Atlanta Season 3 ends how it began: Bizarre, experimental and a little confused - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 05-21-2022, 05:05 AM

https://www.theringer.com/tv/2022/5/...finale-tarrare

"If Atlanta had a theme for this year, it would probably be 'identity,'" says Israel Daramola. "Not simply 'who are you'–type questions, but much thornier ones about who we want to be and how our environments and contexts shape that. About half of this season has been geared toward one-off vignettes, racialized horror stories that feel more akin to what we’d expect from a Jordan Peele–helmed The Twilight Zone (instead of what we got from the actual Jordan Peele Twilight Zone) than anything resembling the show’s previous seasons. A story of reparations being paid for by the beneficiaries of slavery; a tale of a mixed-race kid performing whiteness until it no longer benefits him; an episode about a white child who identifies more with his Trinidadian nanny than his own parents; and a near re-creation of the Devonte Hart story. All of these stories aimed to tangle the complicated tapestry of race and identity that was created by white people and which the show seems to say will also be their undoing. These episodes were a mixed bag overall; Donald Glover and his creative team went for a lot of obviousness and speechifying, perhaps because they had only a short amount of time in these episodes to get their point across. These diversions were also complicated because Atlanta has some of the best working performers in Hollywood in its main cast, and the more time spent away from them, the less exciting the show becomes. Glover has a penchant for trolling and provocation that gets tiring quickly, but regardless of whether you find these episodes successful, their overall themes of identity and whiteness as its own kind of racial prison are interesting, and there are plenty of moments throughout that are funny and even brilliant, though they don’t really amount to anything whole."

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Five reasons why Atlanta Season 3 was such a letdown: "It’s hard to fault (Donald) Glover and his collaborators for taking so many creative leaps when deviations from the show’s already wobbly norms have yielded some of its most memorable chapters, like Season 1’s anarchic media satire 'B.A.N.' and Season 2’s wonderfully creepy Michael Jackson riff 'Teddy Perkins,'" says Inkoo Kang. "But too many of the leaps this year failed to land satisfyingly, resulting in a season dense with meaning and ambition but frustratingly uneven." Kang's five reasons include: Minimal character development, underwhelming stand-alone episodes, irksome stuntcasting (Liam Neeson, Chet Hanks and Kevin Samuels), an underutilized European setting and eccentricity over humanity.
Season 3 finale was Amelie, Atlanta-style: It was "a sendup of all the trope-laden stories of young female protagonists tripping blithely through the continent, from Roman Holiday to Emily In Paris," says Michael Martin. "Those women lived lives of total whimsy and romance. Atlanta’s view of modern-day Paris involves sex work, kink—and in a swerve that takes the episode from clear-eyed to total surrealism—baguette-bludgeoning and cannibalism."
“Tarrare” is not just a hilarious closing note for Season 3, but a conclusion of the closest thing we’ve had to an ongoing story arc: "Yes, the tour has been happening this whole time, but it’s primarily been an excuse for the group to have other adventures throughout Europe," says Alan Sepinwall. "Al’s bout with writer’s block, his ongoing questions about Earn’s management, Socks randomly joining the entourage (and just as randomly disappearing from it, it seems) — none have carried on for quite as long as Van’s mysterious arrival on the tour and her even more mysterious disappearance from it." Sepinwall credits Stefani Robinson for closing the season on "an explosively funny and absurd note...Robinson can do introspective and thematically ambitious, too — she co-wrote Season One’s Van spotlight 'Value' and penned Al’s harrowing 'Woods' odyssey last season — but even more than Donald Glover himself, Robinson seems to understand the ways in which these characters and this show’s very specific, dream-like tone can be bent in the service of gut-busting humor."
Atlanta ended Season 3 with more questions than answers: "Like its main characters, Atlanta is still figuring itself out, but there's not much time left on the clock: Glover has said the fourth season will be the last," says Dan Jackson. "Though it's easy to imagine these actors reviving the series years from now, like David Lynch did with Twin Peaks (an oft-cited influence on Atlanta), Glover probably loves symmetry and the pleasures of a good punchline too much to let all the loose threads dangle."
Atlanta's neglect of Van has been its biggest problem this season: "While the show hasn’t shown too much interest in any of the main cast members over its previous nine episodes, the neglect of Van felt more obvious, as the show kept hinting that something notable was occurring in her life while keeping viewers at arm’s length," says Kyndall Cunningham. "When Van first arrived in Europe, ostensibly wanting an escape from unemployed single motherhood, it appeared as though we were about to watch her embark on some sort of Eat Pray Love-esque mission to rediscover herself. But she merely followed the guys around with little to say, slept with Earn once, and giggled at all his questions about her mental state before disappearing into the night. In a less narratively lopsided season, this would read more as foreshadowing and less like abandonment."
