Other thread is getting too big.

Gotdamn that shit had me rollin’

As a almost life-long ATL resident, this show gets it so right...so accurate, while still remaining absurdist.

If it isn't a barber, it's somebody. Everybody has a Bibby.

me
the part where he was helping Bibby move the lumber gave me a ridiculous flashback of the time I helped my barber do the same thing

and the YouTube clip part reallllllllllllly hit home lol

my boy used to cut our hair at his house and there would be 5 dudes waiting and he would be rolling an L watching videos.

also reminds me when I thought I found a barber in Charlotte. Dude gave me his business card and then his phone was off.

Next time I linked up he said he changed his number because a girl kept blowing up his phone.

thru it worse than them lol
if you let them tell it

they ALWAYS got some crazy stories...

I done met my barber's main, side, kids and his got damn dog within 2 months lol

the resting his arm on his head thing will make a nigga fight lol

my old old barber from college used to slap niggas in the face with the lil brush they use to clean the hair off with lol..like he would purposely stand there an lightly slap u all in the face wit it vs using the sweeping motion

Darius has the lines and is rightfully a fan favorite


But I think Paperboy has the potential for the most interesting character arc on the show.



Seems misunderstood at best; depressed at worst. Most of the people around him want to benefit off his success - and it looks like it weighs on him.


That unending pressure of being the golden ticket

being uncomfortable around industry folks. On some level, Paper Boi doesn't feel like he belongs in any world besides the one immediately outside of his home. And in a few episodes, he's had to find both a new connect and a new barber. I took his look at the end to be frustration with that. Not even the fact that he went through hell with Bibby, but now he needs to learn to build up an understanding with yet another new person.

the 3 sides of most black men. on a day to day i probably trend more toward earn w/ some bits of darius because i can be a bit of a space cadet. but when i get frustrated/annoyed i'm ALL paperboi

At least once an episode.

Like, nigga, I'M not on yet.

I like them all, but I tend to relate to him the most

while driving

just drive and talk nigga

because im focused on getting us from point A to point B in 1 piece.

TV show since Breaking Bad went off the air.

Every single time he had to do just one more thing I knew it was going to end fucked up for Al. But he can't leave, he can't do anything to Bibby, it's almost like a hostage situation.

Gotta stick it out.

When he gripped him at the end when he tried to dip out..lmao.

When they were about to go into the shop and Bibby said "I'm on my way right now" I wanted Al to put his hands on him, so I was actually glad to see that.

nigga!

what type of person puts a man through all that and then tries to pull that shit right outside the barbershop?

it was waaaaaaaaay to real
especially with these barbers in LA?
holy shit they don't give a fuck about cuttin your hair
i used to go to legends when i aint no no better
get in the chair, put the cape on, nigga will take a break and u just sittin there lookin like u lo key gettin punked

-----
No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. (c) HL Mencken or some other motherfucker.

so many anxieties expressed in this episode

not sure how yall ain't enjoy this shit.

we kept saying the name of our friend who was like Bibby.

never on time, always had some other shit to do even though he agreed to do some shit for you.

"3 pieces of wood? you better pick up this whole stack"

and that last scene was amazing because it looked like despite all the bullshit he knew that dude wasn't going to give him as good of a cut as Bibby.

it was stressfully funny

Behind the disappearing club owner, but ahead of SOCIAL MEDIA STAR ZAN.

"He's a magician." Kinda reminded me of Van's drug test episode from last season.

"nigga I ain't no magician"

*lights go out*

"was that the trick?"

i bout lost it.

i thought Al was about to smack the shit outta Bibby's son.

think about all the crazy ass ppl you know and imagine how they children turning out as a result of nature AND nurture.

and lil man at bibby girl crib... notice he credulous af, like his momma kinda is.

"you really a magician?"

it's crazy b/c maybe his moms don't deal w/ a lotta dudes like bibby so his bullshit meter ain't fully formed yet. just like she know that ni&&a trifling... stroke game or not being alone game must be good for her to put up w/ his bs.

but don't trust that bamma to pay the water and light bill.

there's always soooo much shit going on on this show.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

I fucking fell out.

I've never had a barber like that, but I know barbers like that.

It also demonstrated how fucking hard it is to find and good barber. And why you keep him/her despite whatever shit may go on.

>I fucking fell out.
>
>I've never had a barber like that, but I know barbers like
>that.

my barbers would always be 'up norf'. i'd be able to get the fresh cut for about 7- 8 months straight. then Reese and Nass would do a bid.

and then i'd be having to go to Ms Clara's around the corner, where she would stop in teh middle of cutting you to eat a full ass plate of greens and fried chicken from The Rialto Bar & Grill next door.

she was alright w/ clippers, but ay last time you got your hair cut there you'd leave out there smellin like a repass.

or like i had a special ass custom body oil blend of talcum powder, rubbing alcohol and gizzards.

after several years of that shit, i taught myself how to cut my hair.
>
>It also demonstrated how fucking hard it is to find and good
>barber. And why you keep him/her despite whatever shit may go
>on.

that forlorn ass look that al shot bibby at the end (after the new barber asked him some paint by numbers shit). that was real af.

a true black greek tragedy. hella pathos in that scene.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

-

the strips. and that was posedta be worth the side trip.

man, i wanted to sneak bibby like 8 times during that show.

plus they were just laying out in the microwave. not refrigerated. it started off as morning time. and bibby got there late.

so this nigga had last night's zaxby's and offered it to al.

maaaaaaan.

zaxby's do be hitting, tho.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

I FELL OUT
______________________________________________________________________________

"To Each His Reach"

but.....

Fuck aliens.

They’ve been foreshadowing Paperboi changing management all season. This episode was a little parable of that. Next week I bet it’s going down for real.

We did an Earn (+Van) ep, a paperboi ep, now it's Darius' turn

Bibby is just out for himself

For Van last season.

Dude's shenanigans are limitless.

Al didn't get her any urine.

that was the funniest thing in the episode

i had a tear in my eye from sudden laughter

I didn't catch all of them

The fact that Al put up with Bibby's bullshit for a whole episode was annoying and almost out of character, imo.

Ep where Al was rolling with that Asian Dude Xan and his young ass business partner.

A lot of the comedy with Paperboi is in watching him get annoyed (yet still somehow going along) with a bunch of weird ass scenarios.

Bippy had so many one liners..

I mean, once your barber shaves the side of your head you pretty much a hostage until he finishes

My takeaway was this episode was an illustration of the sanctity our preferred barbers hold in our lives

...yes, I'd deal with all of that to get the super fresh clean flawless fade from my barber...

my guy in one of my old neighborhoods had a 2 hour wait, mando

we'd show up, hang out, smoke, play x-box, etc...because he gave the best cuts.

also, a close personal friend of mine is Bibby all day

the line where he said..."I'm on the 85 right now, I'll be there in 15 mins"...or something to that effect

mayne, when I tell you my guy would do that to us every weekend, please believe me

we're all pre-gaming ready to go out

call the homie...where you at, we're about to leave...

...I'm coming across the bridge right now...I'll be there in 5...

45 minutes later...this fool ain't coming...let's go

Bibby is real bruh.

this was one of the funniest, realist episodes ever

That is.. if you're Black

And I'm black, only black barbershops my whole life (minus that one time when I was like 13 and went to Greatclips), and very particular about my haircuts. My barber been cutting my hair for like 7 years now. He's a professional barber, that's what he does for a living, not all that extra shit Bibby's into. I call or text to make an appointment, show up, he cuts my hair and we chop it up, I pay the man, and see him next time.
I was done with that wait around all day on a Saturday shit when I was 16.
I feel bad for ya'll that gotta go through all that bullshit.

but it did seem like a bit much to make it the whole episode. I guess thats whats funny about to though.

then he gets to Atlanta and realizes he has like 7 pages of lines at the read thru.

He killed it too.

Glover is that dude. Said he saw him on All Def and ended up making a whole episode for him.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Hopefully Robert Powell gets more roles after this because he's incredibly funny and not afraid of edgy humor.

like i did other eps


and what irked me the absolute most

yo couldn't really cut lol

once your hair is half done you’re being held hostage

shit man, i know a barbershop in my area with THREE Bibby’s

i'm sorry you're grown and still haven't made the same choice.

Makes up for that relationship episode.

I can just see white executives watching this and not getting it at all and being like, "is a barber behaving like that even believable?"

Definitely had me anxious the whole time. I was like, please just cut his hair. please.

I feel like they just walked into a barbershop and grabbed a dude and was like, "you want to be in a TV show?"


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

and it never disappointed

dude talked non stop too

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

we all know how fucking hard it is to find a good barber and when you do find one you will go through abuse to keep that relationship going.

I have waited 2 hours for a haircut

My dude is normally late by about 30-40 minutes. "Aye, I'll be RIGHT with you bruh..."

Two short stories

-When I first started to cut my hair again after having locs for over a decade I went through a lot of barbers because no one "got it". I was trying out a new barber for a few cuts. Dude was Mexican and kind of nice but he had an annoying habit of rapping while cutting.

Imagine, a loud ass barber shop. They only played bay area rap and they played it loudly. Every single hair cut opened like this

"Take some from the top, keep the side short"

"WHAT?! YO, WHAT YOU WANT MAN?"

"Take some from the top, keep the side short"

"I CAN'T...I CAN'T HEAR YOU BRO"

"I SAID...Take some from the top, keep the side short"

"OK....HOW YOU WANT THE SIDES?"

"....whatever"

So with the loud ass shop the dude who cut my hair loved Tupac and he was a rapper himself. So while he cut my hair he kept one earbud in and rapped along with 'Pac. And while he rapped, his non cutting hand made wide and quick rap hands. The reason why I mentioned him being Mexican was that I eventually got sick of the loud music and him rapping but I had the last straw when I noticed that he was "nigga nigga nigga nigga NIGGA NIGGA NIGGA NIGGA" everything.

I kept saying "huh? oh..."

- Second story. Happened in the late 90s. Barber was late, then I waited for 45 min. The barber shop at the time was the hangout spot and the place to buy a bag. Barber in the middle of cutting me up says "aye, be right back"

When he came back his hands smelled like blunt.

Dude fucked my shit all up. Like, hairline at angle, mismatched fade.

that's how our barer was back in the day..

mad unreliable but knew how to cut your hair because we all grew up together.

Just too self-absorbed. Have to listen to him tell stories about fights with his girl (which was always awkward because he always sounded like he was in the wrong to me). Would be salty because I didn't come in all that often enough for his taste.

Problem is we were tight. Dude was at my 35 birthday party. Wife's birthday party. Facebook friends.

I just got tired of him (and his 30 cuts) and started going to the Dominicans. I do miss the barbarshop chatter but i am out of there in 30 minutes and get a cut for 15.

I know I am eventually going to run into my old barber and it's going to be awkwaaard.



