View Full Version : Atlanta became cinema with its "more obviously, aggressively ambitious" second season


TMC
05-12-2018, 12:50 AM
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/arts/television/atlanta-donald-glover-this-is-america.html

"Atlanta is like a rapper obsessed with his own brilliance," says Wesley Morris. "You want to see if the show can top itself because that self-regard is part of the hook. But loving this show means worrying that it might be devoured by its own genius, that it’s too great to last, that, eventually, conceit will cannibalize concept. This second batch of episodes was more obviously, aggressively ambitious. The show became cinema (one ominous aerial shot of a vegetal forest canopy made me want vinaigrette) and appeared to have on its mind the ideas in Get Out, the moods of Moonlight, the hypnotic ambiguities of David Lynch. Some of that reach toward movie-ness nudged the show into self-conscious precocity, the equivalent of skipping a grade."

ALSO:

Atlanta's genius is starting from a classic sitcom premise, then going somewhere far more thoughtful (https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/5/11/17341322/atlanta-season-2-review-finale-recap-crabs-in-a-barrel)
Season 2 finale was more intimate and freakishly surprising than the Season 1 finale (http://www.ew.com/tv/2018/05/10/atlanta-finale-review-robbin-season/)
The magic of Season 2 "was that the basic narrative work was just as interesting as the experiments and that the latter inevitably turned out to be servicing the former" (https://uproxx.com/sepinwall/atlanta-recap-crabs-in-a-barrel-season-two-final-review-spoilers-earn-paper-boi/)
If this was Atlanta's last episode, it was a fitting one (https://theoutline.com/post/4508/atlanta-season-2-finale-review)
Atlanta is moving and excellent, but don't say you're having a good time watching it (https://www.gq.com/story/now-that-its-over-atlanta-robbin-season)
There are two ways of reading Earn's choice in the finale (http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/atlanta-robbin-season-finale-review.html)
Hiro Murai weighs in on the Season 2 finale (http://variety.com/2018/tv/features/atlanta-season-2-finale-this-is-america-hiro-murai-director-interview-1202806049/)
Season 2 mined the perils of being famous and black (https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/05/10/atlanta-season-two-famous-while-black/)
What makes Lakeith Stanfield so compelling to watch? (https://www.buzzfeed.com/frederickmckindra/lakeith-stanfield-atlanta-get-out-donald-glover)
Donald Glover tells Jimmy Kimmel that Stevie Wonder has "watched" Atlanta (http://www.thefader.com/2018/05/11/donald-glover-stevie-wonder-atlanta)
Glover has avoided the "This Is America" hoopla -- he's been off the Internet since two days before hosting SNL (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am6NHDbj6XA&feature=youtu.be)