For every TV comedy that tries to be relevant, only a few succeed. Network producers rely on tried-and-tested formulas, resulting a rehash of archetypes and storylines we've seen before, but with a new twist.
We have Brooklyn Nine-Nine of the "buddy cop" genre, but with characters portrayed against racial conventions. And then we get shows like "How I Met Your Mother", "New Girl" and "Happy Endings", a contemporary update of "Friends" that comes along with social media baggage. In late 2000s, cable networks and Netflix started churning out unorthodox projects "Orange is the New Black", "Veep", "Louie" and etc.
However, African American comedy was lacking in the TV landscape. The best and (probably) only one was "Key and Peele", but it is strictly a comedy sketch show. So when Donald Glover, former writer of 30 Rock and actor from "Community", announced that he was producing a new sit-com on a non-traditional network, I was excited to see the results.
Just as soon "Atlanta" came around, it ended after two and half months. Yet, in its 10-episode run, Donald Glover and his collaborators had packed a lot in it, sprinkling with a few of the weird and whimsical that he's been known for.
We have Brooklyn Nine-Nine of the "buddy cop" genre, but with characters portrayed against racial conventions. And then we get shows like "How I Met Your Mother", "New Girl" and "Happy Endings", a contemporary update of "Friends" that comes along with social media baggage. In late 2000s, cable networks and Netflix started churning out unorthodox projects "Orange is the New Black", "Veep", "Louie" and etc.
However, African American comedy was lacking in the TV landscape. The best and (probably) only one was "Key and Peele", but it is strictly a comedy sketch show. So when Donald Glover, former writer of 30 Rock and actor from "Community", announced that he was producing a new sit-com on a non-traditional network, I was excited to see the results.
Just as soon "Atlanta" came around, it ended after two and half months. Yet, in its 10-episode run, Donald Glover and his collaborators had packed a lot in it, sprinkling with a few of the weird and whimsical that he's been known for.
To sum up in a premise, the show follows the story of an African American rapper Alfred, AKA "Paper Boi", and his manager/cousin Earn trying to get his rap career off the ground in the eponymous city. Glover portrays Earn as the everyday man and spends most of the time getting by without much money. To make matters worse, he has a baby to raise with his on-and-off girlfriend Vanessa.
The first episode sets up like a traditional sit-com, easing viewers into its unfamiliar world and characters in Atlanta. Glover's performance is subtle, achingly-realistic and instantly likeable. He carries an air of nonchalance despite being broke and he's strangely optimistic about his predicaments. He's a man who seemingly has no problems but as you follow him throughout the episodes, his problems are plenty.
Brian Tyree Henry, Keith Stanfield and Zazie Beetz round off the cast and they are all so superb in their roles. As much as this is Earn's story, Glover allows the writing to veer off in different directions, sometimes exploring story/character arcs in individual episodes (which I'll touch later on).
Director Hiro Murai, who has been an unknown in television landscape, lenses Atlanta with an invigorating cinematic style, showing viewers a side of the city that rarely graces our screens. For a TV show that calls itself Atlanta, you get these really sublime shots of the city and its people, whether be it from a bird-eye's view or close-ups of architecture on the ground. Atlanta really becomes a vital character in the background, as we see Earn and gang navigate various corners of this intricate city.
But why is such a good and important show though? As I had already mentioned briefly, Glover breaks all rules of traditional sit-com.
1) The show does not follow an episodic order in terms of cause-and-effect
Somehow Glover is reminding us that as much this is comedy, he is also depicting a slice of life in Atlanta. So sometimes plot lines don't get wrapped up by end of the episode and they're skimmed over in the next, as though nothing had happened.
Sometimes we get character-driven episodes like "Value", where Vanessa has to find ways to avoid a pee test for her job review as she had smoked weed the night before. Then there is "B.A.N.", a full episode dedicated to a segment of a TV talk show that has Alfred speaking about his views on transgender with a sociologist. And then in between the interview, we get satirical commercials about Arizona drink cans, cereal and cars that black Americans are obsessed with.