**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

cause that's how Paperboy and Bibby acted in the last scene...

like a high school couple when you walk in with your new girl... then she says some dumb shit that lets you know yall ain't gonna make it.

Before I started going to the guy who cuts my hair now (for like 7 years now), I was between barbers for a minute. I went to the shop without an appointment and my normal guy was busy, and there was an open chair. So this new dude cuts my hair (did some unrequested fucking around with my eyebrows too) but he cut me a little bit too. The cut looked good though. So I went back to him again... and he cut me even worse than the first time. I was done at that point. Fast forward a few years (I was settled in with my new and current barber), and I'm with the homie at his family business in a little complex with a bunch of offices and a barbershop. We walking out and someone calls my name, I turn and ol' boy some running out the barbershop talking about "yo man i ain't seen you, where you been, here take my card, come through."
Yeah, no.
Fast foward another year or two and I walk into my barbershop -- why is homie now in the formerly vacant chair?! "Hey what's up hitokiri?!" as I walk in... lol. Bruh, you not touching my head.

you ain't gonna cut me again".

lmao.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

if y'all regularly put up with any shit like that lol.

Back in the dinosaur days before mf's starting doing appointments I remember going to the shop early on a Sat morning and having to sit there all day but that shit is out now.

If you don't do appointments I can't fuck with you. Of course sometimes they still over book and may have to bump you back 30min or hit you with the occasional "you mind if I eat real quick bro I ain't ate all day!" which I usually allow because I figure they will cut better on a full stomach lol.

But there are way too many professional barbers out there these days.

Back to the show, yeah its trash and getting worse.

I can’t take this post seriously.

>Back to the show, yeah its trash and getting worse.

Atlanta is safely in my top 5 black shows ever

as far as old shit of course Cosby, Martin, Foxx, Bernie Mac...


>>Back to the show, yeah its trash and getting worse.
>
>Atlanta is safely in my top 5 black shows ever

what else is in your top 5?

I know I'm old and I don't get high but to me there's not a whole funny about a 35 year-old "up and coming" rapper and his fuck-up cousin/manager in random unrealistic situations.

Atlanta comes off more like what was supposed to be a sketch comedy and they decided to try to flesh it out into a full blown show.

An entire episode about a ridiculously incompetent and unprofessional barber is just not that funny to me. It would have been hilarious as a side story in an episode about something else but about halfway through I was thinking "So is this entire episode going to be about Alfred riding around with this dude all day and not beating his ass?"

The last episode with Earn and Van at the Germanfest was dumb too.

side stories are a whole episode...

and it's also a glimpse into the dub shit Paperboy puts up with because he's a "regular person"

it's not that serious or that deep.

it's like you want Atlanta to be something it isn't when it's really just a non traditional Seinfeldish Black comedy.

>it's not that serious or that deep.
>
>it's like you want Atlanta to be something it isn't when it's
>really just a non traditional Seinfeldish Black comedy.

this ain't that lol

>If you don't do appointments I can't fuck with you. Of course
>sometimes they still over book and may have to bump you back
>30min or hit you with the occasional "you mind if I eat real
>quick bro I ain't ate all day!" which I usually allow because
>I figure they will cut better on a full stomach lol.
>
>But there are way too many professional barbers out there
>these days.
>


Can't dispute that...it's 2018...



>Back to the show, yeah its trash

Wrong

>Back to the show, yeah its trash and getting worse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94D0FjAawc8

were funny for about the first 10 minutes then its like "wait a minute, it this what the entire show is going to be about?"

Its like something they through together because Donald Glover was away filming Solo.

fuck

but not surprised from a dip shit said he understands why the cops shot Altin Sterling

I didnt laugh at Louie very much
Atlanta is a very comedic show that reflects how rough life can be

>but not surprised from a dip shit said he understands why the
>cops shot Altin Sterling

wtf? bruh

>were funny for about the first 10 minutes then its like "wait
>a minute, it this what the entire show is going to be about?"

I laughed so hard lmaoooooo

Great ep

Youngin said "boy hymen"


Best episode so far

U don't have to have a janky barber (i dont) to know a Bibby
Everybody know bibby

just a late dude who always had a hilarious line of excuses for why he wasn't on top of his game

We all know the traits.

I've had Bibby friends who can't be on time for anything.
Who tell you they're on their way when in reality they are just now getting into the shower (this one is me)

Bibby friends who can talk themselves out of any trouble.
Bibby friends who get you into stupid trouble.
Bibby friends who over promise and under deliver

Bibby the barber is just compiling all of these traits into one person and acting them out all in one day.

Definitely using that

Wtfffffffffffff was that.

>Wtfffffffffffff was that.

And I knew I'd have to watch again (per usual) to get it.

perspective on life. The lyrics of the Stevie song at the end played into it.

>perspective on life. The lyrics of the Stevie song at the end
>played into it.

.

.

The show is surreal enough on its own and Darius just seems to be that one guy who happens to notice crazy shit happening.

Some people are like that I guess.
---------------------------------------


---------------------------------------

.

>Other thread is getting too big.

No way would any brotha be staying ..fuck a piano

Teddy stood beside the door and watched Darius walk all the way into the house.

... may help clear up some stuff.

*they are theories so take them for what they're worth

https://twitter.com/JustLatasha404/status/982087740643860480

Theories are all we have at this point I guess.

> ... may help clear up some stuff.
>
>*they are theories so take them for what they're worth
>
>https://twitter.com/JustLatasha404/status/982087740643860480

Some stuff makes sense, but the rest, nah.

subtext tweets, especially if you actually read about Black art, which so much is intertwined with Black pain: literally white supremacist capitalist violence that forges blues, and jazz, and rock, and funk and pop, and rap

the convo about abusive black fathers

Darius telling him nah man that shit is wack, fuck a star if it comes from abuse.

Faux Mike saying I want this to be a museum dedicated to Mike's dad, Tiger's dad, Serena's Dad, Marvin's dad

and remember Darius wanted the piano because it LOOKED cool not cause he actually played.

and LaKeith's acting, especially when he felt/knew he was about to die, jesucristo it was so good

again, this show aint a fucn comedy show, it's just happens to be funny: at the height of rising tension "Google Sammy Sosa hat." "He look like a white man's penis." the text that read "are you dead yet." comedy. and this season is really fucn dark... and even that Bibby episode was lowkey depressing

>again, this show aint a fucn comedy show, it's just happens to
>be funny: at the height of rising tension "Google Sammy Sosa
>hat." "He look like a white man's penis." the text that read
>"are you dead yet." comedy. and this season is really fucn
>dark... and even that Bibby episode was lowkey depressing

this is like a whole season of Get Out and I'm here for it

I knew he fucked his skin up but the pink hat and shirt..smh

still think this ep was wack tho..

lol

it's clear you really like this and it's your own wes anderson series or something but turn the pretentiousness volume down a bit geez

Like when did he move that shit there? lmao

..art noir.

well done.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

Not gonna front like I caught all the
references and subtly cuz I didn't
but I like speculating and decoding music.

This felt like the visual equivalent
of listening to some very intricately
nuanced bars that you'll be able to
catch new things from after multiple
listens.

i was shook watching it

Paperboi like: https://78.media.tumblr.com/92e0ce27f486d4f8e8dbe6e82094926b/tumblr_opt4dyGWAt1qzs7uio10_r1_250.gif

.

yeah......I think I'll stand in this line right here. So true.

anyone vouching for this episode is a weirdo

the only thing that makes sense is if that was a flashback and the origin of Darius being so traumatized all season

I get it, white people (and ?uestlove) need black art to be deep, layered and appealing to a greater intellect so they can sit around discussing how amazing it was amongst themselves. it makes them (and Donald Glover as the creator of last night's episode) feel superior to anyone who didn't get it

meanwhile, I just watch the show to see the predicaments Paperboi, Earn and Darius wind up in without the pretentious "envelope pushing"

while reading the tweets and getting the connections is cool for some folks I'm not here for all that.

hopefully they get back on track next week.

This felt like a vanity episode for DG.

>I get it, white people (and ?uestlove) need black art to be
>deep, layered and appealing to a greater intellect so they can
>sit around discussing how amazing it was amongst themselves.
>it makes them (and Donald Glover as the creator of last
>night's episode) feel superior to anyone who didn't get it

So anyone who liked this ep is a weirdo? And you're not, right? Your insecurities are showing, dude.

"weirdo" was a snap judgement made right after watching it and walking away disturbed and confused

a more accurate breakdown of what I meant is anyone calling that genius/brilliant may be trying too hard (or harder than I will) to take away whatever they saw in it

it was artsy, sure. but also kind of pointless (to me)

(and no I dont believe me or my sensibilities are weird)

So you used "vouch for" and that makes it better? In this context, that is the epitome of a distinction without a difference. Don't walk it back, now, hon. Your insecurities are on full display here, which is fine, but let's not pretend that's not what's going on.

I think something weird happened on television
and weird is the root of another word I used for said television event's supporters

is just doing hot takes to try and rile folks up

but it's funny to see folks swear they don't name call or swing low do that shit all the time then act like "what, who me? never"

>but it's funny to see folks swear they don't name call or
>swing low do that shit all the time then act like "what, who
>me? never"

Your were the first person to comment on last night's episode with "that was terrible", now you're stirring the pot

but I don't think folks are weird for liking it.

.

I found it thoroughly entertaining. Very well done take on MJ, Prince, Get Out, the nature of fame, the nature of pain, creativity, and all that shit.

And it was funny as hell at points: the intro in the convenience store, the Owl casket, the entire drive thru sequence, and Teddy's speech about the father's wing of his museum ("The father who dropped off Emilio Estevez at the Breakfast Club...").

Great combo of humor and horror.

>("The father who dropped off Emilio Estevez at the
>Breakfast Club...").

i was legit tense.

gonna rewatch for more easter eggs.

amazing episode

each episode comes at you from some weird angle, even when they supposed to be character study episodes. Donald and stephen are really treating this like the 'difficult/divisive second album'. I guess now we see what a golden globe win gets you, this creepy, commericial-free gem.


wait that was the father all bandaged up right? The brother was made up?

in the beginning in the phone in the barbershop

also there was no commercials. I was waiting to take a break and I couldn't. I was legit shook a couple times. Darius' curiosity and calm this episode was amazing. clearly not an excitable dude. he knew something was wrong immediately but he genuinely wanted to know what dudes deal was.

>also there was no commercials. I was waiting to take a break
>and I couldn't.

^^^^


>Darius'
>curiosity and calm this episode was amazing. clearly not an
>excitable dude. he knew something was wrong immediately but
>he genuinely wanted to know what dudes deal was.

Yea that was wild. There were so many points when I was like, why isn't he leaving ? Haha.

I was wondering why Darius gave up so easily.

I think you are all in on whatever happens after that.

What nigga stays that long and endures that much weirdness for a piano?