Why Atlanta ended Season 3 with a weird Van episode: "We knew that they were going to Europe, but early on I was just like, 'Okay, why is Van here?,'" says writer Stefani Robinson. "In a way that felt satisfying, we wanted to earn her presence there, you know what I mean? We wanted to make sure the reason that she was there didn't feel too convenient and too contrived, and there was something specific and intentional about why she was in Europe. So we sort of backtracked and leaned into some of the themes that we've probably leaned into before with her character– this idea of her identity and who is she outside of being a mother and a teacher."
What did Stefani Robinson feel was important to convey about Van through the season finale?: "The approach was, obviously, trying to give her a grounded reason as to why she was actually in Europe, and that was the impetus for it all. So, we sort of approach the story from that angle," says Robinson. "To that end, it felt more real to me. It was pulling from the previous seasons as well. Obviously, her character struggles with identity as a single mom, fired from her job. I’m thinking specifically of, like, the Juneteenth episode (Season 1, Episode 9), her trying to assimilate or try on an identity. Those were clues that were super helpful, that then spoke to her headspace this season, which I think is that she is someone who is struggling with themselves and becomes depressed by it and anxious by it and all those other feelings that are so real and grounded and very prevalent with young people. The important thing was to try to convey that in a way that was funny but also grounded but also felt true to the character."
Did Alexander Skarsgard give any pushback?: "No, I think everything that you see in that episode was written on the page," says Robinson. "So he did exactly what he needed to do, which was incredible and so great. I’m such a big fan, but I will give him his flowers for this episode: He jumped in, he was willing to kind of make fun of himself — completely make fun of himself, actually — he played along with the comedy brilliantly, and he completely understood the assignment. We wrote this season back in 2019, I feel, so my memory’s a little fuzzy, but I always remember it being him or someone like him — of that ilk, sort of A-list, talented, blonde. So someone you wouldn’t necessarily think would be cool with eating hands and being emasculated, playing against type just a little bit."
Zazie Beetz on the season finale: "I think it’s just about processing identity and anxiety, which is a trippy f***ing thing to do," says Beetz. "I think for me, throughout the whole season, Van is trying to adopt different characters, different versions of self, which is a little bit marked by sort of the kleptomania and kind of being in and out of what the main gang is doing, because I think she’s struggling a bit with motherhood and selfhood and who she is and who she wants to be."
What was Beetz's initial reaction to reading the season finale script?: "Initially, actually, it wasn’t supposed to be the last episode of the season," says Beetz. "As they were editing it, they reworked the order of some of the episodes. Because it felt in some ways that the end of the episode was a little bit about homecoming, they felt that that one should be the one to finish it off. I thought I would be more intimidated than I was because I have this emotional bond with Paris, and France in general. I lived in Paris for a year. I’m not fluent anymore, but I used to be fully fluent. I just felt like, Ah, this is mine. And then at the end…when I was shooting it, there was a moment that got really big and emotional in a way that wasn’t expected. And that was, for me, honestly, I think, one of my most profound moments in acting. I don’t know what ended up making it in the episode, but (the) experience was really incredibly cathartic and also validating to me: Oh, I can bring myself to places if I put myself there."
Stephen Glover wanted to approach Season 3 looking at whiteness as a curse: "When we were in the (writers) room, we talked about a lot of different things that were going on, a lot of different things that had happened to us—the state that we were in," says the Atlanta writer and executive producer in an interview with Vanity Fair. "And we kept coming across these ideas that circled around whiteness, and the idea of whiteness. We just started to break down these feelings that we had. I like the word insidious, or even cursed because on some level it's... it's a curse. So it's not like you have to actively be doing anything, you know? It happens. It's like a law of nature." As for Season 4, Glover says: "We go back to Atlanta, which I'm sure everyone who hates season three will be happy about (laughs). We get to go back to Atlanta and see the changing of a worldview and how that feels. Now that we've had our most maximalist season, how do our brains adjust back? How do we wrap our minds around going back home? Which I think is a unique feeling, especially for Black people. This idea of… now I feel different. So do I come back here to this place? Or how do I find my way a little bit? I always think about Texas—Austin, there's so much barbecue there, and it's f***ing incredible. The barbecue is always good, but then it's like, you get older, and you move to LA or some ****, and everybody's eating new vegetables and all that stuff. Then you go back and they're like, here's all this barbecue. You're like, man, I shouldn't be eating barbecue. It's delicious, but I know better now. I know I can't survive on just barbecue and soul food, but this is who I am. I think season four, our mantra was to have fun. It was the last season we're doing, so let's have a good time. So, I think people will be happy with the couple episodes we got left."

