Begins audaciously (though we're not at all surprised) with 'Three Slaps', a total left turn, a self-contained episode (credited to Stephen Glover) in which none of our main characters appear. No, it's a dream about a lake haunted by the flooded black township beneath it, then goes on to tear apart the American education / care system in story of disorderly young man who's inadvertently 'saved' from his family and thrust into care. In typically surreal tones, we find his new lesbian parents are psychotic and he and the other three foster kids are free labour. He manages to escape (just before they plunge into the aforementioned Haunted Lake) and ends up going back home - a beautifully circular storyline. (We think he will probably behave better this time around.)
That track - 'When It's Time To Go' Kui Lee, performed by Buddy Fo and his Group, 1967. Where do they find all this music?
Then we pick up on Paper Boi et al on European Tour, with usual array of mad episodes; particularly the one where Van and Darius attend what they think is a peaceful farewell to a dying man - it turns out to be an absurdist and horrible twist on euthanasia (I think).
A second, crazy stand-alone story features a world where families who have had slaves in the past are suddenly open to financial reparation, effectively destroying the life of Justin Bartha ('We were from Austria-Hungary. We were conquered by the Byzantine Empire. Should I ask them for reparation?') And a third tells of a white family who attend the funeral of their black maid, who's clearly been a much better mother to the young boy than his mother ever was.
Moment in Amsterdam episode where loutish British schoolboys steal a baby and then pass it, rugby-like, is absolutely gobsmacking, also hilarious; the sort of thing you don't see anywhere else. (The closest I can think of in sensibility is Christopher Morris's Jam.)
Appearance of Liam Neeson sending himself up is hilarious (discussed in Variety here). Playout song there is 'Stormy' by The Meters.
Donald Glover's had an amazing career, if you think about it, initially as a writer on 30 Rock, a rapper, an actor and now heading a farm / creative studio in California.
Atlanta is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable, distinctive and inventive (not to mention hilariously, blackly funny) things that's ever come out of US television.
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