I just don’t get it but a lot of the actors of the show are in the industry now, lost their culture and roots
Official 'Atlanta' Season 3 Thread
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It’s a 7/10
I wouldn't call it trash straight out, it's worth a watch, if even just to discuss what you did/didn't like. The writers have made it clear they had an agenda that really didn't take into account how much people might actually enjoy it, and I didn't enjoy it very much.
3 out 10 of the episodes really stuck to my ribs, but that's me. As I said, I respect the artist vision and craftsmenship that went into how they put everything together but it was a drag. Abstract piece of art you tilt your head at one good time and move on from.
Ghostface Trillah
God-level poster
But it is a show for black folk. They spent the whole season trolling white people and making them feel like shyt while shedding light on things that black have dealt with forever. There's no place else on television where you would get those standalone episodes but they aren't bad stories or episodes. I'd rather have a Trini to de bone or rich wigga, poor wigga than watching paper boi pout like a kid about everything, Darius be weird about everything, and Earn be the straight man for both of them for 10 episodes
I loved this season. I love the way they utilized an anthology method of storytelling. As I said way before the series always been more episodic than serial. It's always loosely serialized in the same vein of Rick & Morty, and it still surprises me when people complain about the fact that each episode can stand alone. I think it is smart because a new viewer can be introduced to Atlanta and pop on any episode without a need to explain while at the same time it's so nuanced that long time viewers can connect everything.
To explain to me what season 3 of Atlanta is about, I feel the Glovers needed to do it as an anthology season in order to give themselves freedom to tell the stories they want to tell without being pigeonholed into forcing the main character's involvement. I feel all of it is needed to explain how subtle and true racism and white supremacy in EVERY aspect has infected the world as a whole. Not just here in America, but abroad as well. It is bold of them to depict white people, both American and European as non-sympathetic characters. There's a sense of truism because we know of these things' raw acts of racism and bigotry exists, but in its surrealist perspective of the show keeps these issue that we know exist entertaining and ironic. I feel it's brilliant writing overall.
I love also the subtle character evolutions of each character we have so far, with the exception of Darius. Darius so knows who he is and has a fixed worldview. He's the only character who is truly "free". He's without any restrictions and live his life how he wants to live it. Everyone else by the end of this season has their own identity crisis:
Van- as the season finale has shown, Van's identity crisis is the more extreme and a true sickness of DISASSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER (DID). For those who seen Moonknight understand this mental illness is when a person has multiple personalities largely due to some early trauma or current deep depression. While the show Moonknight is exaggerated, Van's mental illness is more accurate as we saw signs of her unraveling way back in season 2 with the breakup with Earn and then losing her job. Even when Darius first asked her why she was in Europe, she explained her needing to find her way only to falling deep into becoming a totally different character altogether forgoing her former life. What's interesting with the season finale is we're not exactly SURE how long Van been in Europe. For her, she assumed it was a couple of weeks, but clues such as having such strong relationships with others in Paris, especially on the verge of getting married, her face on magazine covers, the BAGGUETTE that's been harden for 6 months, and her snapping back to reality asking where's Loddie suggests that she at the very least been in Europe more than 6 months and maybe even a whole year as this totally different person. I'm going to get to Earn later, but he truly dropped the ball because he knew from the start that something was wrong and because of his own situation of trying to find himself failed to reach Van as effective as Candice was able to reach Van. I hope in season 4, Van gets the therapy that she long deserved.
Alfred- Alfred's identity crisis been longstanding since season 1 where he is conflicted between the two personas of Paperboi & Al. We see at the start of season 3 of Alfred in full Paperboi mode. He was enjoying the fruits of being an international rap star. He has a huge fanbase, meet with wild groupies, having parties and loving life. By close to the end of season 3, we see Al questioning himself as to if he even wants to do this anymore. He's losing his passion, having writer's block, paranoid about who's really have his back, paranoid about his own fans, pondering if it's all worth it, but it's all he knows. I predict in season 4, Al is going to quit rapping and seek what his true purpose is. If the signs true, this is the possibilities and how this will affect his and Earn's relationship will be interesting.
