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*Donald Glover wastes no time getting into the theme of “Atlanta: Robbin’ Season,” premiering tonight (March 1) at 10 p.m. on FX.
The opening sequence – a violent robbery by two unknown characters – sets the tone with the same critically-acclaimed realness that caught everyone’s attention during season one. Glover’s Earn Marks continues to manage his rapper cousin Al (Brian Tyree Henry), and their progress is still tempered by speedbumps, all framed by the surrounding desperation of the city. Christmas is coming and “people gotta eat,” explains Darius (LaKeith Stanfield).
Racism continues to hover over it all, as pervasive and powerful as Paper Boi’s preferred Lemon Lime strand of weed this season. The racial double standard of wealth is on full display in an episode where Earn tries to spend his hard-earned $100 bill without being arrested.
Earn’s best friend and baby mama Van (Zazie Beetz)Â rounds out the returning central four, all contributing their own distinct brush strokes toward Glover’s early season 2’s plotlines involving Paper Boi’s veteran Uncle Willie (played poignantly by Katt Williams), the frustrations of social media, good ol’ fashioned stuntin’ and those annoying acoustic guitar covers of rap songs by white girls (i.e., the remake of Rae Sremmurd’s “No Type” in the above trailer.)
There’s even a not-so-subtle nod to Stanfield’s role in the Oscar-nominated “Get Out,” in a scene involving an office full of white people staring at Earn, then pretending to do something else when he turns toward them, sensing he’s being watched.
Hiro Murai’s direction and Stephen Glover’s words give the actors room to breathe, unencumbered by sentimentality and caricatured stereotypes. Earn and Al still want success, but on their own terms – a theme perfectly displayed when Earn tries to give his cousin’s demo CD to a young, white music exec at a tech start-up.
“Uhhh, we don’t have any disc drives. It’s all wireless,” the exec says with a dismissive laugh.
As “robbin’ season” in the ATL dictates, decisions need to be made on just how low Earn and Al are willing to go for the come up in season 2.
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