He is a fictional avatar of a boy named Devonte, one of six Black children adopted by Jennifer and Sarah Hart, a white-savior couple who, in 2016, drove their S.U.V. His drowning might be another punishment, perhaps for his bungling racial innocence.Ī child named Loquareeous (Christopher Farrar) also has a lesson to learn. Then his face morphs monstrously, and Black is pulled underwater by disembodied arms. “With enough blood and money, anyone can be white,” White says. (The story alludes to that of Lake Lanier, in Georgia.) It’s a bizarro reversal, with White informing Black of the racial situation-a dynamic we’ve seen in “Atlanta” before. A Black town had once thrived on the land, and it was flooded by a white government, as punishment for challenging the hierarchical order. The white man-who is referred to, interchangeably, as White and Earnest-tells his companion, who is simply named Black, that the water is haunted.
A white man and a Black man are fishing together on a lake, after dark. The opening vignette establishes the surreal tone. So in the Season 3 première, which draws from two real-life tragedies, Glover and his brother, Stephen-the writer of the episode-present us with a horror story featuring none of the usual cast members, a technique the show has used throughout its run. “Atlanta” does a lot-drama, satire, criticism, Vonnegutesque humor, Lynchian noir-but it doesn’t do virtue signalling.
The latest season feels meta: it’s a sardonic exploration of Black commercial success as oppression.
LAYING DOWN LISTENING TO MUSIC MEME MOVIE
Henry and other series regulars, such as LaKeith Stanfield, who plays Darius, the mystic sidekick, and Zazie Beetz, who plays Van, Earn’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, have become movie stars, and Glover has emerged as his generation’s preëminent multi-hyphenate. When the rapper ends up in a Dutch jail, where he is treated like a king, Earn easily secures a twenty-thousand-euro advance to pay his bail. Paper Boi (Bryan Tyree Henry), a melancholic street rapper, who is aided by his hapless cousin/manager, Earn (Donald Glover, the show’s creator)-has receded farther into the background. Over the years, the show’s premise-the burgeoning stardom of Alfred, a.k.a. Do we remember how Robbin’ Season ended, with the gun hidden and a bad fate averted? Does it matter? Ever since “Atlanta” débuted, in 2016, the series has been training viewers to eschew narrative logic. Four years have passed since the second season of “Atlanta” aired, on FX.