I get it, there is no show if he bounces on some RNS but I just grew common sense out the window when watching it. Definitely felt like DG was on some “I can do a Get Out movie”

making mental notes on how he coulda set it off at the last minute, took a chance on ole boy missing w/ that old ass rifle, beat the shit outta him and bounced but i don't think darius' mind work like that.

even when it looked like he was about to get murked he was legit trying to lead teddy to a breakthrough.

some ppl are built like that. even those that live amidst RNS.

matter of fact, in the earlier convo w/ paperboi and he was talking about his 2 regrets philosophy.

he went back in b/c he would have regretted not getting the piano. but i think after he realized other shit was going on, he would have 'regretted' not trying to talk to / heal teddy/bennie. so from his own professed interior logic, darius HAD to stay and see it all the way through.

damn.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

Dude pioneered that phrase years before Twitter existed.

But he practically made it his personal motto and was the one who made it a board-wide phrase.

To be fair, I might just be mad I drive a bucket.

made me almost want one.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

folks might dig it
regular Jamal's n Donte's...idk...

the messaging was a bit too obscure
went over a lot of folks heads imo

That's the problem with our art right now......I hope they keep pushing the boundaries and Jamal and Donte or whoever the fuck can either get with it or get left

How was the messaging obscure......the shit was pretty obvious. The Teddy character basically took the audience on a tour of the message along with Darius. The point was made and the execution was very well done so I don't get this.....be careful with line stuff man. Niggas cant be afraid of a challenge.

This show clearly isnt. We all wanna laugh every week and feel like we can relate and just have some safe shit but in the long run thats not the point of art man. IF the quality is up then we up. There are things in our culture that we have never got to see explored mainstream like this and its really refreshing. I hope he keeps pushing.

You hit on something that I think really needs to be talked about...

pushed for our shows...raise the bar if you will..I agree totally
they just pushed the envelope a tad too far...
it wasn't THAT bad or deep...just weird (we get Darius is an oddball nigga...but he went/stayed in that crib, where damn near any an ery niggarow woulda dipped lol...I mean)


but you gotta meet people where they at

atruhead hits the nail on the head in reply#160

all that artsy stuff is cool for a select section of our demographic...which is ok if that's where the show wants to aim...
but again...they NORMALLY managed to toe the line by entertaining niggas and given the 'woke' their vitamins as well...this was just a bit too holistic

in my opinion

envelope pushing shouldn't be a 'whites only' lane to travel through for entertainment? I somewhat see what you're saying, but at the same time, it's too tough for me to get up in arms about this episode since ultimately tastes are all subjective and it's pointless IMO to tell someone else they should or shouldn't like something else.

But I do agree with you that I don't think the show runners for Atlanta are somehow wrong for want to go out there with last night's episode.

>But I do agree with you that I don't think the show runners
>for Atlanta are somehow wrong for want to go out there with
>last night's episode.

I would hope no one's saying that. Atlanta has always made me kind of expect the unexpected, so I don't think this episode veered from the show's "norm" if there even is a "norm" for this show, haha.

>That's the problem with our art right now......I hope they
>keep pushing the boundaries and Jamal and Donte or whoever the
>fuck can either get with it or get left

that pushed the boundaries of Hip-Hop using musicianship I was already familiar with

my biggest issue with last night is Atlanta isnt a horror show, we've gotten too used to structure of 80/20 (laughter/drama) for two seasons now. it was too much of a curveball to give us a puzzling episode that was barely humorous

and if they don't it doesn't mean they are stupid or basic

some folks want to be entertained and didn't find this entertaining.

same people gushing over this weeks episode prolly hated last weeks episode.

most folks still love the show overall

but to say it doesnt fit the show is false. you never know what you're going to get on a given week when you turn on Atlanta.

>and if they don't it doesn't mean they are stupid or basic
>
>some folks want to be entertained and didn't find this
>entertaining.
>
>same people gushing over this weeks episode prolly hated last
>weeks episode.
>
>most folks still love the show overall

I didn't dislike the episode personally, I just wasn't able to connect a lot of it initially.

dude struggling to make it in life manages his rapper cousin's blossoming career
if it's not an episode focused on him and his child's mother Van, (aside from the talk show episode and Van trying to get clean urine) every episode has been some variation of that dynamic (even the barbershop episode was about Paperboi having to get to a photoshoot, Earn is the unspoken middle man)

last night was just a weird thing Donald Glover wanted to force onto the world

There's *been* no structure. To its credit ! The 80/20 split he spoke of doesn't exist. The show has always ventured in and out of comedy and drama, and has thrown curveballs basically every episode. That's why it's great.

Last nite is no exception. Beyond the obvious stuff (MJ, Get Out) I just didn't follow the flow that well so I will need to go back to kind of pick up on everything. And now that I have the context from in here and some theories from Twitter and the like I'll be able to tie more of it together. Wasn't a bad episode at all, just a little dense.

there isnt another episode where I left confused having to read (unconfirmed) theories about it
if that was the week to week gist, I wouldnt watch it

Get Out had layers, but the plot was pretty straightforward

last night's episode was very much a "we got millions of eyes on us, let's completely fuck their minds up" moment, which is self-indulgent and borderline narcissistic on Glover's part

I dont know how familiar you are with Curb Your Enthusiasm, but it's centered around the viewer never knowing what will happen at any given moment. but over 9 seasons Larry David built an unspoken level of trust with his audience where no one is killing a relative then committing suicide (levels of darkness Atlanta never even edged towards until yesterday)

>there isnt another episode where I left confused having to
>read (unconfirmed) theories about it
>if that was the week to week gist, I wouldnt watch it
>
>Get Out had layers, but the plot was pretty straightforward
>
>last night's episode was very much a "we got millions of eyes
>on us, let's completely fuck their minds up" moment, which is
>self-indulgent and borderline narcissistic on Glover's part
>
>I dont know how familiar you are with Curb Your Enthusiasm,
>but it's centered around the viewer never knowing what will
>happen at any given moment. but over 9 seasons Larry David
>built an unspoken level of trust with his audience where no
>one is killing a relative then committing suicide (levels of
>darkness Atlanta never even edged towards until yesterday)

But I disagree that they never "edged towards" other levels of darkness. For starters I think this season in general was meant to be a bit gloomier and darker than last, evidenced by the season's opening scene where a girl got shot (which I'd consider to be edging towards darkness).

Again it may be the darkest they've gotten but it's not like they haven't approached dark themes before.

this was damn near 30 minutes of WTFuuuuck

when he cracked that egg and used his finger?

I can't front tho, I laughed out loud when he said he didn't have a butler then played the messages back.

>this was damn near 30 minutes of WTFuuuuck
>
>when he cracked that egg and used his finger?

That shit was gross but Darius' reactions were hilarious cause I was thinking, I'd be doing the same shit. I was almost gagging on my couch haha.


>I can't front tho, I laughed out loud when he said he didn't
>have a butler then played the messages back.

Yoooooooo that's when I knew this episode was gonna be on a different level haha. That was when it clicked like "this is going weird places."

I probably should've come to that realization during the egg part but alas.

I said HELL NAH

I woulda been OUT!!!

... how many times I thought "why didn't he leave !" but I dunno if it was you or someone else who pointed out, that wouldn't make for very interesting TV, sooo ...

That's part of the problem right there. The absurdness of what Darius was experiencing was actually funny out of context and a showrunner with less freedom or guts would have just left it at obscure silly territory but they did something really interesting with it instead and that lingers more.

folks gonna be analyzing the colors on the piano notes and shit.

c major was purple fam, and purple was princes color, purple rain, royalty, blood on the keys..

and it's starting to teeter to 'that' crowd vs the niggas that want to be entertained and laugh

the brilliance of it since it's inception (to ME) is that it walked that line perfectly...last night it went a lil bit past the threshold

she was like WTF are you watching.

Atlanta, same show we watched last week

oh.. ok.

>she was like WTF are you watching.
>
>Atlanta, same show we watched last week
>
>oh.. ok.

and they LOVED it just because it was flat out weird.

meanwhile im watching like
https://media1.tenor.com/images/fb3f2d1e814190100a4ae401b1660d5b/tenor.gif

Without any deeper themes. Why I'm surprised to see all this backlash.

Do people just tune into this show to laugh at Paper Boi's facial expressions/yell about how Van's ugly?

Darius, Van and Paperboi

wtf

i done heard it all

but I didn't think too hard about it at first.

The episode worked for me as a standalone piece of macabre thrills that only Darius, who seems to experience all the weird shit, could experience.

It was only after rewatching that I caught more deeper themes and subtleties.

>folks might dig it
>regular Jamal's n Donte's...idk...
>
>the messaging was a bit too obscure
>went over a lot of folks heads imo
>
>
>

https://giphy.com/gifs/captainobvious-l2JJHgjz1uaEncXew

>https://giphy.com/gifs/captainobvious-l2JJHgjz1uaEncXew

Teddy had cameras all over the place, no way he wouldn't have seen that.

"Teddy kill us both" could have been missing a comma.

***************************************
rosemary's babydaddy
***************************************

Love it

i know lakeith had to be cracking up constantly at DG's voice as Teddy.

what kind of resistance FX as a network had with that MJ episode. Pretty bizarre and brazen that episode ran without any commercial breaks at all as well. That's pretty interesting on its own on multiple levels.

They seem to be letting him down whatever he wants. Strange-ass, 41 minute episode with no commercials...

seems like he gets one each season.

What this show, and FX, is doing is somewhat unprecedented. No commercials is something that’s...well, crazy in today’s day and age. I assume they had a big buy from the studio behind Lakeith’s movie (that ad aired right before the episode and I’m sure so many people watched it).

But beyond that - this show never confirms to 30 or 60 minute blocks which is rad but not done much in linear cable tv. I know Atlanta is a huge hit, but I doubt it’s pulling the ratings to propose a stunt like this. Networks are SO hesitant to do things like this which is part of what makes it so special.

Anyway - FX does cool weird shit but to see it actually hit and resonate is dope. American Crime Story can pull all types of demos - Atlanta is such a weird interesting show that’s working and I envy what FX is doing right now.

reminded me of how USA is letting Mr. Robot fly all over the place and let them drop f-bombs in almost all of their episodes.

And I almost forgot Lakeith's small ad before the show. It was pretty funny because I think I remember him saying I'm not asking you to buy anything right before the ad for the flick started. That is an indie movie though, correct? I guess if a major studio backed it, it's possible that movie studio paid for the collective ad spots that other companies would have paid for the normal commercial interruptions.

but I tune in for Atlanta and all the commercials for the other shows are fucking crazy...

so it's obvious FX is on some "we do what we want, go to FOX if you can't handle it"

I remember them giving him a pretty long leash in terms of the episodes he produced and when he produced them. If memory recalls, he was only allowed one "fuck" season. They seem to have thrown that out the window with "Atlanta."

