One of the greatest TV shows ever is back.
And it’s still pretty good!
The swerves were the point.
Donald Glover returns for season 3 of ‘Atlanta’.Rob Youngson/FX
I’ve seen the first two episodes of the new season, which both air on Thursday.
There are laugh-out-loud moments right alongside skin-crawling bits of social awkwardness, plus some outright shocks.
Everything has changed, butAtlantaminus Atlanta is stillAtlanta.
Of course, the new setting could be a misdirect.
This funny sequence is also legitimately scary, which tells you something about the powerhouse talents on display.
None of the main cast appears at all, save one ambiguous late appearance by Glover as Earn.
From there, things spiral quickly.
Child services pluck Loquareeous out of his house and place him in foster care.
They have three other foster children, all Black.
Your suspicions start simmering.
Then the kids get put to work in the garden.
with the added benefit of nonstop hilarious sight gags and wordplay.
The premiere’s bold leap has an odd side effect: It makes episode 2 feel like a regularAtlantaepisode.
Earn still races around trying to manage his client-cousin Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry).
Now he has drivers, spare hotel rooms, and blessed insurance.
Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) and Van (Zazie Beetz) are here, too!
The former is floating higher than ever on the coffeehouse buzz.
“This city is my Jesus,” he says, unsurprisingly.
Van’s presence is somewhat hazier.
Is that a problem?
They woke up in realism and then the world spun them into surrealism.
Now Lottie is staying with Van’s parents for a while.
That is certainly a thing that happens in the real world.
It’s also the first time I can rememberAtlantataking an obvious TV sitcom story shortcut.
(In this case: get rid of the extraneous kid so the adults can play.)
Atlantaturned all the leads into stars.
So the lack of mission drift is a minor miracle.
Stanfield rediscovers Darius' sweet-sad brand of mysticism.
Henry has to embody the most character evolution, with a rap career gone transatlantic.
I continue to treasure his Nobel-prize-worthy eye-rolls.
“Feels like Santa’s slave,” says Earn, “but great rebrand.”
Or maybe it’s likeMr.
Robotseason 4 where everything leads up to Christmas?
(Did anyone else watchMr.
DM me, like!)
A lot of history went under our haunted bridge in the four years betweenAtlantaseasons.
The show’s early years look prophetic now in many ways.
The fourth and final season will premiere this fall.
Forget whateverGame of ThronesorStar Warsspin-off is coming up.