05-21-2022, 05:05 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 124,387	Atlanta Season 3 ends how it began: Bizarre, experimental and a little confused https://www.theringer.com/tv/2022/5/...finale-tarrare "If Atlanta had a theme for this year, it would probably be 'identity,'" says Israel Daramola. "Not simply 'who are you'–type questions, but much thornier ones about who we want to be and how our environments and contexts shape that. About half of this season has been geared toward one-off vignettes, racialized horror stories that feel more akin to what we’d expect from a Jordan Peele–helmed The Twilight Zone (instead of what we got from the actual Jordan Peele Twilight Zone) than anything resembling the show’s previous seasons. A story of reparations being paid for by the beneficiaries of slavery; a tale of a mixed-race kid performing whiteness until it no longer benefits him; an episode about a white child who identifies more with his Trinidadian nanny than his own parents; and a near re-creation of the Devonte Hart story. All of these stories aimed to tangle the complicated tapestry of race and identity that was created by white people and which the show seems to say will also be their undoing. These episodes were a mixed bag overall; Donald Glover and his creative team went for a lot of obviousness and speechifying, perhaps because they had only a short amount of time in these episodes to get their point across. These diversions were also complicated because Atlanta has some of the best working performers in Hollywood in its main cast, and the more time spent away from them, the less exciting the show becomes. Glover has a penchant for trolling and provocation that gets tiring quickly, but regardless of whether you find these episodes successful, their overall themes of identity and whiteness as its own kind of racial prison are interesting, and there are plenty of moments throughout that are funny and even brilliant, though they don’t really amount to anything whole." ALSO: Five reasons why Atlanta Season 3 was such a letdown: "It’s hard to fault (Donald) Glover and his collaborators for taking so many creative leaps when deviations from the show’s already wobbly norms have yielded some of its most memorable chapters, like Season 1’s anarchic media satire 'B.A.N.' and Season 2’s wonderfully creepy Michael Jackson riff 'Teddy Perkins,'" says Inkoo Kang. "But too many of the leaps this year failed to land satisfyingly, resulting in a season dense with meaning and ambition but frustratingly uneven." Kang's five reasons include: Minimal character development, underwhelming stand-alone episodes, irksome stuntcasting (Liam Neeson, Chet Hanks and Kevin Samuels), an underutilized European setting and eccentricity over humanity. Season 3 finale was Amelie, Atlanta-style: It was "a sendup of all the trope-laden stories of young female protagonists tripping blithely through the continent, from Roman Holiday to Emily In Paris," says Michael Martin. "Those women lived lives of total whimsy and romance. Atlanta’s view of modern-day Paris involves sex work, kink—and in a swerve that takes the episode from clear-eyed to total surrealism—baguette-bludgeoning and cannibalism." “Tarrare” is not just a hilarious closing note for Season 3, but a conclusion of the closest thing we’ve had to an ongoing story arc: "Yes, the tour has been happening this whole time, but it’s primarily been an excuse for the group to have other adventures throughout Europe," says Alan Sepinwall. "Al’s bout with writer’s block, his ongoing questions about Earn’s management, Socks randomly joining the entourage (and just as randomly disappearing from it, it seems) — none have carried on for quite as long as Van’s mysterious arrival on the tour and her even more mysterious disappearance from it." Sepinwall credits Stefani Robinson for closing the season on "an explosively funny and absurd note...Robinson can do introspective and thematically ambitious, too — she co-wrote Season One’s Van spotlight 'Value' and penned Al’s harrowing 'Woods' odyssey last season — but even more than Donald Glover himself, Robinson seems to understand the ways in which these characters and this show’s very specific, dream-like tone can be bent in the service of gut-busting humor." Atlanta ended Season 3 with more questions than answers: "Like its main characters, Atlanta is still figuring itself out, but there's not much time left on the clock: Glover has said the fourth season will be the last," says Dan Jackson. "Though it's easy to imagine these actors reviving the series years from now, like David Lynch did with Twin Peaks (an oft-cited influence on Atlanta), Glover probably loves symmetry and the pleasures of a good punchline too much to let all the loose threads dangle." Atlanta's neglect of Van has been its biggest problem this season: "While the show hasn’t shown too much interest in any of the main cast members over its previous nine episodes, the neglect of Van felt more obvious, as the show kept hinting that something notable was occurring in her life while keeping viewers at arm’s length," says Kyndall Cunningham. "When Van first arrived in Europe, ostensibly wanting an escape from unemployed single motherhood, it appeared as though we were about to watch her embark on some sort of Eat Pray Love-esque mission to rediscover herself. But she merely followed the guys around with little to say, slept with Earn once, and giggled at all his questions about her mental state before disappearing into the night. In a less narratively lopsided season, this would read more as foreshadowing and less like abandonment." Why Atlanta ended Season 3 with a weird Van episode: "We knew that they were going to Europe, but