In terms of episode length, I know they basically let Kurt Sutter do whatever he wanted to do with SOA. So you got the hour and a half/hour and forty-five minutes broadcast times that helped sink the show.

The "no commercials" during an episode seems new. Closing thing that I've seen with that was during the "Ozymandias" episode of Breaking Bad when there were no commercials for the first half hour.

Louie, SOA, now Atlanta are playing with formats in a lot of different ways. It seems to be paying off critically (sometimes ratings wins too). Atlanta does well - just checked the overnights and it did like 776k viewers which is great in today's day and age especially for such a weird show. The actual Nielsen numbers were sorta soft but comparable to other cable hits (similar to Rupaul's Drag Race as an example). I imagine their +3/DVR numbers are significant too.

But still...good on FX for playing with formats and pushing boundaries when it comes to actual content. Watching Wolf of Wall Street a few months back, on like a Sunday during the late afternoon, I was SHOCKED at what they got away with. I had serious jealously...because I'd kill for that type of creative freedom. I imagine what's driving FX's ratings overall is their movies but their original programming is pushing things forward in huge ways. Even when they aren't great shows, they still try to do weird shit...and you can't help but admire that.

Great fucking ep

Teddy and Benny of their childhood.

Atlanta is up there with The Americans and Better Call Saul right now.

#jusspostedthis
in season 5 of the Americans thread

on this fine Saturday afternoon lol

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DaEOwrAV4AEECNo.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DaE-8r1VAAAVSmo.jpg

the artist that is

THE AUDACITY

That's why we can't have nice things

you sir, are the reason the black community can't get ahead

to straight up I hope you fucn die ass posts

SMDHLOLzers

Blew my mind when I learned Get Out was actually meant to be a horror, and not just a satire.

This one was genuinely scary and still funny. I don't even need to know what it all "means", imo that's almost besides the point. The references are obvious, but I think what we're supposed to get from it is the same complete WTF that Darius is going through.

I think it's best left on that level.

This season has been very streaky for me, but this one was a home run.

best way I can sum up that episode.

That episode caused me to put on Stevie Wonder's classic period directly after.
---------------------------------------


---------------------------------------

Yeah I wasn't nearly as impressed with it as twitter or some of yall. I was engaged for the entire 40 minutes but by the end I felt like they setup something cool and didn't know what to do with it so they just killed everybody.

My first problem was that there were some filmmaking/storytelling technical questions that I found distracting. Was Donald Glover suppose to be a white man or a black person in whiteface (a la Michael Jackson)? But then I generally find whiteface distracting because its like White Chicks, no matter how good the makeup is, you can never really suspend belief enough to really believe anyone won't see that it's a black person in white face. If the story intended it to be a black person in whiteface and make commentary on MJJ, that's cool but they could have signaled that in the storytelling. If they intended that to just be a white guy, well then the idea DG gave an emmy winning performance is silly to me.

Anyway, that's a minor gripe. My biggest gripe is that this is so obviously a Get Out influenced episode but I am not sure why people give it the benefit of the doubt of being a tribute as oppose to being a rip off? It wasn't a parody of Get Out. It wasn't Commentary on Get Out or the reaction to the movie. It didn't openly reference Get Out. It was just very similar to movie without being additive. That's not terrible. Artist do this all the time, but I kind of feel like because it's Donald Glover, folks are giving him a pass they wouldn't give other artist. Small storytelling gripe: Comeon folks talking about this is as scary as Get Out, different from Get Out you just knew that they weren't going to kill Darius so the stakes were way different in this episode than the movie.

I think there is something interesting their about celebrity and MJJ, but I don't think they said much besides tough show biz parents can screw up their kids.

What I roll my eyes at are all these people reading so much deep meaning into this episode. I just don't think it's there or that the Glovers went that deep with it (e.g., the elevator was intended to invoke the death of Prince. I might have bought that if one of the actors actually died in the elevator but naw. Or that this episode was the freeing of Darius's character from Get Out. Nope). I think this episode was borne out of Donald Glovers desire to try white face and they really didn't have a lot of deep ideas about what to do with it.

And I am not an anti-critical literal analysis type. I was an English Major. One of my last college papers was about how Hamlet was the first self-aware literary character because he was aware he was actually in a play and he was being literally when he said "All the world is a stage...." So I can dig different readings of a work. But it is one thing to ascribe different meanings and readings to a work and it's another thing to say the author INTENDED certain deeper esoteric meanings. Like I read this today:


ep. 1: "alligator man" - the drive-thru scene explains it all

ep. 2: "sporting waves" - paper boi's plug pulls a robbery & tracy robs the shoes

ep. 3: "money bag shawty" - earn & van are robbed of their dignity by racism

ep. 4: "helen" - earn & van rob each other of a potential future together

ep. 5: "barbershop" - bibby robs everyone of time, honesty, money, lumber, trust

ep. 6: "teddy perkins" - a father robs his kids of their childhood, ends up with deadly consequences


Maybe people think that's deep but you can literally make that reading work for anything.

Anyway, again, I think people are trying extra-hard to add a layer of depth to this episode that I doubt they would do if this wasn't Atlanta and Donald Glover.

Ok, that's enough hating for one day.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

>Yeah I wasn't nearly as impressed with it as twitter or some
>of yall. I was engaged for the entire 40 minutes but by the
>end I felt like they setup something cool and didn't know what
>to do with it so they just killed everybody.

This show has often introduced characters and situations only for them to be single episode/scene type things, so aside from the killing everyone you can say this about any number of Atlanta episodes. It's kinda their thing. But of course this was going to end in some deaths.


>My first problem was that there were some
>filmmaking/storytelling technical questions that I found
>distracting. Was Donald Glover suppose to be a white man or a
>black person in whiteface (a la Michael Jackson)? But then I
>generally find whiteface distracting because its like White
>Chicks, no matter how good the makeup is, you can never really
>suspend belief enough to really believe anyone won't see that
>it's a black person in white face. If the story intended it
>to be a black person in whiteface and make commentary on MJJ,
>that's cool but they could have signaled that in the
>storytelling. If they intended that to just be a white guy,
>well then the idea DG gave an emmy winning performance is
>silly to me.


This was incredibly obvious. He wasn't a white guy. The photos of Benny/Teddy very clearly show a black man.


>Anyway, that's a minor gripe. My biggest gripe is that this
>is so obviously a Get Out influenced episode but I am not sure
>why people give it the benefit of the doubt of being a tribute
>as oppose to being a rip off? It wasn't a parody of Get Out.
>It wasn't Commentary on Get Out or the reaction to the movie.
>It didn't openly reference Get Out. It was just very similar
>to movie without being additive. That's not terrible. Artist
>do this all the time, but I kind of feel like because it's
>Donald Glover, folks are giving him a pass they wouldn't give
>other artist. Small storytelling gripe: Comeon folks talking
>about this is as scary as Get Out, different from Get Out you
>just knew that they weren't going to kill Darius so the stakes
>were way different in this episode than the movie.

I guess you could call this a spiritual cousin of Get Out in ways, and there were allusions to it for sure, but how is the trope of "Guy goes to a place where a seemingly friendly person turns on them" something that belongs to Get Out?


>I think there is something interesting their about celebrity
>and MJJ, but I don't think they said much besides tough show
>biz parents can screw up their kids.

Absolutely disagree and if you thought that was all it was commenting on, I've got nothing for you.

>What I roll my eyes at are all these people reading so much
>deep meaning into this episode. I just don't think it's
>there or that the Glovers went that deep with it (e.g., the
>elevator was intended to invoke the death of Prince. I might
>have bought that if one of the actors actually died in the
>elevator but naw. Or that this episode was the freeing of
>Darius's character from Get Out. Nope). I think this episode
>was borne out of Donald Glovers desire to try white face and
>they really didn't have a lot of deep ideas about what to do
>with it.

You can disagree with some of the other theories (IE the elevator/Prince thing, which I agree is a stretch) - but if you think this was just Donald wanting to do some make up...well, I dunno what to tell you.


>And I am not an anti-critical literal analysis type. I was an
>English Major. One of my last college papers was about how
>Hamlet was the first self-aware literary character because he
>was aware he was actually in a play and he was being literally
>when he said "All the world is a stage...." So I can dig
>different readings of a work. But it is one thing to ascribe
>different meanings and readings to a work and it's another
>thing to say the author INTENDED certain deeper esoteric
>meanings. Like I read this today:

Honestly, when you miss really obvious things, like whether or not Teddy is black, I kinda question your literary analysis here.

>>Yeah I wasn't nearly as impressed with it as twitter or
>some
>>of yall. I was engaged for the entire 40 minutes but by the
>>end I felt like they setup something cool and didn't know
>what
>>to do with it so they just killed everybody.
>
>This show has often introduced characters and situations only
>for them to be single episode/scene type things, so aside from
>the killing everyone you can say this about any number of
>Atlanta episodes. It's kinda their thing. But of course this
>was going to end in some deaths.

I am not sure I follow you. My issue isn't with introducing characters and situations and having a one-off episode. My issue is with setting up this strange scenario and character and not having really thing interesting to do with it. That you say that of course it was going to end in some deaths shows that they didn't really come up with something interesting and different and did what viewers would see as inevitable.


>
>
>>My first problem was that there were some
>>filmmaking/storytelling technical questions that I found
>>distracting. Was Donald Glover suppose to be a white man or
>a
>>black person in whiteface (a la Michael Jackson)? But then
>I
>>generally find whiteface distracting because its like White
>>Chicks, no matter how good the makeup is, you can never
>really
>>suspend belief enough to really believe anyone won't see
>that
>>it's a black person in white face. If the story intended it
>>to be a black person in whiteface and make commentary on
>MJJ,
>>that's cool but they could have signaled that in the
>>storytelling. If they intended that to just be a white guy,
>>well then the idea DG gave an emmy winning performance is
>>silly to me.
>
>
>This was incredibly obvious. He wasn't a white guy. The photos
>of Benny/Teddy very clearly show a black man.

I miss the photos. I figure he was black but wasn't sure. Like I said, it was a minor gripe.

>
>
>>Anyway, that's a minor gripe. My biggest gripe is that this
>>is so obviously a Get Out influenced episode but I am not
>sure
>>why people give it the benefit of the doubt of being a
>tribute
>>as oppose to being a rip off? It wasn't a parody of Get Out.
>>It wasn't Commentary on Get Out or the reaction to the movie.
>
>>It didn't openly reference Get Out. It was just very similar
>>to movie without being additive. That's not terrible.
>Artist
>>do this all the time, but I kind of feel like because it's
>>Donald Glover, folks are giving him a pass they wouldn't
>give
>>other artist. Small storytelling gripe: Comeon folks talking
>>about this is as scary as Get Out, different from Get Out
>you
>>just knew that they weren't going to kill Darius so the
>stakes
>>were way different in this episode than the movie.
>
>I guess you could call this a spiritual cousin of Get Out in
>ways, and there were allusions to it for sure, but how is the
>trope of "Guy goes to a place where a seemingly friendly
>person turns on them" something that belongs to Get Out?

