Season one of Atlanta honestly pushed cable tv to new heights. Its surrealism, strong character driven plot, and immensely clever social commentary constantly engaged me in a way that no other show has been able to accomplish in the same way.
Season two manages to be a more engaging character examination, while still sneaking in that trademark surrealism and social commentary in truly unimaginable ways.
This season has the subtitle of “Robbin’ Season”, referring to an actual time in the city of Atlanta where robbery and theft rates increase right before the holidays; we get a sense of just how dire this time is in the very opening scene. We follow two teenage boys as they rob a fast food restaurant, and the atmosphere of this starving city is automatically built by this scene.
“The Big Bang Theory” is pretty hard to beat in terms of season openers, but “Alligator Man” is still a great start. The drama in this season is presented in a very real and deep way that the first season definitely dabbled in; but here, we really jump right in. At the epicenter of this drama, is the relationship between Donald Glover’s Earn and Brian Tyree Henry’s Paper Boi. So much so that the penultimate episode “Fubu” focuses entirely on their childhood.
I’ve never related to being broke more in my life, so when money’s on the line in this show - as a college student - it pains me. “Sportin’ Waves” finds Earn with a pretty handsome sum of money, but newcomer Tracy (played by Khris Davis) tells him he could double that money for him. What follows is a series of unfortunate events that end not so well for Earn, and it really feels like a gut-punch. I do enjoy Davis’ character though, and in “North of the Border” he plays a very intentionally-unintentionally funny part.
This season really doubles, no, triples down on the surrealism; with entire episodes dedicated to diving into something straight out of a horror film. “Teddy Perkins” is genuinely one of the weirdest episodes of television my eyes have ever seen, but somehow, it still fits into the catalog of other episodes (despite being hilariously out of left-field.) Darius finds a colorful piano for free on a message board advertisement. Upon his arrival at the piano’s location, he finds a hauntingly ghoulish and unrecognizable Donald Glover as Teddy Perkins; the owner of the piano. Glover gives one of the most frightening performances I’ve ever seen; and I was genuinely scared to look at him. Lakeith Stanfield does his best work yet as Darius here, and while this episode is bizarre, it doesn’t ever compromise the drama.
“Woods”, another surrealist focused episode, is one of the best of the entire show in my opinion. We enter the mind of Al (Paper Boi), and we see him take a journey in which he faces his own fears and mortality. It’s a little bit of a slow-burn, but its subtlety and quietness is what makes it so prominent. It’s emotionally grounded, and definitely the most character centric episode of the season.
Zazie Beetz once again gives a compelling performance as Vanessa, and I’m interested to see what they do with her character in the next season. “Helen” finds her at odds with Earn, and something about their relationship feels so effortlessly real. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s portrayed in such an imperfect way. There’s no compromise when it comes to balancing out the character drama in this episode though, the layered subtext is still present with social commentary in a very subtle way.
We find Beetz at the center of one of the season’s best, “Champagne Papi”. Her and her friends take a journey to Drake’s house in hopes they can meet him and get a picture. When her friend Nadine takes an edible to the head, she ends up summing the entire point of the episode:
“It’s all fake”
“Yeah, it’s all fake”
“Barbershop” is probably the worst episode of the series so far, and really for no other reason than it’s lacking anything substantial being said. It’s all for laughs, but the character of Bibby is nearly intolerable - but I guess that’s the point.
The season finale, “Crabs in a Barrel”, feels so well-rounded and it ties everything this season had to offer all together. It’s so perfectly contained, and the scene in the airport is so intense so quickly, it gives me anxiety just thinking about it (maybe that’s just because I hate airports).
This season was so well realized and directed at every turn. With higher stakes, and more time to give to the individual characters; we’ve gotten familiar with each and every one of them in their own unique ways, and that’s really what this season was all about. I don’t think it’s quite as funny as the first season, but I have nothing else bad to say about this wonderfully important season of television.
9/10
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