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ATLANTA: ROBBIN’ SEASON Donald Glover’s hip hop infused dramedy goes from strength to strength
The creative team behind Donald Glover’s surreal critique of American society go to even darker places in the highly anticipated and unl inching second season. Hiro Murai – who recently dropped the provocative Childish Gambino music video ‘This is America’ – directs the majority of the series, delivering an electric weirdness throughout.
The opening episode starts on a brutal note but soon ends up in blackly comic territory as Earn (Glover) visits his uncle, The Alligator Man, to solve a domestic dispute. The viewer is given more insight into Earn’s family life with a later episode, ‘FUBU’, highlighting his dynamic with Alfred aka Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) from a young age.
Earn’s romantic relationship with Van (Zazie Beetz) is also painfully examined when she takes him to her home town to celebrate the Germanic festival, Fastnacht. The backdrop of the festival
supplies a strange carnival ambience that builds slowly with dread as Earn’s seli sh side rears its ugly head. However, it’s the episode titled ‘Teddy Perkins’
where the real terror ramps up with Darius (Lakeith Stani eld) visiting a wealthy musician in a haunted mansion to pick up a free piano. Stani eld is marvellous as he encounters a heavily made- up, white-faced eccentric played by Glover. This unforgettable 2018 TV highlight is suffused with a Lynchian quality. Glover and his writers (including his brother Stephen) approach their characters and narratives with a down-to-earth genius that eases coni dently into absurdity as they pry open and poke the cult of celebrity worship, Instagram lifestyles and race. (Katherine McLaughlin) ■ Atlanta: Robbin’ Season starts on FOX, Sun 17 Jun, 10pm ●●●●●
118 THE LIST 1 Jun–31 Aug 2018