If there's a show currently on the air that I can rely on to always deliver something different with every episode, it's Atlanta. Initially described by its creator, star and actual living god Donald Glover as "Twin Peaks with rappers", Atlanta has found new ways to grow and develop beyond that premise and become something so incredibly specific yet utterly spectacular in just 21 short episodes. It's the kind of thing that could really only exist on television, playing fast and loose with its premise and switching its whole universe up episode to episode. Following put-upon Earn and his efforts to manage the career of his cousin Alfred, AKA the rapper Paper Boi, as well as the adventures of slacker Darius and Earn's on-again, off-again girlfriend Van, Atlanta wastes no time in creating a world of surreal characters and situations that just kind of flit in and out of the gang's life. It's a show that favours a looser, more character-driven narrative rather than a concrete plot, but I think that's absolutely its greatest strength
There's a lot of commentary in Atlanta about America and its descent into increasingly surreal chaos, and the way Glover presents these observations is just insanely effective. More often than not they just appear, breaking the weirdness with a sharp blast of reality. Take season one's The Jacket, where Earn's nonchalant quest to find his missing coat ends with a searing comment on the unfortunately common failings of the American justice system. Not that the show ever feels like a hard watch, either; Glover excels at unleashing the strongest satirical jabs at exactly the right time. It's a tough tone to get right, with a very specific marriage of hard insights and genuinely hilarious gags
So much of this comes from how the show deploys its characters. Earn and Alfred are great right off the bat, and their differing perspectives provide the show new avenues in terms of the storytelling, especially when it plays them off each other like in North of the Border. But for me, the two most interesting and effective players in the main cast are Darius and Van. Lakeith Stanfield refuses to play Darius as any sort of stock "weird best friend" archetype, instead turning him into a slack-jawed eccentric who comes alive with these sudden moments of harebrained genius. Any episode that focuses on him is bound to be a standout, and I think the same is true of Zazie Beets as Van. The show becomes electric when we see the world through her eyes, illuminating the trials and tribulations that come with being a WOC without ever sacrificing the bizarre genius that makes Atlanta stand out
It's just such an exciting show, one that delivers something entirely different in every episode without missing a beat. One minute you could be watching a fairly lighthearted tale of a man trying to get a haircut, only for the show to follow it up with the claustrophobic nightmare that is Teddy Perkins. The sheer variety of where these episodes go and what they're able to say in that time never fails to amaze me. It all just fits together so perfectly to create a believable, lived-in and deliciously weird world, one where alligator men and Justin Bieber rub shoulders with invaluable insights on celebrity culture and the toxicity of social media. It's a show that, at its weirdest, acts as the perfect mirror to the real world, while also serving as an incredible vehicle for the messages that Glover is aiming to deliver
And as the second season progresses, Glover really creates a feeling of entrapment, really leaning on the idea that these characters are stuck in an endless cycle that they'll never quite be able to break. Atlanta knows how to get its audience onside with laughs and gleeful weirdness, but can flip the tone in an instant and make the viewer interrogate why it's doing what it does. There's such a great variety in the episodes but nothing ever feels random. It's not surrealism for the sake of surrealism, and it feels like real care has been put in to build a real narrative throughline, something reinforced by the use of sub-titles. The second installment is a obviously followup to the first, but by marking itself as Robbin' Season, it builds on the idea that everything that happens, no matter how strange, is structured and controlled by an unseen force, making decisions for these characters without them even knowing
It's formless and shapeless, effortlessly doing whatever Glover needs it to, and it never once feels like he's compromising anything in the process. The show is practically built on surprise, constantly finding new ways to push the envelope and deliver the unexpected, and there's something just so thrilling about that. There's just such a dedication to doing something new in every episode, to reinventing itself every time and always hitting the mark. It's a show that recognises and respects the history of all of the TV that influenced it and uses that as a jumping off point to veer into uncharted territory. It's anything but predictable, and whatever it does next, I'll be there, ready to have my mind blown all over again
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