Synopsis
Atlanta is a series following Earn, his cousin Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry), baby mother Vanessa (Zazie Beetz), and free-spirited friend Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) as they navigate through the unpredictable streets of Atlanta. Created, written, and starred in by Donald Glover. Atlanta is one of the top cities for up-and-coming rappers and now Alfred is the rapper on the scene known by his stage name paperboi. Earn sees this as an opportunity to manage his cousin and help him and his family out of his tight financial situation.
Interpretation
Atlanta is the open door that leads us into the interesting mind of Donald glover. A place with haunted houses, invisible cars, and relentless white women in a wheelchair. Atlanta is like nothing else on television but something that needs to be on television. Not only do the weirdest and oddest things you could ever imagine come to light in this show, but everything that happens is also grounded similarly oddly. The show does display Afro-Surrealism, but in order to do that properly, it must be realistic in some way.
For example, in the final season, there was a sushi restaurant owned by Black people and they invited Alfred and the whole gang to eat there. While there, they were served food, and the whole group just couldn’t get behind it. They kept looking over across the street to the Popeyes that will soon be packed with a bunch of kids when school ends. The owner notices their peering eyes and begins to give a whole monologue on how Black people don’t support other black-owned businesses, it even got to the point where the owner was forced to lock them all in the restaurant to finish the meal. This scene had some real truth and was still presented so out of the ordinary that the viewers were forced to pay attention. This is the beauty of Atlanta.
So many interesting concepts that are demonstrated in real life are further articulated in the show. Like the fluid identity of a mixed raced kid or a fake party created for influencers to stunt on social media. Each episode has a truth at the core of it and is then presented with intersection situations that pull the viewer in. For four seasons it continued to be entertaining and not afraid to switch it up, I’m certain I’ll miss this show on television.
