Atlanta

[MitchPerrywinkle]

I watched the third and fourth episode back-to-back, and they both complement each other extremely well. Paired together, they provide different frames of restorative justice through performative wokeness and reparations, all commandeered by white privilege (twbb, I love the point you make about how white liberal privilege shapes the illogic of the fourth episode's provocative conclusion). And per Roger Ryan's spoilered box, it seems that the thematic unity of this season is revolving around

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the ghosts of a past which haunt the present in ever-pervasive ways, a present which, as "Earnest" says in the fourth episode, has allowed history (or at the very least white, progressive perception of history) to be shaped by capitalist doctrine, in part because capitalism has played a prominent role in the economic value of people of color and the question of whether it's possible to even dismantle such a system or, as Earn seems to be doing, attempt to game it for the sake of self-preservation.

I'm very keen to see how this season progresses for our main quartet, with the guys seemingly caught within various machinations of white affluence, either willingly or unwillingly (the latter in the case for Darius and that poor woman whose life is destroyed for a casual misunderstanding. Even their perception of an unquestionably awkward yet ultimately harmless situation is completely co-opted by white outrage, and woe betide any poor soul on the receiving end of such righteous indignation). Van seems to be doing relatively fine, but I can't help but wonder

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if that recurring joke of her shoving people into the pool could be an indication of some larger psychological distanciation from others. There's a healthy form of nihilism in not caring about, say, Earn's insistence at trying to resuscitate a relationship long-since ended, but I was a little confused as to why she was pushing people into a pool with almost disquieting nonchalance, unless she sees through the artificiality of that social construct and of everyone choosing to legitimize it.

[therewillbeblus]

I’m convinced that the latest episode, “Cancer Attack,” is heavily inspired by Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure (but really his whole eerie, enigmatic vibe) with even the inane title’s literal function in the plot posturing wider at the inexplicable connection occurring before our eyes, subverting the police procedural/frighteningly mysterious serial killer trope into something profound, spiritual, and psychologically and philosophically riveting for one of the main principals. I don’t know how this show continues to top itself after last week, but this last episode was funnier, more frightening, and moving than anything I’ve seen from the show yet, taking greater and greater risks with their tonal provocations to reach something as obscure and effecting as… a KK movie

[MitchPerrywinkle]

The fifth episode is one that does culminate in one of the series' most fascinating visions of artistic communion as a remedy, however temporary, for the impersonal monotony of fame. It will be interesting to see what the show does with

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Socks as a recurring antagonist within the grander thematic scheme of the season.

The twist involving that spoilered box was perhaps my least favorite aspect of an otherwise stellar episode, if only because of its predictability in what has otherwise proven itself time and again to be the most unpredictable show on television right now. That ends up carrying over into the sixth episode, which has plenty of satiric barbs that hit their target with brutal precision. Yet structurally I was surprised at how reminiscent it was, structurally speaking, of some of the earlier episodes of the series, at least in the respect that we follow each character in their separate arcs. The second episode adheres to this A/B plot structure as well, but its overt tonal oscillations between comedy and horror are replaced here by a more easily recognizable strain of social commentary regarding white commodification of black culture and how black entrepreneurs attempt to exploit that commodification, either for themselves or for attempting to empower the communities they represent. Whether one can actually be successful in the latter within a capitalist society is what provides this show its scabrous, yet not blindly cynical, view of our current dystopia.

The one thread that I'm still pondering over in the episode ends up relating to one that stuck out to me in the third episode

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which is Van's character arc this season. I wonder if her quotation of Darius' remarks about living in a simulation indicate that her encounter with Earn was yet another dream in a season full of them. Whether real or dreamt, her character's elliptical (non)presence feels quietly off-putting, and deliberately so. To what end, I can only speculate.

[therewillbeblus]

Van always gets a standalone ep -or at least one where she's the central character- per season; in S1 it was ep 6 and S2 it was ep 7. With 7 on deck for next week, I wouldn't be surprised if these episodes are setting us up to get an inside look into her experience rather than just Earn's subjective one from a concerned distance. I definitely don't think it's a dream.