While it might throw viewers off, Atlanta took a huge risk with expectations while staying true to its identity as a comedy. That last reveal followed by Alfred laughed his way through the faux credits is pure comedic irony. And speaking of irony...
2) Dramatic Ironies
Some of my favourite climatic moments involve revelations that just takes you by shock and laughter. The humour may no be laugh-out-loud, but when they hit, they hit hard. And I don't mean chortling laughter, but when you're done chuckling, you ponder about the inspirations of his punchlines and how he uses society's perspective to subvert their expectations to meld both comedy and drama.
Much credit is given to Glover's brilliant writing touch, as his episodes seem to touch on issues of poverty, sexuality, racial discrimination and ideas of fame and success and what all these mean to the black Americans living in the United States. And he presents his thoughts in visual anecdotes, filled with ironies and absurd situations.
Sure there are victories for our characters, but also there are losses these people experience. With how the last episode ends where Earn begins another week wrought with complications (an unconventional, but refreshing ending for a TV show this era), I await its return to watch the lives of these wonderfully fleshed-out characters
*This is pretty much an exercise for me to write an essay for one of my assignment. Now on to the main course: "L'avventura" and "Daughters of the Dust"
The first episode sets up like a traditional sit-com, easing viewers into its unfamiliar world and characters in Atlanta. Glover's performance is subtle, achingly-realistic and instantly likeable. He carries an air of nonchalance despite being broke and he's strangely optimistic about his predicaments. He's a man who seemingly has no problems but as you follow him throughout the episodes, his problems are plenty.
Brian Tyree Henry, Keith Stanfield and Zazie Beetz round off the cast and they are all so superb in their roles. As much as this is Earn's story, Glover allows the writing to veer off in different directions, sometimes exploring story/character arcs in individual episodes (which I'll touch later on).
Director Hiro Murai, who has been an unknown in television landscape, lenses Atlanta with an invigorating cinematic style, showing viewers a side of the city that rarely graces our screens. For a TV show that calls itself Atlanta, you get these really sublime shots of the city and its people, whether be it from a bird-eye's view or close-ups of architecture on the ground. Atlanta really becomes a vital character in the background, as we see Earn and gang navigate various corners of this intricate city.
But why is such a good and important show though? As I had already mentioned briefly, Glover breaks all rules of traditional sit-com.
1) The show does not follow an episodic order in terms of cause-and-effect
Somehow Glover is reminding us that as much this is comedy, he is also depicting a slice of life in Atlanta. So sometimes plot lines don't get wrapped up by end of the episode and they're skimmed over in the next, as though nothing had happened.
Sometimes we get character-driven episodes like "Value", where Vanessa has to find ways to avoid a pee test for her job review as she had smoked weed the night before. Then there is "B.A.N.", a full episode dedicated to a segment of a TV talk show that has Alfred speaking about his views on transgender with a sociologist. And then in between the interview, we get satirical commercials about Arizona drink cans, cereal and cars that black Americans are obsessed with.
While it might throw viewers off, Atlanta took a huge risk with expectations while staying true to its identity as a comedy. That last reveal followed by Alfred laughed his way through the faux credits is pure comedic irony. And speaking of irony...
2) Dramatic Ironies
Some of my favourite climatic moments involve revelations that just takes you by shock and laughter. The humour may no be laugh-out-loud, but when they hit, they hit hard. And I don't mean chortling laughter, but when you're done chuckling, you ponder about the inspirations of his punchlines and how he uses society's perspective to subvert their expectations to meld both comedy and drama.
Much credit is given to Glover's brilliant writing touch, as his episodes seem to touch on issues of poverty, sexuality, racial discrimination and ideas of fame and success and what all these mean to the black Americans living in the United States. And he presents his thoughts in visual anecdotes, filled with ironies and absurd situations.
Sure there are victories for our characters, but also there are losses these people experience. With how the last episode ends where Earn begins another week wrought with complications (an unconventional, but refreshing ending for a TV show this era), I await its return to watch the lives of these wonderfully fleshed-out characters
*This is pretty much an exercise for me to write an essay for one of my assignment. Now on to the main course: "L'avventura" and "Daughters of the Dust"
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