Lastly, Earn- Earn has the strongest character arc of the series so far. He went from a broke, irresponsible, self-centered loser to now a very successful, responsible, and putting everybody else ahead of himself individual. But he's not at all happy. He never truly expressed his unhappiness outright, but there's subtilties the shows him being incomplete. We first seen Earn having very little sleep due to the demands of being Paperboi's manager. It seems like he cannot have time for himself and doesn't know where he's coming or going. Earn is so consume with work that even Al recognizes it and attempted to have some personal conversation like the old times with no avail. When someone is buried so much into work, it's a sign of ignoring or covering up any emotional turmoil within. And Earn is in an emotional rut because no matter how he is willing to admit it, Earn is in love with Van. The final scene of him and Van together only for her to disappear the next morning is clear of being the case. It's more than him being concern of her state of mind, it's about he yearns for her being back in her life. It's why, as subtly implied, Earn paid for Van's trip to Europe. We know this because of sending Darius to pick her up. It's initially assumed that Van going to hang with the crew, as she was there with them in Amsterdam and with them in London, but they split and went their way with Earn worried sick about Van. I think Van completes Earn, but he's afraid to express it. I predict the final season is going to be where Earn and Van getting married with Earn starting his own management team for music artists.
To explain to me what season 3 of Atlanta is about, I feel the Glovers needed to do it as an anthology season in order to give themselves freedom to tell the stories they want to tell without being pigeonholed into forcing the main character's involvement. I feel all of it is needed to explain how subtle and true racism and white supremacy in EVERY aspect has infected the world as a whole. Not just here in America, but abroad as well. It is bold of them to depict white people, both American and European as non-sympathetic characters. There's a sense of truism because we know of these things' raw acts of racism and bigotry exists, but in its surrealist perspective of the show keeps these issue that we know exist entertaining and ironic. I feel it's brilliant writing overall.
I love also the subtle character evolutions of each character we have so far, with the exception of Darius. Darius so knows who he is and has a fixed worldview. He's the only character who is truly "free". He's without any restrictions and live his life how he wants to live it. Everyone else by the end of this season has their own identity crisis:
Van- as the season finale has shown, Van's identity crisis is the more extreme and a true sickness of DISASSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER (DID). For those who seen Moonknight understand this mental illness is when a person has multiple personalities largely due to some early trauma or current deep depression. While the show Moonknight is exaggerated, Van's mental illness is more accurate as we saw signs of her unraveling way back in season 2 with the breakup with Earn and then losing her job. Even when Darius first asked her why she was in Europe, she explained her needing to find her way only to falling deep into becoming a totally different character altogether forgoing her former life. What's interesting with the season finale is we're not exactly SURE how long Van been in Europe. For her, she assumed it was a couple of weeks, but clues such as having such strong relationships with others in Paris, especially on the verge of getting married, her face on magazine covers, the BAGGUETTE that's been harden for 6 months, and her snapping back to reality asking where's Loddie suggests that she at the very least been in Europe more than 6 months and maybe even a whole year as this totally different person. I'm going to get to Earn later, but he truly dropped the ball because he knew from the start that something was wrong and because of his own situation of trying to find himself failed to reach Van as effective as Candice was able to reach Van. I hope in season 4, Van gets the therapy that she long deserved.
Alfred- Alfred's identity crisis been longstanding since season 1 where he is conflicted between the two personas of Paperboi & Al. We see at the start of season 3 of Alfred in full Paperboi mode. He was enjoying the fruits of being an international rap star. He has a huge fanbase, meet with wild groupies, having parties and loving life. By close to the end of season 3, we see Al questioning himself as to if he even wants to do this anymore. He's losing his passion, having writer's block, paranoid about who's really have his back, paranoid about his own fans, pondering if it's all worth it, but it's all he knows. I predict in season 4, Al is going to quit rapping and seek what his true purpose is. If the signs true, this is the possibilities and how this will affect his and Earn's relationship will be interesting.
Lastly, Earn- Earn has the strongest character arc of the series so far. He went from a broke, irresponsible, self-centered loser to now a very successful, responsible, and putting everybody else ahead of himself individual. But he's not at all happy. He never truly expressed his unhappiness outright, but there's subtilties the shows him being incomplete. We first seen Earn having very little sleep due to the demands of being Paperboi's manager. It seems like he cannot have time for himself and doesn't know where he's coming or going. Earn is so consume with work that even Al recognizes it and attempted to have some personal conversation like the old times with no avail. When someone is buried so much into work, it's a sign of ignoring or covering up any emotional turmoil within. And Earn is in an emotional rut because no matter how he is willing to admit it, Earn is in love with Van. The final scene of him and Van together only for her to disappear the next morning is clear of being the case. It's more than him being concern of her state of mind, it's about he yearns for her being back in her life. It's why, as subtly implied, Earn paid for Van's trip to Europe. We know this because of sending Darius to pick her up. It's initially assumed that Van going to hang with the crew, as she was there with them in Amsterdam and with them in London, but they split and went their way with Earn worried sick about Van. I think Van completes Earn, but he's afraid to express it. I predict the final season is going to be where Earn and Van getting married with Earn starting his own management team for music artists.
dora_da_destroyer
Master Baker
This isnt still a show for black folk, the takeaways are “hmm moments” for white people.