It doesn't belong to Get Out. But if you are going to do something so similar to get out, with actors from Get Out, you should do something different from Get Out or comment on Get Out.


>>I think there is something interesting their about celebrity
>>and MJJ, but I don't think they said much besides tough show
>>biz parents can screw up their kids.
>
>Absolutely disagree and if you thought that was all it was
>commenting on, I've got nothing for you.

I didn't see alot more than that. I mean yeah they had a michael jackson type character but I didn't see any comment on the role of race in the formation of this weird character.

I am sure folks can and will all sorts of deeper things into it, but alot of it is a stretch to me.


>
>>What I roll my eyes at are all these people reading so much
>>deep meaning into this episode. I just don't think it's
>>there or that the Glovers went that deep with it (e.g., the
>>elevator was intended to invoke the death of Prince. I might
>>have bought that if one of the actors actually died in the
>>elevator but naw. Or that this episode was the freeing of
>>Darius's character from Get Out. Nope). I think this
>episode
>>was borne out of Donald Glovers desire to try white face and
>>they really didn't have a lot of deep ideas about what to do
>>with it.
>
>You can disagree with some of the other theories (IE the
>elevator/Prince thing, which I agree is a stretch) - but if
>you think this was just Donald wanting to do some make
>up...well, I dunno what to tell you.


You got a lot of "I've got nothing" and "I dunno what to tell you". If it's there it shouldn't be that hard to break it down or communicate.



>
>
>>And I am not an anti-critical literal analysis type. I was
>an
>>English Major. One of my last college papers was about how
>>Hamlet was the first self-aware literary character because
>he
>>was aware he was actually in a play and he was being
>literally
>>when he said "All the world is a stage...." So I can dig
>>different readings of a work. But it is one thing to
>ascribe
>>different meanings and readings to a work and it's another
>>thing to say the author INTENDED certain deeper esoteric
>>meanings. Like I read this today:
>
>Honestly, when you miss really obvious things, like whether or
>not Teddy is black, I kinda question your literary analysis
>here.


Please feel free to question and disagree. I appreciate you pointing out my factual error about whether Teddy was black or not. But can you go further and tell me what you think DG was trying to communicate with this episode?

>
>


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Is because it's broken down in this thread. A lot. Why repeat it?

If you don't feel like these are valid theories about the show - then say why. If you don't think that the episode worked - then cool. But the thing about people looking deeply into art is that - OFTEN times - the creator(s) intentionally put clues/visual gags/colors to invoke feelings, etc. And sure, over-analysis is a thing. We've all seen that. But to discount that completely is wrong.

My personal read on this is that it's very obviously commentary on Michael Jackson, entertainment fathers, and finding out success doesn't fill the void left by a shitty childhood. But that's obvious I guess. I think using a character like Darius, who you kinda believe anything about at this point because he's just that weird and interesting, was a genius move. Paperboy woulda been outta there quickly but they set up Darius' 2-regret policy and you TOTALLY buy into it.

I don't think the elevator/Prince connection means much. I also don't know if it really matters if Benny is their father or not. I also don't think this has any toe stepping on that of Get Out, given that the photo thing was set up with Darius' character last season (?). Sure, it could be a cutesy nod to it (I mean, Get Out did open with a Donald Glover song), but I don't think it matters. I also don't think black horror belongs to Get Out, and I see no real connection between the two outside of the stuff that's been pointed out.

I guess my point here is obviously art is subjective, but the authors of these pieces most often DO put things in to lean into a feeling, a message, etc. To discount that off the jump and say people 'read into things too much' is negating all the work people put into these things - colors, composition of shots, editing, mis en scene, music, art direction...sure, sometimes these things fail or try too hard at these things or try too hard to be "deep" but this show is clicking on all cylinders and it's really dope to watch.

makes me just side-eye everything else he wrote.

I did miss a key scene so I thought it distracting I had to figure it out. It was a technical storytelling issue. It doesn't change my analysis at all.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

and folks would call it GOAT TV.

I like the show overall but wasn’t feeling this episode at all.


Then again, I thought Get Out was good but not the BEST THING EVER. When i see Black folk stay in situations where most of us would leave, I have a hard time truly enjoying it.

my mom was about to blow a gasket when my nephew was born and my bi-racial sister-in-law wasn't slathering him down in lotion everyday lol

there are so many more gems about black people and lotion lol

now I bet we see a lotion ep or a scene about it.

I think this could've been "Teddy Choi" with all of the characters being Korean and it would've been 99% as effective as a thriller/horror flick since the primary dilemma was related to tortured genius, strained family relations and the ostracizing nature of fame.

"Get Out", to me, was primarily ABOUT race relations, particularly how others races relate to blacks. I think someone would miss most of the message if they weren't versed American race relations.

I think these "movies" are vastly different and the comparison of the two are lazy and superficial.

All this.

It feels like the two are equated because of the Lakeith Stanfield connection and it being a primarily black horror episode. That's kinda where it ends. It has racial overtones of course, but it's not really making any kind of commentary on the fetishization of black people by white people and that's kinda the crux of Get Out in general.

fuck your traditional sitcom format

We seem to get mostly two camps. Those who didn't get what this episode was trying to say (and there are many theories - some of which I certainly disagree with, but whatever) and those who are the "I watch this show for lighthearted entertainment amongst a group of friends getting into hijinks".

If you didn't like it, you didn't like it. That's cool, and that's your opinion. I've watched many shows/movies where I understood what they were going for but it didn't work for me. But with that said, it's quite obvious Donald Glover & co are shooting for the stars and creating layered episodes that are making social commentary. Again, if that commentary doesn't work for you - cool. But they aren't making this JUST BECAUSE. That New Yorker (?) article should have spelled that out pretty cleanly.

Another thing...if you just want a show with a group of friends trying to make it in the music industry...I guess you could enjoy Atlanta, but understand that was the "Trojan Horse" that Donald referenced in that interview. If you think it's pretentious or stupid, do you - but he literally said that is the entry point for people who wouldn't otherwise let them do this weird shit.

Folks did the same thing with Get Out. Enjoyed the shit out of it and had a great time in the theater. But after you go online and see all these fan theories and if you push back on them then you "didn't get it". Which was hilarious because then Peele does an interview where he shoots down many of those theories.

Same with True Detective. Same here.

Like look at these theories:

https://twitter.com/JustLatasha404/status/982087740643860480

I definitely think DG was invoking MJJ, but alot of this theorizing I think is BS.


Knock yourself out doing it, but don't accuse folks of not getting it if they don't see it and think you are doing too much.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

on the show of course..

see what I did there

a clear divide exists within the black culture. some of us like to think, some of us dont....at ALL.

to the point where questions incite name calling with fits of rage and anger

there's great dialogue in every episode worthy of deeper analysis

the crocodile in the season premier was bizarre in a humorous way

the ostrich egg and all of the puzzle pieces in the mansion are just overboard

but yeah I definitely dont mind walking away from a movie or show understanding what I witnessed

I don't think it's some of us like to think and some of us don't.
I feel that it's much more than some of us like to inhabit art and some of us don't.
It's that line in school where you're being asked, "what does the artist mean" and to some, it's straight forward, that a bird is a bird, and to others the bird is freedom.
And I think that's where we diverge. I had this conversation with my wife last night watching the show. That we're taking the episode apart in real time. But in 50 years, when the artist's career is done they'll be unable to view this art the same way we just did.
This episode is a paradigm shifter, it'll be interesting to see how the cultural evolves from it or counters it.

i just like to think a certain way

surrealism and absurdist humor is...2 of my least favorite forms of dramedy

the major reason for it is...it's too hard to execute with too little reward

like...all the theories being touted around are still pretty surface layer imo...the payoff is too mundane for that style of humor imo and so it comes off as high art attempts rather than just high art

ATL is my Saturday wake and bake entertainment

...you gotta at least be ready to sit through something like that...

The ep with his girl at the German fest was slow, but at least I could relate

This ep...IDK, I'll just say I don't do the horror shows...they don't scare me

and the entertainment is laughing at what is supposed to be scary, but just wild unrealistic

For example; everybody who would move a piano by themselves...raise your hand...

From a stranger's house...

That you connected with through an internet post...

By yourself...for real?

FOH

was Benny's elderly father?

i ask because when Teddy/Benny shows Darius his "Father Room" the mannequin is faceless, same as the person in the wheelchair.

the person in the wheelchair is also bleeding. you can see it as soon he comes out of the elevator could Teddy/Benny have been torturing his elderly father for what he turned Teddy/Benny into. the person who comes out of the elevator has blood on their collar and cheek so maybe Teddy/Benny is fucking w/ their face like maybe he was gonna put his face on the mannequin?

i mean, Teddy * IS * Benny as far as I can tell (even the mansion gates had a "B"), yet two people died in that house unless the we're not supposed to believe EVERYTHING that was shown on screen in the most literal sense; that the two deaths are supposed be as someone said - the death of his mask and the actual death of him (although i rewatched this episode 3 times and it appears two seperate bodies left that house).

also, he mentions those fathers who in a way, killed some of their kids joy (arguably), or in Marvin's case his father literally killed him. this would be a similar death - the prodigy at the hands of the father. i know he calls the person who comes out of the elevator Benny, but it could be to keep up the ruse for Darius or the father could have been Benny Sr.

i'm fine being way off base here but it's a fun theory i just thought of after watching for the 3rd time because everytime the fact that whoever came out of the elevator already was covered in blood was throwing me.

I don't think they'll ever mention any this ever again either way. Like, maybe the piano shows up again somewhere, but that's it.

Teddy saying "Benny, your alive!" at the climax was confusing for awhile bc Teddy says at the beginning that he's taking care of Benny because of his condition. So that would lead me to presume Teddy knew Benny was alive for at least most of the episode

Benny and his dad could share the same name but I don't think there's anything to suggest that it was the dad in the basement. They established pretty well that Benny had a skin issue, wore a mask (pics of him in the mask) and Teddy is his caretaker.

Working within the bounds of what was shown though, my thought is that Teddy has really been holding Benny captive all this time rather than being his caretaker. And maybe after realizing that Benny had tipped Darius off, he'd actually tried to kill Benny, hence all the blood on Benny's clothes at the end of the episode.

To take it a bit further, I'm pretty sure Teddy is actually the dad.

Teddy introduced the idea that he was Benny's brother but I don't think there was anything during the episode that showed that Benny had a brother. All we ever saw in the pics and videos were Benny, his dad (unnamed) and various famous people. Darius thought Teddy was Benny but clearly that wasn't the case.

When Darius almost walks in on Benny playing the piano in the bedroom but Teddy intercepts him, I see that as another domineering practice session like the one Teddy was wistfully watching later in the episode.

Who else but the dad would build a museum to honor other demanding/abusive/murderous fathers?

