What I saw: Atlanta

I took a trip out of town this weekend, and I was listening to a TV podcast called Talking TV with Ryan and Ryan that was posted right after the election. They talked about why they talk about TV so much, and they had some similarities to why I decided to write this blog of mine. They felt TV shows can be influential, but also as fiction they can present issues that are happening today without being constrained to the people and situations of real life. They can also take things a step further to show what could happen instead of just facts which the news (should) limit their reporting to. You can check it out because I felt they were able to articulate the good and bad of TV through conversation. The episode is an hour long, so just a heads up on that (they even admit several times throughout that they ramble for a time).

What I watched:

Atlanta S1.E1&2 “The Big Bang" and "Streets on Lock"

What I saw:

The first episode definitely laid a lot of groundwork in the 30 minute comedy time slot. While this show is funny and has comedic moments all throughout, it definitely has the weight of a drama. The main character, Earn, is a Princeton drop-out who grew up and currently lives in Atlanta. His cousin Alfred aka “Paper Boi” is an up-and-coming rap star, and Earn decides to ditch his federal minimum wage job to manage his cousin and get him noticed. It seems selfish, and Alfred definitely is suspicious at first, but the reality is Earn just wants to make enough money to provide for his newborn daughter and ex(?)-girlfriend who he lives with.

The first episode Alfred put it succinctly: it’s all about being a man. Alfred tells Earn needs someone who can put the “man” in manager. And in fact, Earn has been emasculated all throughout the episode; an old lady outperforms him at work, he doesn’t have rent money to give to his family and lives with/off of his ex-girlfriend, his ex is going out on a date with another man while he is supposed to watch the baby, and a white douchey radio DJ uses the N-word right in front of him because he thinks he can get away with it. While Earn isn’t physically tough, he is smart, and he manages to gain a small victory by bypassing the douchey white DJ and gets his cousin’s song on the radio. On the other hand, his cousin Alfred “mans up” when someone broke off his mirror for hollering at a girl and it ends up in a shooting. In the second episode, we actually see Alfred is more torn up over the shooting than what he lets on. Overall, the lesson is there is no clear “manly” way of being; there are actions, and consequences, with manliness being having enough confidence to pull it off.

The second episode is all about the consequences, and getting a snapshot of what our justice system looks like. Alfred and Earn got arrested, but there was no evidence for the shooting so they got held for having possession of marijuana. Alfred gets let out first, but Earn has to wait until he gets put in the system to post bail. Before Alfred even leaves the jail, he can tell that his world has changed: from both the shooting and his music. People treat him differently because he is a "hardcore" rapper and becoming famous from the song that was put on the radio. People want to take pictures with him at every corner. But, he is still reeling from shooting someone, and when he sees kids playing with a toy gun saying they are acting like Paper Boi, he tries to tell them that shooting isn’t a good thing. However, his fame gets in the way and the mom of the child pushes the lesson aside and snaps some pictures of the now famous Paper Boi. Alfred is learning that his fame is going to make it harder to tell who really likes him or who just likes his fame, making him feel alone. The price of fame is looming.

With Earn trapped in jail we as viewers get a view of who the “criminals” the police are protecting us from. Now don’t get me wrong, the police do protect the public, and unless everyone wants to be a vigilante, they are much needed.

With that being said, Earn talks to some of the people in the jail. In one case, he is just stuck in the middle while one guy is talking to his ex, who is dressed as a woman but is really a man (unclear whether transvestite or transgender, so I will leave it as trans; I do not mean to offend!). The guy was convinced the trans was a biological woman and when the crowd points out he was dating a man, he gets defensive. I like how Earn pointed out that sexuality is a spectrum, and that there is no wrong way to be in a relationship, but the guy was too embarrassed to listen.

The truth is sexuality is more like a spectrum, with any combination within the spectrum is capable of existing; like mixing colors to make a new one. You can have someone born a man, who changes into a woman, who likes women. Does that mean the person was “straight” while in the man’s body since the person liked women? No, because the person may have biologically been a man but always identified as a woman, but there is no clear word for it. There are just too many ways of living to be able to name them easily, but that doesn’t make anything within the spectrum less valid; just unique!

Another man was arrested for public intoxication, which really was just drinking a beer on the front porch with his friend. That could be some subtle racism since the man was black, because who thinks a whit person would be arrested doing the same thing in the suburbs? Then there is a mentally ill man who is walking around in a hospital gown and drinking water from the toilet. The mentally ill man is there every week, and Earn points out he needs help, not jail, but is ignored. The man is treated as a court jester, with everyone laughing at his erratic behavior until he spits on one of the officers. The officer then begins to beat the mentally ill man. Jail, it turns out, is a land for the forgotten and the unnoticed.

Like I said, while there are comedic moments, there’s so much more depth going on that it feels more like a drama. I am very interested to see what else the show shines a light on throughout the season. I also like how the storytelling is so natural, there isn’t some obvious plot device that forces the characters into these situations. It all just happens; at least it feels like that so far. What other show do you guys know that has a natural progression? Let me know in the comments!