S3 continues to top the last with another creative episode, and it might have been the funniest one yet from purely an acting standpoint (the acting has been on point this season so far, but often the creative ideas of commentary have outshined the social dynamics). Here they're intertwined perfectly. The way Fisayo Akinade delivered his gush of Larenz Tate made me explode with laughter every time I rewound the scene

[therewillbeblus]

Guess I was wrong about Van- and although I expect the finale will indulge us on something involving her disturbingly viewer-alienating erratic behavior this season, I'm totally cool with Glover making this into a straight-up anthology series. The Big Payback's measured and ambitious execution of its already-intelligent central conceit set up the rest of the anthologies for a confidently weird and poignant blend of empathizing and inverting perspective-taking regarding race and identity issues, utilizing the most extreme dystopian example as a jumping off point. Trini 2 De Bone is ominously subtle in its intentions as a mood piece, and the latest episode -which may be the best yet (yes, a broken record from me by now)- is rattlingly complex and far more affecting that it seemingly has any right to be.

Rich Wigga, Poor Wigga appears to be operating on a similar side-eyed empathetic wavelength to The Big Payback's examination of whites' sensitivity to perceived dominant-status threatened, or the socioeconomic mobility across racial lines that might not be recognized in the conversation, but it's so much more. Glover is acknowledging the oft-wagered judgment that 'passing' black people have an elasticity to choose whichever group to belong to depending on how it serves their interests, and transposing it with a seething tragedy regarding the struggle of having no identity when you 'belong' to multiple groups on paper, but don't feel 'part of' either. The episode moves through ideas like wildfire, and the tonal shifts are subtle but sharp and brutalizing, though it's the denouement that I found to be enormously powerful.

There's something incredibly dark about the unpredictable flirtation and its positive receptiveness that cuts down and flat-out eliminates the depth of intimacy the couple once had for both parties. The moment is perhaps insinuating that part of maturation in America is recognizing when to curb vulnerability and emotional intimacy and concede to stereotypical 'shallow' truths about social engagement, here represented by baldfaced sexual attraction. It's also deftly classifying the kind of behavior that will make you a winner and that one seeks to themselves be sexually pleased, and one implication that the 'white' romance of sensitive emotional engagement isn't 'sexy' is rather despiriting considering the alternative presented and reaffirmed. He's feeling confident and finally 'part of' an identity though, and that's something- but the ease of this, coupled with the clear loss of what is swallowed as he calls out in an unexpected superficial pass vs cavernous disclosure of hurt, is something worth grieving. The final wink to the camera clarifies an absurdist revelation- that this "happy ending" is partially false; that it's not this easy; that it's not this happy; that even if it is, there is a depressing aura surrounding its authenticity; and yet maybe in a vacuum it is happy, the best we can offer, hope for, get, and give.

I don't know. It's kind of silly to do writeups on these episodes because they are so much more about the ineffable feelings behind the collision of ideas, and I doubt there exists a streamlined mode of analysis even considered by Glover himself. But I love that they make me think as well as feel. This is the best season of TV I've ever seen, where even the weakest episodes showcase something profound - like the cameo in New Jazz, and how brazenly he takes his racist allegations around any cheap condemnation of 'canceling' and straight to the jugular of both black and white people in very different ways, but fatalistic to both groups.

[Caligula]

For those who use a VPN the first two seasons are on the Japanese Netflix

[therewillbeblus]

I’m glad the S3 finale closed Van’s mysterious arc without Earn’s presence, since she was able to self-actualize for herself in a vacuum, and most importantly not in response to his passive concern throughout the season. It was a pretty smart narrative payoff, emulating Earn’s own disengagement from his life by sidecar-ing him from a streamlined story, which also makes sense when seeing the third season’s choppy anthology dreamlike composition as an externalization of introverted complacency for each character, and our individualistic society.. collectively.

The first two fourth season eps are great, returning to the more grounded titular city, just as the characters come down from the fog of their temporally-abstract Eurotrip and back into sobriety regarding their problems and personal histories. The first is as close to Lynch surrealism as Glover’s ventured so far, veering into Twilight Zone territory.