And who else but the dad would reject Darius's statement that "Not all great things come from great pain"? He's living the lavish life, eating soft-boiled ostrich eggs, because he pushed his son to the limit. Nah, the ends justified the means to him.

..they're presented as "brothers" by teddy, that's not exactly true here.

teddy & benny are the same person. 2 halves of a whole life. they represent benny's psychological fracture. benny was the child star that grew up to be ridiculed and as a result, painfully reclusive. he created teddy to deal with the outside world.

this is why you only see pics of benny (photoshopped images of mj & celeb friends), but most people failed to notice something significant: there are no pics of teddy and benny together.

when darius finally starts to realize that he's in over his head, its too late (he forces darius to handcuff himself at gunpoint in the foyer). as he's finally revealing his true intentions, the elevator bell chimes and the doors open to reveal benny, who's bleeding profusely from the torso.

"benny! you're alive?!" © teddy.

*rewind a bit*

remember, teddy had cameras hidden all over the estate. he saw the interaction btwn benny & darius in the basement and knew he had to make a move. he stalls darius (blocking the driveway with his rolls royce), giving him enough time to shoot benny and go back upstairs. this is when darius walks in and finds him with the projector. when darius asked to use the restroom, benny gives him directions.

"..yes, upstairs... 1st door on your left... right across from the attic... " © teddy

in this moment, he let's everyone know the jig is up. he knows that darius knows, but what he doesn't realize is that benny survived the assault. his surprised reaction to seeing benny roll out of the elevator was genuine.

the sad thing about the artistic expression shown in this ep is that most people completely missed the obvious:

somewhere over the years, teddy evolved from caretaker to warden of his own life. in this way, he was shielding himself, yet punishing himself at the same time. he couldn't take the pressure anymore (created by himself, his father, and the rest of the world). benny/teddy died trying to protect himself, but eventually lost himself in the process.

madness is real.



*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

But there's still the incongruity of the multiple body bags at the end.

Also, Teddy's last name was conveniently the street on which someone told him that Benny plays pain better than anybody.

So I still lean towards my conclusion that Teddy was actually Benny's dad.

>But there's still the incongruity of the multiple body bags
>at the end.

the story of benny hope is literal AND figurative. teddy/benny were two different people, yet one in the same (at the same time).

the writers simply took artistic liberty and split the 2 halves of benny into separate people. the body bags represent the death of both the public AND private persona.



*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

with Darius

He would be the one interacting...

...and there were clearly 2 deaths...

= not the same person.

..addresses everything you said and more.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

you're wrong IRT there not being 2 people in that house...separate people

Teddy Perkins is the real life Benny Hope...no doubt

too many examples to list...but the easiest is when Darius finds him playing the piano...

He's embarrassed that he has transformed/mutated his appearance...ala MJ

and is no longer recognizable as Benny Hope...who from the references...was a black man

so he refers to himself as Teddy Perkins...which may be Benny Hope's real name anyway

The guy in the wheelchair, hidden in the basement...that's a real person

obviously, for the reasons listed above, it's not Benny Hope

but it is a real person

I think it was his father

when he shows Darius the 'father's museum'...the statue of his father has no face

I think Teddy Perkins took on his father's name for his stage moniker and added the hope as the last name

Benny Perkins is Teddy's father

and that is the guy in the wheelchair

think about the whole setup

why go to those lengths to stage a home invasion

so he could finally off his dad, and have a fall guy

also, when Benny wheels himself out of the elevator

he's bleeding and Teddy's reaction is of shock

'Benny...you're alive!?'

That was the plan

kill dad

and Darius, with Darius taking the fall

no doubt Teddy Perkins and Benny Hope are the same person

fosho

...but there were also 2 people that were killed...

this wasn't inception

Teddy's delusion doesn't take hold of Darius's conscious

and stage a figurative 2nd crime scene/body bag.

Teddy Perkins episode.

Like so much about it just WORKED so well.

Even if you strip away the metaphors about abusive parents/Black Music, even if you NEVER saw an episode of Atalanta before and just take it at face value, I still thing this stands up as a stand alone horror/thriller Short movie.

It had a great set piece, it was well directed (That shot with Perkins on the left and right of the screen as his younger self in the background!), it managed to be simultaneously hilarious and horrifying.

it was set up pretty good, just i didn't like how it ended,from when Darius was tied in the seat til the end.

i watched this episode like 4 times now and that really stands out to me for some reason.

this shit was a like a mini-movie mayne. the opening scene and music that leads up to him arriving at the house feels like you are settling into a horror film.

Quite good.

In part, the episode was a meditation on art and certain expressions of Black artistry.

Nuances about the meaning of the word "weird" open the door for all kinds of conversation. It's interesting to watch some responses to the episode as "weird". I think the question about how one encounters art, recognizes art, and what expectations people have about artistic mediums is fascinating in light of Glover's "trojan horse" comments.

Glover is clearly attempting to create a show that is art. Whether he's successful or not is another question. The show isn't just for entertainment, or laughs, or whatever else -- although those elements are there. The show isn't for or about Blackness as social or political identity/phenomena, though elements are there and the languaging of the show is Black. Art seems to be the kind of thing where it has the nerve to be any damn thing it wants to be. It's interesting to watch some people close down or not be receptive to that kind of freedom...but also recoil at the invitation to commune in that free space.

Generally, I think Americans understand how to be "present" for entertainment, but not art. How cliche is it to even have to point out that we are primed to consume products and relate--emotionally, spiritually, socially, etc--as consumers or the consumed and all perhaps to our own detriment? Some responses I've read (I mean generally, not as an aim at this thread) make me wonder at the appetite for b.s. created by corporations that exploit, warp, and mis-represent human capacity for creativity. This is disconcerting to consider when a lot of people increasingly log lots of time engaging with various types of visual mediums.

I truly wish more people read literature. It's like out imaginations are broken. It's too bad that we're in 2018 and some people think an artist in bloom is some bizarro thing. Nevermind that the word "artist"/art is applied to people and work that doesn't fit the bill.

I didn't think the episode was all that weird. For instance, it followed familiar visual tropes (creepy house, skulking and hiding in shadows, secrets in the basement, an attic, on and on). The episode was inventive, in part, because of how those elements were explored.I don't think Glover is weird. I don't think there was a Get Out, angle, either, although as someone above mentioned, maybe the episode is a "spiritual cousin."

Interesting that Darius wanted the piano because of how it looked. It was a great mechanism and commentary pointing toward the episode's awareness about how some people might view it-- but also about the potential to move beyond that and into something else.

Considering how far he could have gone.....I thought this was pretty grounded and easy to process. He literally took the viewer on a tour of the character's psyche through Darius.

I think your thoughts on how art is interpreted and the lack of imagination in this culture is unfortunately pretty telling and accurate. I hope that people will try and open up their perception not just for this but for what will hopefully be more breakthroughs coming as we go along.

sometimes it likes to pose as one masquerading as the other

sometimes, the balance is off and lessens both bc art is and often should be entertaining as well...

for me personally...it feels like they just keep compromising one over the other...

some eps strike a great balance and some don't

with no story progression at all.
It's dope.
I dig it.
It's like a Black Twilight Zone...


"Get ready....for your blessing....."

Some story lines progressed slightly over the course of the series, but it was mainly a bunch of one off tales with not a lot of continuity to prior episodes. Like we are still wondering what happened in the shooting from the first episode.

It's a format very similar to Louie.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

but they did.

They also brought up the invisible car again..

I think they may come back to that shooting but they definitely take their time.

the figuring out what the point was more stimulation than actually enjoying the points

sometimes...social commentary is just weird and wacky

this just felt mad self-indulgent

the surreal feeling just kinda flips and it just becomes slow SNL skits

i still overall like the show but this is definitely one of the more skippable ones for me

>sometimes...social commentary is just weird and wacky

The episode was funny to me. Teddy was just setting the piano buyer up to frame him/her for Benny's death. Everything else that happened in between was just dialogue that could have occurred between two people: one looking for human interaction and the other a person who just wanted a weird ass piano.


Ain't no deeper than that.

The circle-jerking on this episode is way too much.

In fact, it's more like a ruined wet dream.

my question is how the hell did Darius get out of those cuffs to call the police?

Maybe neighbors heard the gunshots and decided to report it since it seemed to have come from the weird guy's house.

Or maybe Darius crawled over to a phone and dialed. The cuffs were then removed once the cops arrived.

dude knows he can't lose right now..

When negro start talking about he cracked the algorithm. I was like un oh, dude is entering his self-indulgent Prince phase and thinks he can put anything out there and folks will lap it up.




**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

>When negro start talking about he cracked the algorithm. I
>was like un oh, dude is entering his self-indulgent Prince
>phase and thinks he can put anything out there and folks will
>lap it up.

Television: Both writing and on screen
Music
Stand Up Comedy
Movies

He CLEARLY must be doing something right.

He's still relatively young and has had more success in multiple fields than some people will see their whole life if they dedicated themselves to just one of of those things.

By the time it's all said and done, dude might have the GOAT career

PERFECT TIMING


I didn't notice the delayed laugh until the second watch. Good catch

u coulda just rushed that frail ninja anytime the gun was lowered

but i wont dissect too much, cuz in real life every scene woulda played out a million different ways than what they showed


but i liked it. some good commentary on MJ & the price of fame, tho not enough really there for all the 500 word fake analyses that are floating around.

on the actual story as presented, dude wanted to stage a home invasion of a 'crazed fan' that would kill benny and steal his famous piano. blocked the uhaul so darius will bring the piano downstairs but teddy can stop/kill the fan before he leaves the house with it.
would also explain the drop of blood, to make sure darius is connected to the piano and benny's murder/teddy's fight (whoever's blood it was).

DG kept sounding like smokey robinson tho, lol. it was throwing me off

good tv overall. i stopped trying to 'figure the show out' or make it be what i wanted it to be sometime during season 1, when folk (especially on here) was creaming after every ep and i would barely laugh.


U MAD?

People arguing if a story is “deep” or not miss the point on both sides.

The Teddy Perkins episode was great, but not because it was “deep.”

It’s great because it managed to have honest and meaningful moments about abusive and overbearing fathers while being a creepy, funny thriller of a bottle episode.

It ain’t about no “deep.”

various takes and views and comments

and no one (except folks who are blatantly missing things or trying to scoff @ folks for having the audacity to have a different opinion) is wrong

on the value of dialog.

...it was literally an alternate view of why *I* think the ep is great

likewise, i don't think you and I are the opposing view

that was a more global statement about all the swirling commentary, pro and con

I agree on the other 2 episodes tho..

I wasn't impressed

I'm a huge Louie fan, so I don't care if an episode is packed with laughs. Comedians have been proving for years now through podcasts and episodic TV that they get drama, at times better than the seasoned dramatists do. I just wasn't all that into Glover's performance and this episode rested so much on it that if you couldn't buy in, you were automatically out.


