Thursday, September 8, 2016

Donald Glover's New Show "Atlanta" is Gritty, Humorous, and Surprising

Ask any of my closest friends who my favorite actor/rapper is, they'll tell you it's Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino.) It's true, I love everything he does. I've seen every episode of Community and I can rap "Bonfire" without messing up.

So of course, when I heard about the new show he created for FX, I was on board before even knowing the premise. All I knew going in was that it is based in Atlanta (duh) where Glover is originally from, and that it is loosely autobiographical. Or at least, it's based on his experiences growing up there.


Cool, count me in. I lived in Atlanta for 5 years so that alone is a selling point for me.

I don't have cable since I'm a millennial and Netflix and Hulu exist. Thankfully, they've made the pilot episode available on their Facebook page and on FX's youtube page.

So I finally got around to watching the first episode today and I have some thoughts about it.





Glover's specific brand of humor perfectly offsets the serious tone of the show. To me, it almost feels like he doesn't belong with these characters, in the particular situations he finds himself in. Even so, it meshes nicely. It creates an interesting point for me that motivates me to keep watching. I want to know more about Glover's character Earnest.

In one scene, one of Earnest's friends says something about experiencing Deja Vu, and asks "Where's the dog?" He looks around and sees a dog, marveling at the coincidence. In a later scene, Earnest is confronted by a man while he's on the bus home that night. The mystery man has some cryptic things to say to Earnest, and then disappears off the bus when he turns his head for a moment. Earnest catches him running into the woods with the same dog from the Deja Vu scene earlier.

Okay, what?!

I wasn't expecting this sort of paranormal sic-fi element to this show. Not that I'm complaining at all. I'm hooked. I wanna know who that guy was. I wanna know what in the heck is going on here.

Have any of you seen the pilot yet? Let me know your thoughts, and let me know what you think is going on with this Deja Vu guy.


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