle, thanks for sharing! Agreed on all fronts, and while the show has long been compared to Twin Peaks -by Donald Glover, before it even premiered and so prior to The Return- that's one of the better arguments for why. It would be cool to hear from Glover how he (obviously a big fan of the Lynch show, since he used it as a key reference point in describing Atlanta's pitch in interviews prior to debut) used The Return as an influence, if at all, as he pivoted tones to more ambitious heights in season two and beyond.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Atlanta

#24 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Apr 09, 2022 12:32 am

"The Big Payback" is the best and most creative episode of this show yet, Glover detailing the white male's ultimate life-imitates-art horror film in a dystopian comedy far more intelligent, twisted, and effective than anything Jordan Peele has strived for with the crutch of additional fantastical tropes to lay on the metaphorical sauce. I wasn’t sure there would much to 'say' about it, but the final act floored me when
SpoilerShow
despite the fellow hotel-mate completing suicide after spilling some wisdom, his previously-stated outlook that this tangible outcome "frees" white people of their guilt spoke volumes for how reparations could be reframed in our current climate as a way for white privileged people to actually 'check the box' and achieve perceived catharsis from their stained history. The implication of that line elevated the material from the grey ethical space of generational justice to a deeper, sicker revelation of insightful internal logic: that in our zeitgeist, white guilt from progressives has reached a point where white people in power must have initiated this practice in this 'future'-setting (plus, on a practical level, where else is it going to come from- a crew of black people at the top of the political ladder?), triggering a self-destructive reversal of power imbalances against self-preservation of resources, but in favor of prioritizing mental self-preservation for morality's toll on our emotional consciences ("I think he got off easy," one white person's response is to another white person's punishment, a terrific irony painted across a milieu of western white individualism).

That the very same white man who actually understands this reframe of wisdom couldn't handle the consequences and shoots himself dead is an acidic cherry on top, pronouncing that regardless of how much we understand or empathize or want to find peace with these psychosocial relationships to hard yet true information, our sensitivity from privilege is too great to cope with non-dominant status. The insinuation that this charitable policy was likely sourced in selfish psychological ‘gains’ for the privileged is even more ironic, dark, and simultaneously disempowering and validating to white progressives.

For Glover to pitch a lose-lose position for white people as they see it given the way the world has turned, subjectively rather than objectively, is pretty glorious; self-reflexively empathic and scathing. He's approaching these vulnerable psychosocial issues with unconditional compassion and unbridled satire in the same breath. Oh how sweet it would be to resolve ourselves from the current unavoidable awareness of our progressive sociological era that we are all plagued with the disease of racism. Yeah, and it would be pretty sweet not to be continually on the receiving end of it too.

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Roger Ryan
Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:04 pm
Location: A Midland town spread and darkened into a city

Re: Atlanta

#25 Post by Roger Ryan » Mon Apr 11, 2022 12:46 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Sat Apr 09, 2022 12:32 am
"The Big Payback" is the best and most creative episode of this show yet, Glover detailing the white male's ultimate life-imitates-art horror film in a dystopian comedy far more intelligent, twisted, and effective than anything Jordan Peele has strived for with the crutch of additional fantastical tropes to lay on the metaphorical sauce...
Technically, Glover was not the screenwriter behind this episode (that was Francesca Sloane), but as creator, he definitely deserves a lot of credit. I agree that this episode was astonishing and I was greatly impressed with how it set up a specifically "white man" horror scenario that gained humor and discomfort through satirizing multiple viewpoints. By the way, one thing you may not have noticed...
SpoilerShow
... is that the hotel mate is the same actor/character who appeared in the first episode in the fishing boat rambling to his black friend about how anyone can be white with enough money. This strongly suggests that the entire "Big Payback" episode is yet another dream Earn is having.

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