I would up watching the episode a lot like my ex used to watch shows I was into and she'd have a passing interest in, always glancing back at my phone or laptop rather than fully invested. Kinda like how I watched the "Metalhead" episode of Black Mirror the first time, too.


Maybe I'll give it another shot some time from now when I've got nothing better to do.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

it just felt like a whiff to me

like it shot for the stars and missed badly for me

for it to be so creepy...it really didn't get dark with any real weight to it

I was a little upset because I wanted to see Darius do his thing in his episode but it was way too "Get Out-ish" for me.

Watched it again earlier this week and - meh. Like Miracle said in a post above, it was one of those instances where even assuming a lot of the theories people have come up with are indeed true, they are largely surface level and the payoff wasn't worth it.

rated episode to date for Atlanta

we're still dissecting last week's ep

could just be setting up a rating bonanza

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-tncJtN2uw

Of course he was there.

And he never explained why or how he got there. Darius had to walk home too.
---------------------------------------


---------------------------------------

the way people reached to explain Teddy Perkins, the scene with the white girl defending herself seemed pretty much based off of black women being mad Glover's girlfriend/two children's mother is white

that and he seems to despise how women act at the prospect of being around A-list rappers, which I get to a degree

Tho this show perfectly captures people's desperation to "get ahead" in this late capitalist decadent culture

>the way people reached to explain Teddy Perkins, the scene
>with the white girl defending herself seemed pretty much based
>off of black women being mad Glover's girlfriend/two
>children's mother is white
>
>that and he seems to despise how women act at the prospect of
>being around A-list rappers, which I get to a degree

The show continously has men drop in to try to get Paperboi to “put em on” as a running side gag,

I also don’t think the interracial issue was about Glover: dudes been rapping about Asians for like five years until his recent heel turn, lol. Unlike other celebs that have faced backlash, it seems in Glover’s case people just shrugged. Like the Luke cage dude had to basically give a press conference similar to the white girl speech, so I thought it was an interesting point on the show since the white girl/black celeb is such a running joke even in black shows

If anyone i thought was a thin stereotype it was the main bougie friend who was just a copy/paste of her homegirl from last year in her stand alone weed episode.

So he did acknowledge that, on some level, she was right.

and really had no idea wtf was going on but it was obvious she was looking pitiful.

That response was hilarious tho.

" I don't have the privilege of waiting 8 years for a nigga to maybe blow up"

"I love him too"



Guuuurl, it's easy to love me now - fiddy

he's had this conversation enough times with enough women that at this point, he just gives a little sorryshrug and keeps it moving

of course he got issues w/ black women. that doesn't mean they aren't legitimate.

but lets be real, most of these dudes chose white because that's their preference.

It's their life, their dick so just be real about it.

and this convo is prolly spot on. A lot of women don't have the patience to wait on a dude to blow up. If you do, you might win.. but for every DG there are 50,000 niggas playing 2K who have dreams of being a rapper.

its a gamble for sure.

Another terrible episode.

If you can’t get all the people together to make good episodes... shoot shitty story lines that make no damn sense.

Season one had a bunch really funny moments scattered through each episode.

This season, not so much. Not one laugh from me in this episode (Darius'appearance got a smirk), the Teddy Perkins ep, the German ep, and probably one more.

Season 1 was a comedy first. And a bunch of other things (drama, satire) second and third. Season 2 is a comedy 3rd.

Should have been hotter to maximize mad making. She was pretty homely

they don't have to be hotter cause they are white.

she was fine as shit but I meant the whole "my instagram is looking weak, I need a photo with Drake"

Had Van looking like she was about to do some thangs if Drake was in the building

Van aint nearly got it all together like folks try to make it out to be. she aint shit either.

left lottie at home to go play ratchet and try to fuck drake smh.

her shit is sloppy too.

That's why I found it hilarious that she did no wrong in that ep and Earn was a hoe ass dude for not playing along even when she was obviously flirting with the white dude in German.

She kinda messy with it.

She bad tho.. gotdamn she looked good last night.

even strong people act silly after a rough breakup

she clearly misses him too

the way she asked Darius if Earn was there was met with so much disappointment lol

she aint got a job, she's lost Earn, and by appearances...Earn is halfway enjoying his current situation

this ep felt like filler though

this season overall has been high/low to me

but then everyone loved the first 3 episodes and he changed his tune..

but he prolly should have stuck with his original predicition because I think this season is sliding

serious question

I think they were all written by Donald and his brother.

This season we see episodes attributed to specific writers.

I don't know if this is a credit thing or other writers had bigger roles, but it does feel disjointed like a bunch of different writers with different visions.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

>but it does feel disjointed like a bunch of
>different writers with different visions.

it's all over the place

this ep was just....................man
idk
Van comes off as the most clu....nvmd

yeah....it's just all over the place
and obvious

background (like I know WHO he is but idk who he is)

but i'll repeat...he managed to manifest a show (the 1st season) that reached everyone in the 'young' Black diaspora...

this season appears to be written by niggas who never went outside, had friends growing up, and/or 'read/heard' about certain Black experiences vs how it goes down irl


but hey...i'm just a nigga wit an opinion

its the reason the season was pushed back a year. I wonder if the touring, music, movies forced him to find some writers to help fill up this season.

it definitely isn't hitting like the first season. Also wonder if he had "help" with some ghostwriters and they moved on to other projects. Just doesn't feel like they have a vision for this season.

i just think the more risks you take with this type of thing...the more likely you are going to swing and miss or people are going start longing for investment in plot or characters

i think i've realized why im not liking it as much

there doesn't really seem to be much joy in it at all

it reminds me of why i can't really watch ben stiller movies

after a while...i stop finding their misfortunes funny, entertaining or interesting

Van and Earn's relationship is really the only one i care about

Even Earn's more recent Ws seem depressing

the mix of realism and surrealism was hilarious in the first season but it's worn through pretty hard for me

>there doesn't really seem to be much joy in it at all

Kind of reminds me when rappers like Jay-Z, Kanye or even De La Soul hit that point where they rap a lot about the emptiness of success and fame and I'm like, I can't relate.




**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Like regular, mundane experience.

Everyone knows that one scammer (Tracy w/ the gift cards). Everyone's had that time when you try to stunt but it just doesn't work out like you planned. The super unreliable friend (Bibby). Realistic relationship issues.

And this episode was "real black experience" in my opinion. Folks just wanting to stunt for the 'gram but not having a good time in reality. And I was getting deja vu watching them get ready at the beginning of the ep.


>
>this season appears to be written by niggas who never went
>outside, had friends growing up, and/or 'read/heard' about
>certain Black experiences vs how it goes down irl
>
>
>but hey...i'm just a nigga wit an opinion
>
>

or address the crazy ready to rape dude?

like did she at any pt in that episode bring it up to her friends?

or did I miss it

But she also didn't get back with her friends until the end of the episode when they were getting kicked out. If she mentioned it, it would've been on the long walk home.

that doesnt mean he was ready to rape.

and no game


https://tenor.com/view/lebron-james-wow-smh-gif-11419437

When the high friend first started to really trip on the main level, there was a dude lurking behind them who looked like he was ready to swoop in when Van stepped away.

I think between him, thirsty dude after Van, and the "rapey" shuttle driver, there was a little undercurrent of danger throughout the episode even though it was essentially about a bunch of people innocently fronting.

>When the high friend first started to really trip on the main
>level, there was a dude lurking behind them who looked like he
>was ready to swoop in when Van stepped away.

I saw him too and thought the camera would follow them.

but he still has time to save the season.

Would've actually liked more time with Van's girls and a little less on her looking for Drake.

But who WAS Drake's "abuelo?" I love the idea of a random old man who doesn't speak English just living there eating snacks and watching futbol.

But I can't think of it right now.


>
>But who WAS Drake's "abuelo?" I love the idea of a random old
>man who doesn't speak English just living there eating snacks
>and watching futbol.

Just to know what he was actually trying to tell her.

I did catch "avion" but that was about it.

didn't catch a word of what he was saying

Took me a minute to remember my high school Spanish, but I put it together when he did the airplane hand motion.

But I'd like to know what else he was saying.

I was cracking up at the idea of Darius being this girl's mystical spirit animal.

on sisters.

I mean the women were somewhat more well rounded than prior black women not named Van on the show, but still felt like types.

I like the show for being different, but yeah, a bit underwhelmed.




**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

basically the black woman steamrolled ol girl in that argument. it was just cringey and unnecessary cause she was salty, loud and drunk.

NOW, we can debate having the character there in the first place was an issue. But I can make an argument that the whole sellout black dude with a white woman is kinda a dead horse, a Def Jam 93’ joke. Like I said above, and I used to be one of those dudes kinda snickering at dudes like that…but I remember this incident and I thought it was kinda nuts in hindsight:

https://www.refinery29.com/2016/10/125579/luke-cage-mike-colter-interracial-marriage?bucketed=true&bucketing_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Like think about having to do a press defending your white wife on some, ‘Yo, I met her when I was young, please forgive me!’. Imagine having to come home and explain why you had to do that shit (lol)

There’s something I wanna post up but it’s not worth it since the gender demographic on the boards are shifted and I know the answers I am gonna get. But I do think the whole ‘Woe is me as a black woman’ narrative at this point is more about selling Steve Harvey books and Tyler Perry movies then reality. I mean, look at Zazie fiancé!

http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Zazie+Beetz/David+Rysdahl

Look at who’s taking the dominant position in that photo, LOL. She got herself a trophy (lol) white. BK’s basically coffee shop chicks and white dudes more than black dudes and white girls ive seen ancedotally

If anything its gonna be us (as black men) that are gonna get left behind in the wave as black woman make moves.

and the whole "she was by my side " speech is wack.

it comes off like Black women wouldn't be by his side... and the Black woman in the scene confirmed it.

that's going in IMO

no comment on Vann's fiance beyond not being surprised. No wonder her and DG get along so well.

>and the whole "she was by my side " speech is wack.

I can see this, I disagree but I understand
>
>it comes off like Black women wouldn't be by his side... and
>the Black woman in the scene confirmed it.
>
>that's going in IMO

U gonna lead a ladder for that reach, lol. I get (but i disagree) with someone saying it was one sided, I get the critique that outside of van the female characters are thin, but the above reads like ‘its friday and im trying to make ime pass quickly, lol’

but maybe on Monday we can revisit because I definitely thought it was a shot at Black women. Every woman of color in that episode was thirsty as hell for a slice of fame or a photo op while the white woman stuck by her man.

and they made sure it was the darkest sister in the group.

I kid. What do I care. Live your life DG, Zazie, Jessica Williams, etc.

But if DG is going to bring the issue up, he should realize everyone is going to look at through the lense of the dude with the white chick on his arm. Doesn't work for Skip Gates either.

The Funny thing is that Issa Rae's characters are more caricatures then what we have seen here for the most part.