The second hits on the tragedy of our dreams and fantasies unrealised, especially when those ideals aren’t those of Disney movies but hopes that feel humble, rooted in bare expectations for humanity. The whole therapy trajectory, including the exaggerated version of an honest ‘what happens when you DIY’, is gold, and there’s some heartbreaking raw material sewn in there- amongst the hardest this show has hit yet. I was also pleased to have recognized a favorite old character despite their intentionally unrecognizable appearance before the later reveal!

[therewillbeblus]

AV Club on the latest episode - I wasn’t sure quite what to make of this one, but found this piece enlightening, particularly how it fits within the theme of the season. Overall I’m finding the final episodes way more personal to Glover looking at his own position of success than they are relatable on an antisocial-horror/dark comedy line of universal human struggle, comparatively to the rest at least. But I suppose this is the only authentic place the show could move towards

[Murdoch]

I'm appreciating the more down-to-earth direction it's taken, this season is feeling more like the first two (the main cast is actually in a most of the episodes).

However it ends, it's been the most engaging show of the past decade for me.

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah, it's not a dis- this as an entirely appropriate and welcome direction to finish the show with. Even though I preferred season three (and especially the rich anthology episodes so many people apparently hated), the reveals in Glover's therapy sessions and his subsequent maladaptive interventions to cope using his leg-up, and the vulnerable honesty he met Van with in the camping episode, are very necessary antidotes to the aimless ennui and existential numbness that plagued the main cast in the third season. That alienation is now met with love, and it's wonderful. We don't need to have witnessed the transformation that led Earn to move from a womanizer who liked his relationship with Van as it was, setting cold ultimatums of stagnancy in the season two episode "Helen", into the dedicated mature man he is now who's ready for commitment. There's something cheeky about how the show took four years off to deliver a season that refused to catch us up on 'anything' they'd gone through across that time period (which had the effect of mirroring the pandemic's temporal desert of inactivity we've all come to experience ourselves) and then add-on a final season just months after, full of developed characters back to 'normal' and self-actualizing before our eyes. Time doesn't work like that, but it's fully in-step with a surreal show that leans hard into the depths of unknowability, seeing life as full of enigmas that keep us at arms length. It's only fair for the show to reflexively do the same in parts, while letting us in to a few choice moments of impermanent but vital growth.

[therewillbeblus]

Atlanta's penultimate episode, "Andrew Wyeth. Alfred's World.", starts as a curio-slow-burn and quietly emerges as one of the series' best. It's particularly interesting to reflect on it after watching Zach Cregger's Barbarian immediately after, which was full of missed opportunities for fleshing out its sociopolitical interests. That film's strong first act barely-nudges at how empowered female identity has been shaped in response to valid, experiential oppressive forces in masculine violence, while this episode explores how the stereotype of black people fearing rural spaces is substantiated by real horrors as well. The difference is that Atlanta goes all the way with its ideas- juggling Brian Tyree Henry's determined attempt to overcome this (faux-?)constructed barrier with individualistic persistence, with the irony that he needed the deus ex machina 'helping hand' of a (white-bred) capitalist-propagated, antisocial delivery service to survive! It's that surrealism eroding away the artificiality of the medium(-as-reflection-for-our-delusions/fantasies) to poke at the sores of realism, and the denouement of sitting with this information with humility, gratitude, pathos, and a chin up, that the show has mastered. It's sad to think that we won't get another one like this- the finale will surely wrap up the narrative divorced from this kind of isolated parable- but if Glover is indeed developing other content, hopefully it'll take a similar form

[therewillbeblus]

Perfect series finale, somehow a summation of all the show’s strategies, interests, and strengths- a callback to the early grounded episodes with splices of the anthologies woven in- and a powerful ending that homages one of the series’ prime influences in the best possible way. It takes guts to refurbish Twin Peaks: The Return’s horrifying final moment as a sedated hug of existential catharsis, but they did it. The pathos of the black individualism is usurped by a sublime meditation on black intimacy, and it’s fruitless to obsess on whether it’s one man’s dream or the reality of a group of people, because it’s both things. That’s what this show has been. Brilliant.