early on I was just like, 'Okay, why is Van here?,'" says writer Stefani Robinson. "In a way that felt satisfying, we wanted to earn her presence there, you know what I mean? We wanted to make sure the reason that she was there didn't feel too convenient and too contrived, and there was something specific and intentional about why she was in Europe. So we sort of backtracked and leaned into some of the themes that we've probably leaned into before with her character– this idea of her identity and who is she outside of being a mother and a teacher." What did Stefani Robinson feel was important to convey about Van through the season finale?: "The approach was, obviously, trying to give her a grounded reason as to why she was actually in Europe, and that was the impetus for it all. So, we sort of approach the story from that angle," says Robinson. "To that end, it felt more real to me. It was pulling from the previous seasons as well. Obviously, her character struggles with identity as a single mom, fired from her job. I’m thinking specifically of, like, the Juneteenth episode (Season 1, Episode 9), her trying to assimilate or try on an identity. Those were clues that were super helpful, that then spoke to her headspace this season, which I think is that she is someone who is struggling with themselves and becomes depressed by it and anxious by it and all those other feelings that are so real and grounded and very prevalent with young people. The important thing was to try to convey that in a way that was funny but also grounded but also felt true to the character." Did Alexander Skarsgard give any pushback?: "No, I think everything that you see in that episode was written on the page," says Robinson. "So he did exactly what he needed to do, which was incredible and so great. I’m such a big fan, but I will give him his flowers for this episode: He jumped in, he was willing to kind of make fun of himself — completely make fun of himself, actually — he played along with the comedy brilliantly, and he completely understood the assignment. We wrote this season back in 2019, I feel, so my memory’s a little fuzzy, but I always remember it being him or someone like him — of that ilk, sort of A-list, talented, blonde. So someone you wouldn’t necessarily think would be cool with eating hands and being emasculated, playing against type just a little bit." Zazie Beetz on the season finale: "I think it’s just about processing identity and anxiety, which is a trippy f*ing thing to do," says Beetz. "I think for me, throughout the whole season, Van is trying to adopt different characters, different versions of self, which is a little bit marked by sort of the kleptomania and kind of being in and out of what the main gang is doing, because I think she’s struggling a bit with motherhood and selfhood and who she is and who she wants to be." What was Beetz's initial reaction to reading the season finale script?: "Initially, actually, it wasn’t supposed to be the last episode of the season," says Beetz. "As they were editing it, they reworked the order of some of the episodes. Because it felt in some ways that the end of the episode was a little bit about homecoming, they felt that that one should be the one to finish it off. I thought I would be more intimidated than I was because I have this emotional bond with Paris, and France in general. I lived in Paris for a year. I’m not fluent anymore, but I used to be fully fluent. I just felt like, Ah, this is mine. And then at the end…when I was shooting it, there was a moment that got really big and emotional in a way that wasn’t expected. And that was, for me, honestly, I think, one of my most profound moments in acting. I don’t know what ended up making it in the episode, but (the) experience was really incredibly cathartic and also validating to me: Oh, I can bring myself to places if I put myself there." Stephen Glover wanted to approach Season 3 looking at whiteness as a curse: "When we were in the (writers) room, we talked about a lot of different things that were going on, a lot of different things that had happened to us—the state that we were in," says the Atlanta writer and executive producer in an interview with Vanity Fair. "And we kept coming across these ideas that circled around whiteness, and the idea of whiteness. We just started to break down these feelings that we had. I like the word insidious, or even cursed because on some level it's... it's a curse. So it's not like you have to actively be doing anything, you know? It happens. It's like a law of nature." As for Season 4, Glover says: "We go back to Atlanta, which I'm sure everyone who hates season three will be happy about (laughs). We get to go back to Atlanta and see the changing of a worldview and how that feels. Now that we've had our most maximalist season, how do our brains adjust back? How do we wrap our minds around going back home? Which I think is a unique feeling, especially for Black people. This idea of… now I feel different. So do I come back here to this place? Or how do I find my way a little bit? I always think about Texas—Austin, there's so much barbecue there, and it's fing incredible. The barbecue is always good, but then it's like, you get older, and you move to LA or some ***, and everybody's eating new vegetables and all that stuff. Then you go back and they're like, here's all this barbecue. You're like, man, I shouldn't be eating barbecue. It's delicious, but I know better now. I know I can't survive on just barbecue and soul food, but this is who I am. I think season four, our mantra was to have fun. It was the last season we're doing, so let's have a good time. So, I think people will be happy with the couple episodes we got left."