This was another brilliant, bittersweet, and wrenching episode. It had none of the gloss of a childhood "special episode", it felt raw and sad in many moments. Donald Glover is 32 or so, like myself, so this is THE era for our age.
It had the tension and classism, all the ways kids can be cruel, and cut each other down for nothing. I was never bullied, and I was never a bully, but I saw enough through my years, and had my moments too. It made me think of my Mom, and how she made sure I had all those clothes, even though she went in debt on my Dad's credit new Tommy and Polo. And later at Ross and Marshalls, Ecko and Polo Chaps lol Remember those things seemed unattainable back then, I saved pennies and shyt to grab a FUBU baseball jersey, I wore ONE time.
So, I never suffered that kind of thing, but I saw it, I remember the tension of dressing for school, as well as the fun of being young kids with new Iversons, and Tommy button ups, and you brought your shoes to ball in before school, with cologne in your backpack. Or the sheer thrill of getting girls numbers, and that weird adolescent version of romance, with phone calls, and "going out". All the cruelty and casual callousness that came with it. The girls that liked you, and you never knew what to say or how to act.I knew when my homies had fake shyt, and never said a word, if you went to school in one of those spots, everyone knows what I'm talking about. The episode captured all that in 33 minutes is exceptional. I could watch a season of this, I think.
A lot in this episode to think about and reflect on. I do think the last scenes overreached, with the teen suicide, I think it was too on the nose, and schools usually never would announce something like that, in that way. Loved the closing, with "If I Ruled The World" and his Mom's last line though.
