Official 'Atlanta' Season 3 Thread

maxamusa

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Just finished a re-watch of the entire series. Season 3 will be more appreciated after people rewatch. It was necessary. I understand why Donald did it. Wasn't he a musician in real life? There was a lot of growth and introspective events happening with each character.

This is not season2 of the wire by any means.
 

DropTopDoc

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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.
Bruh was spot on with his synopsis
 

RennisDeynolds

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Can somebody explain the Cancer Attack episode to me?

Why did Smokes steal the phone? What was the point of that adult white man posing as a kid?
 
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RennisDeynolds

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Idk man these standalone random episodes could have been their own anthology series or something. FX was going to give them the bread and a space on Hulu for it

No reason for this shyt to be interrupting the adventures of the main crew


Felt like Donald Glover was mad about Jordan peele getting so much praise and wanted to show him up
 
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