After a four year hiatus, thanks to Donald Glover’s busy schedule and COVID-related delays, Atlanta is back for its third season (the fourth and final season will air in the fall). And, after four years, you would expect Glover, his brother Stephen, and director Hiro Murai would want to tell their audience what’s been going on with Earn (Glover), his rap star cousin Alfred aka Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), perpetual stoner Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) and Earn’s now-ex girlfriend Vanessa (Zazie Beetz). But that’s not where we start. Read on for more…
ATLANTA SEASON 3: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: An overhead shot of a solitary boat on a dark lake, spanned by a bridge.
The Gist: The first episode starts with a nightmare about a lost town of Black citizens, flooded out by a dam, and how their ghosts are under the surface, waiting to pull people in. It continues when a kid named Loquareeous (Christopher Farrar) finds himself in the house of two white lesbians (Laura Dreyfuss, Jamie Neumann) after his mother sends him into the hands of child protective services.
They were visiting after a well-meaning but misguided white teacher at his school reported his mother and grandfather for three gentle slaps his grandfather gave him. The moms have adopted three other black kids, and if anyone remembers the story about the Hart family from a few years ago, you might have an idea where this is going. How is this connected to the Atlanta‘s characters? There is a connection but we won’t spoil it here.
The second episode finds Earn in Copenhagen, on a European tour with Paper Boi. He scrambles to get to Amsterdam for the next gig, where he needs to bail Alfred out of a very cushy jail cell. It’s definitely a few years since the European tour that closed Season 2, since Paper Boi is now a headliner with tons of fans. It’s Christmas time, and the two of them have to contend with the fact that people dressed as Sinterklaas and Black Pete are all over town. One problem: People dressed as Black Pete are white people in blackface.
Van has decided to come to Amsterdam to sort some things out with her life back home. Darius gets her at the airport, and the two of them go on an adventure when she finds an address in the pocket of a coat she buys at a thrift store. It includes visiting a home where a “death doula” is helping someone “transition”, but the transition isn’t quite as peaceful as Van or Darius expect.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Atlanta, of course, especially Season 2.
Our Take: Glover and company pretty much established during Season 2 of Atlanta that he was willing to go in daring directions with the show, putting together multiple episodes that put one of the four main characters in unusual situations (none more unusual than Darius’ interactions with Teddy Perkins, of course). Even so, it’s pretty ballsy of them to come back after four years with an episode that has little to do with the main cast or story.
Thankfully, the episode is effective. Once you realize that you’re settling into Loquareeous’ story, which is pretty obviously a treatise on “well-meaning” white people and the damage they can do, you’re just waiting to see what his “moms” will do next to make him miserable. If you know the story of the Harts, all the better, because it more or less follows the pattern of that case, imagining just how horrible life was in that house before they plunged themselves and their adopted children off that cliff.
The second episode is our reintroduction to Earn and company, and it’s good to see that they haven’t changed much, even if Earn, Alfred and Darius are in a better career and financial situation. Not only is it funny — Alfred wanting to stay in his cell until he gets his lunch is hilarious — but it certainly points out just how things in seemingly “liberal” European countries aren’t as liberal as people think.
And, while the situation Van and Darius find themselves in is weird, it’s also there to point out where Van is in her life. Beetz’s character has changed the most from Season 1, especially since she and Earn had their daughter together, which sent their relationship into decline. She just doesn’t know where she wants to be in life, and it’s interesting that she has decided to visit Earn, Alfred and Darius in Amsterdam rather than go somewhere on her own.
Sex and Skin: Not much in the first two episodes. Earn wakes up next to a woman in Copenhagen, and is surprised she doesn’t speak English. And we find out why Alfred is in jail, in a very funny flashback.
Parting Shot: After a crazy day, Earn sees Van in the hall at 4 in the morning; she’s getting ice. They have a nice exchange. Earn collapses on his bed, but then gets texts from Alfred saying “I need like 300 pieces of fried chicken. All legs.” He drags himself out of bed and leaves his room.
Sleeper Star: LaKeith Stanfield has become a huge star since Atlanta debuted, but he’s still worth citing here because he does so much with Darius, from the way he moves to even the way he smokes weed, that tells viewers all they need to know about him.
Most Pilot-y Line: None we could find.
Our Call: STREAM IT. It may have taken four years for Atlanta to come back, but it’s lost none of its daring in the interim. We do prefer the episodes where Earn and crew are all together, but we’re looking forward to seeing where Glover and company take their storytelling this season.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
