“The Most Atlanta” and “The Homeliest Little Horse”

after, after One Head trip on a European tour, Atlanta Finally back to Atlanta. Season 3 came out this spring, throwing its characters into many strange situations on another continent — that is, when it wasn’t quite taking audiences away from the main quartet. Season 4 then focuses on what happens when Earn, Alfred, Darius, and Van return home and resume their lives they may have outgrown. Based on this two-part premiere, fans can breathe a sigh of relief as the final season will be going back to basics however it will be quite high by the weight of what the characters have been through.

By the way, this is the first time I summarize AV . Club. (Hi, nice to meet you all.) So I have to tell you that I am a fan who quickly lost interest in the indie season 3 episodes. It seemed like a way for the show to continue commenting on America without the characters actually being in America, but once the surprise was gone, a quick pull away from the main quartet ended up hurting the show. Atlanta It is at its best when it shows the characters’ responses to surreal situations. nearest departure from each day (“ban” And the “Teddy Perkins”) introduced Al and Darius as agents to the public; We had a strong sense of how they would respond and could be happy to either say what we were waiting for or ride the script all the way to its end, respectively. When Season 3 plunged viewers into character studies on reparations or “Black Culture in America” ​​with no known substitutions, there wasn’t enough to accommodate us.

On the other hand, the plot of the first episode of season 4 (“The Most Atlanta”) between Darius and the very specific protector of the monarchy is also Darius It is fully functional. Of course this guy we saw is a little out of sync with the world to the point of ignoring the flashing warning signals would turn out to be goal stand in During looting to return a gift for cash. And of course, even though he wasn’t so involved that it’s ridiculous, the woman will focus on him because he holds a symbol of middle-class ambition. Once the setting is there (and why doesn’t this exact set of circumstances happen in a world Atlanta?), the sequence shifts into a pure black comedy as this woman’s supernatural determination sends her across town to stab a man for stealing an air fryer.

As Darius outruns his attacker, Eren and Van are trapped between their exits. A lot of suburban people own one mall they wouldn’t go to because if they did, they would run into everyone they knew. (My dad started avoiding one mall when he was dating my mom, and it continues to this day.) “The Most Atlanta” turns that concept into complete horror in a very profound way and so on. Atlanta I plan to show clips of it to anyone who asks, “So what is this series about?” Additionally, the sequence gives Earn and Van a chance to confirm their partnership, and neither will be sent to the former grave by the other. The sequence isn’t enough to illustrate an entire episode, but it’s significant, impressive, and visually appealing, with Hiro Murai returning to the director’s chair.

Meanwhile, Al’s journey in “The Most Atlanta” fits in with the legacy of another local star. Scavenger hunts game built around new music releases is by no means a new concept. (Glover even did an online search for a file Childish Gambino’s Secret Path In 2014.) Social media platforms have taken exercise so mainstream and universal that stalking can be cliched PR stuntbut Atlanta It takes the exercise back to its low-lying roots to show that Al sets out to explore Blueblood’s favorite spots in his city. A menu item at a barbecue spot, a broken dryer in a sink, an original comic book, and even a 3D movie set a course for celebrating the end of life. Every part of Blueblood’s death and funeral is intentional, from his three-month delay permit to his most devoted fan taking a token piece of him with them. Not many people will see his last mystery, but the ones who matter most will see, and that’s a powerful message for Al as he approaches mainstream stardom.

If the first episode becomes a classic AtlantaThe Homeliest Little Horse shows how the series developed – and Glover’s performance. If I ever heard in season one that a later episode would be about a therapy session, I would have responded with a healthy dose of skepticism (and probably would have felt the same anytime before “Teddy Perkins” and “Three slaps.” This exploration of Earn’s self-proclaimed love of trifles comes at a perfect time in the series and not just because it answers questions about Earn’s motivations that fans have been keeping since 2016. It’s a guaranteed feeling rather than a navel, and this show has always been about the slow game.

I’ll stay relatively far from spoilers about the episode’s big reveal in case anyone reads this before watching (note: don’t do that!), but the way the episode hinted at one possibility of the white woman’s relationship with Earn before it was revealed really made me look to his actions in a whole new light. The manager’s plan is pettiness at its highest, but at this point he’s been dragged further down, perhaps beyond the goal of his revenge. Also, this may be the most sympathetic portrayal of a white person on a show often Eggs are bastards. I can’t help but feel sympathy for this woman because she is clearly being deceived (although this is perhaps the aspiring novelist’s connection).

Atlanta He plays a long game with what he has to say about wealth and power in American society: portions of season three showed that whites had an advantage (see “The Old Man and the Tree”), and two independent photos depicted what would happen if blacks tasted. Now, Earn is the one who has sex with white people, and as the show continues to explore the gray areas of cultural dynamics, that might not be good for him. Each member of the main quartet will likely count the feeling that they came home differently than when they left. Whether it’s in their pockets, mindsets, or physical locations, Earn, Van, Al, and Darius are progressing to…something.

stray notes

• I can’t stress this enough: Darius was trying to return an air fryer he got free gift. This is a nice added layer of “Oh, he’s got the money now” behavior for this scene.
• I grew up in Los Angeles, but the Atlanta traffic stories strike fear into my heart.
• It’s pretty cool that the ex-fan who works at the cellphone store came before the movie “Most Atlanta” revealed the whole horror of this location. Perhaps his life did not move in the same path that Van.
• Playing “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here” by Deborah Cox over the speakers at the mall is *Chef’s Kiss. *
• Sorry for the man who will now live with the eternal nickname, “The Last White American I Kissed.”
• I strongly encourage any Atlanta native/resident to leave their Atlanta station stories in the comments; I want to know if the mall is really The Blair Witch Project forest but for exes.
• My favorite part of the scavenger hunt is when Al has to play a shooting game for a certain amount of tickets to get the shirt.
• The perfectly perfect catchphrase for “The Homeliest Little Horse” reads, “We’ve become such petty grown-up men here. You really need therapy. I don’t really know what’s wrong with me.”
• We probably won’t get the full explanation of the second incident that moved Eren from a Princeton student to basically a homeless person, and the treatment sequence is so good that we don’t need to know anything else. Glover’s performance leaves us with the massive impact he made on Earn.
• I see Darius completely as Al’s platonic life partner, so an interesting later story could explore one of them wanting to leave and the other wanting to stay.