"Atlanta Season 2" Just Enough Hope to Get By

 


    Man, Atlanta season 2 is a big depressing mess that I was surprisingly invested in. I mean let me give you a rundown on the topics of some of the episodes. An odd episode about Van and Earn being in a German place where they face not only racism, but the big elephant in the room that is their relationship. Then there's the big looming of question about what in the world is Al going to do about Earn being his manager. He clearly is afraid of the mistakes he's doing, and appreciates loyalty, but when it hardly leads to the success he wants, it makes you start to question how long the status quo is remaining.

    I mean, I'm going to be honest, my issues with the first season are not resolved, it is still mostly just a show that is barely head together by the synopsis of "Earn is just another black man who is trying to get by while he manages his cousins rap career". I don't know, there's nothing wrong with having what basically equates to a couple of vignettes that are a commentary on social issues involving black people, but like, it really does feel like sometimes the "main" cast of Atlanta barely appears for more than half of the seasons actual runtime.

    Honestly, I think it's kind of great that they're leaning into these vignettes, these sort of escapades that involve the main characters are actually quite enjoyable. Like, while it was weird to see a Darius only episode involving a piano and two black? or was it white dudes either way it was kind of good but at the same time I was oddly captivated for the whole ordeal. It's just, I was actually kind of  hoping to see episodes about management and the rap business.

    I feel like part of my confusion is because I'm not the most familiar with black culture. Like I wouldn't consider myself white, but obviously I've never lived as a black person. I mean of course I'm a person of colour, but at the same time intersectionality doesn't work like that. I really can't relate in the way I want to, but I don't know if I have to if I want to understand it.

Final Score: 65/100

    Yeah, it's good. What can I say? Should I be a bit more lenient on this show? Eh, it hasn't fixed any of the issues I had with it, though one could easily argue that not knowing how to sell the show to friends is a bit of a weak selling point. In fact, if I had to say anything, I'd argue it's just leaned into itself more than ever. It's eccentric, it's bizarre, it doesn't really feel the need to conform to some major overarching storyline like many other drama's do. It still really does feel like it's the passion project of Glovers, and it's one I personally enjoy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 1" What The Hell is This?

Image
      Look, Danny Devito was the only reason this show had any sort of foothold in my mind. I kept on repeating I'm the trash man through many of my younger years, and frankly, after looking at the absurd number of seasons, I've always been wary of starting this sitcom. In fact, I had even given it a shot before this, but no Devito, oddly low quality and format for the time period, and just general wariness had kept me from going past the pilot. Not to mention, you watch the first episode and just ask yourself, is this kind of racist? Is it bad that I might be laughing at how completely racist these characters are? Anyways, I did manage to get past the first episode, and even managed to complete a season, and I can safely say that I now understand what people mean when they point to this show to prove that "cancel culture has not ruined comedy". I mean in only seven episodes, the show decides to deal with racism, gay people, abortion, cancer, underage drinking, a litt...
Read more

"System Of A Down - Toxicity" Stick it Out for the Second Half

Image
      I have in fact tried listening to this album before. I remember Anthony Fantano saying he really loved Toxicity , so I decided to put on Prison Song  at 12 pm, before promptly realizing this is exactly the kind of music I'd rather not listen to going to sleep, and that the song was really on the nose. Other than that I have absolutely no prior experience with System Of A Down other than Chop Suey!  which is a lovely song that Jeff Rosenstock continues to play before every single one of his shows (thankfully). So I suppose I won't pretend to deliberate further because I'm not particularly a big metalhead either, so I doubt any knowledge I might impart would be useful. So without further ado, my track-by-track review. Toxicity - System Of A Down Prison Song  - 55/100 While the chorus and the song in general goes pretty hard, I have to say just the whole delivery of the verses is really holding this song back. Well other than the fact that it's pretty mu...
Read more

"McKinley Dixon - Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?" Living Up To It's Name, and More

Image
      Do I listen to Jazz that often? Absolutely not. Do I know anything about McKinley Dixon? Nope. What I do know is that my friend Sweaty recommended this album, and when I listened to the track Run, Run, Run , Dixon's most popular track on Spotify I was absolutely hooked. All I know is that it is rated extremely high and it's very short for an album, so we'll see how that plays out. And without further ado, my track-by-track review. Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? Hanif Reads Toni -  N/A Despite being over 2 minutes long I do think doing a spoken word poem is a cool intro. Especially with the music in the background, it creates this sort of tension and build up for when the music finally kicks in. Sun, I Rise - 80/100 Generally when it comes to rap music I'm not too picky about the songs in the sense that I just need a good beat and/or a catchy chorus to hook me, and the rest will come. I can confidently say that I feel that way about this song. The instrumentation in ...
Read more