Atlanta: The Hype Is Real

Granted, I’ve only watched the season premiere of FX's new comedy series Atlanta, but I’m absolutely hooked. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about check out this trailer.

Right from the jump, this show had me locked in. We are introduced to Earn Marks (Donald Glover), his cousin Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry) and his friend Darius (Keith Stanfield) and the action unfolds from there. I loved the episode because I had no idea what was going on but there was enough clues there to let me know when we were coming back to this scene. I also liked the bird’s eye view that the camera takes as the shot it fired.

Moving on from there, everything in this episode seemed authentic. I told my girlfriend about this show and how in the trailer there is a scene when Earn kisses Van (Zazie Beetz) in the morning and he comments on her morning breath (this scene is also in the premiere). That’s real. My girlfriend and I have made jokes about this and get jokingly frustrated when rom coms show the lovers eating each other’s faces the morning after when both of them would definitely have some stank ass breath.

I also really enjoyed the script, with Donald Glover as writer, because it too seems authentic and hilarious. Darius is going to be a great comic relief character but even Earns has some great exchanges with his father, played by Isiah Whitlock Jr. and his mother, played by Myra Lucretia Taylor. It comes off as a funny show.

But it’s also fairly pointed. Guns are out and about and the characters don't hide their use of drugs. The main characters also appear to be quite poor and it shows. Earns is riding the bus, he has his mom watch his daughter, and his diet is commented on as well. Those are also aspects of one’s life that is affected by poverty. Alfred, an aspiring rapper, even drives a crappy car. That’s what life is like when one is poor, not like Girls, in which one is “poor” but really he or she can afford a laptop and takes taxis here and there on a regular basis.

So if you like Louie and the better parts of Nurse Jackie, I think you’ll like this show as well. And if you’ve caught it, let me know what you think!