When we think of television that tries to present the music industry, there’s a trend that a lot of these fit our expectations. Shows like Nashville, Empire and most recently Martin Scorsese’s HBO series Vinyl all share this strange theme of elitism. The narrative, characters and settings of these shows revolve around protagonists that have already made it in the industry. The people you root for aren’t hopefuls trying to make it in what seems like the worlds busiest music industry, but those have already done so. These shows, not to much surprise, are beginning to feel repetitive and critics and viewers alike are beginning to get tired of it. Even Vinyl, produced by Martin Scorsese, was cancelled after just one season for being “formulaic” and “familiar” to shows like Empire and Nashville. While these shows may let its viewers in on the diversion from reality that most TV shows provide, to me, showing that reality is just as important. And that reality is what sets Atlanta apart from other music TV shows, and most TV shows generally.
If you haven't watched the show, by the one-man-media-machine himself Donald Glover, its narrative goes in the opposite direction of its predecessors. Atlanta focuses on Earn (played by Glover) as he learns the trials and tribulations of the music industry after taking it upon himself to manage up-and-coming rapper (and his cousin) Alfred, AKA Paperboi (Brian Tee Henry) to provide an income for himself, his child and on-off girlfriend Van (Zazie Beetz).
The show puts Earn right at the bottom; we see him bouncing between couches, hating his day job as well as having to deal with casual racism and classism - and that's just in the show's first episode. This reality, especially for a comedy, is what audiences aren't used to on television and as the saying goes, people are afraid of what they don't know. It's not a diversion away from the issues that are present in the day-to-day lives of FX's prime time audience, but a strict reminder of them. However, while this is his intention Glover doesn't want to over-do it and to alleviate that reality he adds a sprinkling of surreality to his show. While there are countless examples of this surreality scattered throughout the series, one of my favourites is the appearance by none other than Migos.
In Atlanta, cameoing as themselves, they play drug dealers. This is just as ironic casting as it is a perfect because in reality, the Migos are an Atlanta-based rap trio that lean more towards rap's 'trap' sub-genre. In layman's terms that means the sort of rap with lyrics about the use and making of drugs. Even their name 'Migos' is a word for an abandoned house (a trap house) used to make and sell drugs. In the show, Atlanta's 'trap' and subsequently drug scene is heavily exaggerated to keep up Glover's eerie surrealism. Quavo's first impression to Darius and Paperboi is kindly offering clothes to a near-naked man that's been trapped inside Quavo's RV's exterior kitchen door because "it's cold out there", before shooting him as he tries to run away from Atlanta's most fearsome trapper. Eventually, the deal goes down, but as Paperboi leaves he asks Quavo what the name of his group is - Quavo tells Paperboi "we're the Migos".
This whole sequence has a unique, hilariously surrealistic tone based purely on the contexts of Atlanta, its drug trade and how the Migos themselves relate back to all of that. If you're not aware of those contexts then the magic wears off and the sequence just becomes like any other drug deal on a television show - besides the near naked man falling out an RV, of course. I noticed this myself when watching the show on its premiere against my recent rewatch of it. Before I knew barely anything about the Migos or how they tied into Atlanta as a whole. As a result, I perceived the sequence like I would any other TV drug deal scene. Although once you understand the Migos and what Glover was trying to get at, that's when the genius of Atlanta hits you.
Overall, Atlanta is one-of-a-kind. Even my own idea of it as a socially aware, surreal comedy seems bizzare to apply to any other television show - so if you're fan of Donald Glover, rap or want something a bit stranger than a sitcom Atlanta's the one for you.