King_Kamala61
TheColi's Favorite Artist
No one mentioned this. I was like is that the wig? Lol
dangerranger
All Star
I disagree. I think you are proving the writers intentions in your very statement. The definition of what’s for black folk even to black folk is too rigid and too narrow. It’s the foundation of the rich wigga poor wigga episode. This show has done an incredible job this season of trying to answer the question of what is blackness and contrasting it in comparison to whiteness. A lot of it is arbitrary and the absurdity of it all can only be fully grasped as it’s presented to us in the form of a television show. Bc you get to sit back and watch how ridiculous it all is. But it’s not just a mirror for white people to look at and check themselves. It’s for us too. Atlanta may not be best show that’s ever been created but it’s definitely an important one and this season is exactly why because we have never had this amount of talented black writers addressing these issues with the level of integrity, understanding, nuance, and thoughtfulness as season 3 to date.
I get it we may not all agree about the anthology stories but to discount what these black writers were able to showcase this season is disheartening. We ask for better stuff and the one time we show out that we can write with the best of them, it’s met with meh because it isn’t the typical story format. Trust me I got the disappointment that some may feel but what season 3 proves is way bigger and important than just the story of paper boi, earn, Darius and van. The writers knew that this was there only shot to do something on this scale and they did. I applaud them for it. Who knows if we will ever get something like this again.
dora_da_destroyer
Master Baker
Man miss me with all this, ain’t nobody asking them to be in a box. You can tackles these topics in a way that feels geared towards black people. If you felt the message in these episodes was for you, cool, I didn’t learn shyt here nor need to watch these episodes to have known of these experiences
dangerranger
All Star
That’s you. This stuff is written for a broader audience. More importantly I do enjoy hearing the sentiment of how it could be done better. I think it’s a fair sentiment but no one can point to an example of where it has been done. No show to date has tried to maneuver topics the way Atlanta season 3 has. I always remember this quote. It’s applicable to most things in life. It’s “don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good”. Don’t sh*t on something because it’s not perfect but be able to acknowledge what they tried to do and how to tried to bring the internal conversations to episodic television at the risk of alienating some of their fans to address these things going on with us.
dora_da_destroyer
Master Baker
I’m happy your enjoyed the season. No need in keeping this going. This season wasn’t it and I don’t need the Donald Glover fan club trying to convince me it was - no shade, but it’s some real “he can do no wrong” fanboys across forums when it comes to him
Feels more like this was the mid-season finale than the conclusion of a singular season like the first two. I dont know if that was intentional, and I think that's ultimately how we'll look back on S3 after we get S4 - but I can understand why fans drawn in with S1 & S2 weren't feeling the approach Donald took.
dangerranger
All Star
We can agree to disagree. That’s cool. But this is my last piece. Just bc others disagree it don’t mean we think he can do no wrong. That’s dismissive to just say we fanboys. Some of us just actually appreciate the vision. Also I give credit to the Atlanta writers who are black not just DG.
I'll be honest, I probably won't re-watch any of the episodes from Season 3. I rewatched S1 & S2 at least twice 
The finale was cool but it felt like a weird way to bookend things. Finding out what the deal with Van was was definitely on people's minds but to leave it off with that feels insufficient. It feels like it should have been a lot earlier in the season but there’s some continuity stuff that prevents that.
Overall I enjoyed watching the season because Atlanta is Atlanta but it seems like there’s no conflict or major thread that'll carry us forward. It's kind of fukked up actually. Earn, Al and Darius are good. I need shyt to go left in the finale so I got something to look forward to
Overall I enjoyed watching the season because Atlanta is Atlanta but it seems like there’s no conflict or major thread that'll carry us forward. It's kind of fukked up actually. Earn, Al and Darius are good. I need shyt to go left in the finale so I got something to look forward to