Childish Gambino Blows Up Off A Story About the Rap Scene

Donald Glover Atlanta

“Atlanta” is an American comedy-drama television series created by and starring Donald Glover. The series is about two cousins navigating their way in the Atlanta rap scene in an effort to improve their lives and the lives of their families. FX ordered the pilot to a 10-episode season in October 2015. Two weeks after the series premiered on September 6, 2016, FX announced that Atlanta had been renewed for a second season that will air in 2018.

The show received two Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy for Glover.

The series follows Earn (Donald Glover) during his daily life in Atlanta, Georgia, as he tries to redeem himself in the eyes of his ex-girlfriend (the mother of his daughter), his parents, and his cousin, who raps under the stage name “Paper Boi”. Having dropped out of Princeton University, Earn has no money and no home, and so he alternates between staying with his parents and his girlfriend. Once he realizes that his cousin is on the verge of stardom, he desperately seeks to reconnect in order to improve his life and the life of his daughter, Lotti.

Here a Four Reasons the show is super, great and fantastic!

1. It was real

Earn is poor. As a working-class guy who’s in an on-again-off-again relationship with the mother of his child and who is technically homeless, we catch a glimpse of his pathetically small paycheck and watch him equally struggle to pay for a kid’s meal (for himself) as he does a rare dinner date.

Financial strife isn’t the sexiest subject matter for a TV show, but “Atlanta” digs into the realistic portrayal of a black, middle-class worker dealing with the shitty cards he’s been dealt. Throughout the show, honest and vulnerable conversations about Earn’s well-intentioned attempts to navigate fatherhood and the messiness of his romantic relationship oscillate amid casual philosophizing over the purpose of life and the long, winding road to happiness and fulfillment.

2. It was surreal

The intentionally slow pacing of “Atlanta” paired with absolute absurdities results in eerie, surreal scenes that end up feeling more like a bizarre fever dream than a TV show.

Among the weirder moments of the first season are an invisible car, a deadly drug deal in the woods with the Migos rappers, an out of control black pop star named Justin Bieber and a to-go box of chicken that mysteriously lights up like the briefcase in “Pulp Fiction.” The show seems to make a point that it, like life, sometimes fails to make sense.

3. That super-meta episode

If you only watch one episode, it should be “B.A.N.” Instead of the normal-weird episode of “Atlanta,” it’s an ambitious meta episode that’s shot as a show within a show airing on the fictional Black America Network — spoof commercials and all.

The episode follows Paper Boi on a TV show called “Montague,” (a “Larry King”-type talk show with a Don Lemon-like host) discussing his lyrics and getting into hot water over transphobiccomments he made on Twitter. However, the real stars of the episode are the parody commercials. Highlights include classy-AF ads for Mickey’s malt liquor and Swisher Sweets cigars, and an odd commercial with a callback to an unsettling character Earn eerily encounters in the first episode.

Audiences were divided about this episode’s overt political commentary, but the experimental idea and its brilliant delivery will make any fan of “Community” (the super-meta TV series Donald Glover used to star in) smile wide with pride.

4. Donald Glover is a ‘G’

Glover, the show’s creator and headlining actor, is a modern day renaissance man. Also a writer, stand-up comedian, rapper and singer, Glover just released his third studio album “Awaken, My Love,” was cast in a new Star Wars movie and won the Critic’s Choice award for his acting role in “Atlanta.”

Aside from writing, directing and acting in “Atlanta,” it is Glover’s unique vision that’s made the series unlike anything else on TV. His original idea for the show, a “‘Twin Peaks’ for rappers,”sounded more like the premise of an SNL digital short. Yet Glover, with help from a talented cast of writers and director Hiro Murai, successfully executed his brainchild into one of the most fantastic, thought-provoking new comedies on TV.

Thankfully, FX renewed Atlanta for a second season. Unfortunately, due to Glover’s busy schedule, fans will have to wait a little longer until it’s ready. That gives you plenty of time to binge-watch Season One before crying out for more.