>NOW, we can debate having the character there in the first
>place was an issue. But I can make an argument that the whole
>sellout black dude with a white woman is kinda a dead horse, a
>Def Jam 93’ joke. Like I said above, and I used to be one
>of those dudes kinda snickering at dudes like that…but I
>remember this incident and I thought it was kinda nuts in
>hindsight:
>
>https://www.refinery29.com/2016/10/125579/luke-cage-mike-colter-interracial-marriage?bucketed=true&bucketing_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
>
>Like think about having to do a press defending your white
>wife on some, ‘Yo, I met her when I was young, please
>forgive me!’. Imagine having to come home and explain why
>you had to do that shit (lol)
>
>There’s something I wanna post up but it’s not worth it
>since the gender demographic on the boards are shifted and I
>know the answers I am gonna get. But I do think the whole
>‘Woe is me as a black woman’ narrative at this point is
>more about selling Steve Harvey books and Tyler Perry movies
>then reality. I mean, look at Zazie fiancé!
>
>http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Zazie+Beetz/David+Rysdahl
>
>Look at who’s taking the dominant position in that photo,
>LOL. She got herself a trophy (lol) white. BK’s basically
>coffee shop chicks and white dudes more than black dudes and
>white girls ive seen ancedotally
>
>If anything its gonna be us (as black men) that are gonna get
>left behind in the wave as black woman make moves.
>


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

"Value" was such a great episode exploring the complex friendships of black women but they reduced us to stalking celebs & being mad at black men who date white women.

We're more complex than that.

IIRC this is the first ep I remember where Donald nor his bro were involved with writing or directing.

Farming stuff out when it's your baby and you're just hella busy with other projects has its consequences I guess and one of them is subpar episodes, like this one.

without characters with Flaws/insecurities/eccentricities, I don't think that should be necessarily seen as "going in"

I'm not a Black Woman, so I'm curious as to how it was received with that audience.

Wasn't my favorite episode but I still liked it, it kept me guessing the entire episode (Reallllly thought it was going to turn out way worse than what ended up happening)

okay, its not Darius's theory.




But it serves as the theme of this episode (haven't seen many people talking about this)




According to the theory, we aren't in control of what we do. An outside force (in the theory its super computers from the future) causes people to act the way they do within the simulation.


We can apply this to the characters and their motivations in Champagne Papi.


You see the pressure to look cool on social media IN FRONT OF MY FANS as a driving force for a whole lot of stupid shit



The characters literally just wanted to take a pic with Drake for their profiles; making him a prop/object in the process. It was pretty funny they represented that objectification with actual cardboard cut outs LOL

https://www.npr.org/2018/04/18/603444500/actor-brian-tyree-henry-on-fame-authenticity-and-atlanta

In couldn't take my eyes off the TV in the background.

I'm just seeing the "Robbin season" theme play out for every episode now. Is it safe to say somebody gets robbed in every single episode?

-Alfred gets robbed for his jewels in episode 8
-Val steals Drakes jacket
-Bibby steals white lady's lumber from the construction site
-Darius steals the piano cause well what's a dead man gonna do with the money
-Dude with the waves steals dress shoes from the mall for his job interview
-Kat Williams sketchy fuck friend robs some cash out his wallet
-opening scene of episode 1 is plays out a robbery at the fast food joint


What else am I missing?.

dude was like, yooah be alright; u paperboi
also, van's phone was stolen by the festival weirdo

***************************************
rosemary's babydaddy
***************************************

I hadn't really thought about how little Alfred was chasing fame after his song hit.

I wouldn't be surprised if the final episodes of the season show Al pressing the issue with Earn in regards to getting his career going. If he's not motivated to leave that old life behind after what happened to him in the woods nothing will.

Al had to learn to embrace the reality of his celebrity. He'll never get to just be Al from around the way, he's forever Paper Boi.

the hollywood fake IG shit.

Girl was trying to get him dressed better and taking pictures with his boo to level up his image and project the rapper lifestyle.

Instead he took a picture of him fucked up, looking dirty and grimey which is the opposite of the image she wanted him to project.

It was to me, him rejecting the fabolous IG Rapper Image.



>Al had to learn to embrace the reality of his celebrity.
>He'll never get to just be Al from around the way, he's
>forever Paper Boi.

actually go out of his way to interact with a fan. Usually he's reluctant to do anything, but this kid recognized him, was too shy to say anything else, and Al voluntarily walked over to take multiple pics with him (making sure to take enough so that he got a perfect busted mouth pic.) That's not something the Paper Boi from the beginning of the episode would do.

But I think you're on to something with the real picture vs the type of things his girl wanted him to do (pics of them at the salon.)

I like the symbolism of going to the woods in order for that half of his character to die too

guess they had to make dude irrationally moody from the beginning to justify/telegraph the bullshit he was bout to pull by bailing on his ride and walking across town.

i thought the last van episode seemed inconsistent with the character involved. this one was borderline illogical/unrealistic.

seemed pretty consistent, reminded me of that episode where he got mad at the (potential) new weed connect for taking his picture and putting it on social media

like you mentioned. dude posted his pic on ig in another episode and al aint flip. and then the entire bibby episode.

this was a stark contrast to all that.

they knew the only way to sell him putting himself in that position was to arbitrarily make him way aggy beyond usual from the beginning of the episode for no real reason. that was lazy scripting. especially for this show.

took place on or near the anniversary of the death of Paperboi's Mom

*The random scene of her out of focus, yelling at him at the beginning
*Multiple people calling/texting Al to check on him to see how he's doing
*The crazy old man in the woods mentioning her while yelling at Al


Dude generally seems annoyed most of the time during the rest of the show, so if that's the case (His Mom's death) I can buy him flipping out like that.

so she wasn't really in the room in the beginning.

Paperboi is feeling fucked up because it’s the anniversary of his Mom’s death.

That said, why wouldn't he have just called an Uber?

and rude as fuck

>
>they knew the only way to sell him putting himself in that
>position was to arbitrarily make him way aggy beyond usual
>from the beginning of the episode for no real reason. that
>was lazy scripting. especially for this show.

and then the entire bibby episode.

Yeah I said it.

Yeah I got it, it was an introspective look at death, I assume that day was either his momma birthday or the day she passed but the episode was juts off and uninteresting.

Someone said that color bar late in the ep was Atlanta robbing the viewers and I died lmao .

Me too

a barely-remembered ghost from al's past, maybe
but not a true physical form
perhaps an avatar of al's fear?

i'm just spitballing here
***************************************
rosemary's babydaddy
***************************************

He was singing the same tune his mom was at the beginning of the episode.

He said "You just like your mama!"

After Paperboi got away from the knife to his throat, old dude was still acting like he didn't move. Paperboi was able to look back at the old man talking to nobody (or what used to be Al)

When the old dude was about to start counting?

I was pretty sure it was part of the show, but people are claiming it wasn't there on reruns/streaming.

Seemed like some shit from Metal Gear Solid.

it was part of the story

"is that your magic trick?"

Reminds me when Peele was responding to elaborate Get Out theories.

that was when al died and switched to paperboi

Then it blinked back on like nothing had happened and figured it was just broadcasting issues.

Al grappling with his relationship to fame, then went all the way in a completely different direction only to loop back and finish on that exact theme.

I get why this show upsets people, but I'm appreciating the ride too much to be mad.

.

you never get to see (big name) rappers who want to be normal people in this world of social media fame

he wouldnt have gotten that lecture from Ciara the Instagram socialite, robbed by the kids, lost in the woods escaping them or approached for a picture while dirty and bloody if the world wasnt caught up in what he was supposed to be as a famous person

I thought it was just him not enjoying the fame shit, but there has always been this element of sadness about him. Dude seems to take zero joy in anything.

I forgot the show started off with him beefing with Earn because he didn't come around when his momma died. So I didn't realize this episode was all about the anniversary of his mothers death. Nowing that now does put the episode in a new light to me. I enjoyed most of it except maybe the woods stuff. I loved the ending.

The Trials and tribulation of fame is not that interesting of a topic to me. Dealing with fame while dealing with trauma is kind of interesting. We see alot of crazy shit Kanye does and wonder what's wrong with him, but then, that ninja's mom died having plastic surgery.

Also answers the question, why do rappers insist on walking around with guns.




**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

He wants to be real and have fans who are real. But it seems like those "real" fans (i.e. hood folks) just want something from him. All the people telling him to put them on. The supplier that robbed him. The kids who robbed him in this episode.
They all talk about how much they love Paperboi, then immediately ask for or take something from him
Al trying to be real isn't working out for him.

But the fans he doesn't really want (suburban white teenagers) are the ones who don't want anything extra from him. When he ran into the white kid at the convenience store, the kid didn't even want an picture. He was just struck that Paperboi was there.

I think Al is going to start embracing that and starting playing to it by following his girlfriend's strategy.

Or I could be interpreting the convenience store scene wrong. And getting a picture all bloodied up was to show the public how real he is.

>He wants to be real and have fans who are real. But it seems
>like those "real" fans (i.e. hood folks) just want something
>from him. All the people telling him to put them on. The
>supplier that robbed him. The kids who robbed him in this
>episode.
>They all talk about how much they love Paperboi, then
>immediately ask for or take something from him
>Al trying to be real isn't working out for him.
>
>But the fans he doesn't really want (suburban white teenagers)
>are the ones who don't want anything extra from him. When he
>ran into the white kid at the convenience store, the kid
>didn't even want an picture. He was just struck that Paperboi
>was there.

I've been thinking about that interaction with the kid in the store and hadn't even considered the "real fans" vs "outer fans" angle.

and want to get put on.

White fan just wanted to say what’s up.

This is DG’s experience I bet. White fans are some dedicated folks who spend tons of money on artist before moving on. Not saying Black fans don’t but a lot of young fans want to escape their reality and get on so they can make money. White fans are usually in a good space and just want to support, party and kick it before getting married and having kids and shit.

I mean your analysis suggests the show is trying to suggest white fans are better than black fans and that doesn't seem right.

I think doing the picture was just an F U to hood glamor and wasn't about the kid at all.

but he doesn’t want all the other shit “fans” want besides a hand out.

Literally every fan of his up to this point has tried to use him for gram fame, a hook up or trying to get over on him.

>He wants to be real and have fans who are real. But it seems
>like those "real" fans (i.e. hood folks) just want something
>from him. All the people telling him to put them on. The
>supplier that robbed him. The kids who robbed him in this
>episode.
>They all talk about how much they love Paperboi, then
>immediately ask for or take something from him
>Al trying to be real isn't working out for him.
>
>But the fans he doesn't really want (suburban white teenagers)
>are the ones who don't want anything extra from him. When he
>ran into the white kid at the convenience store, the kid
>didn't even want an picture. He was just struck that Paperboi
>was there.
>
>I think Al is going to start embracing that and starting
>playing to it by following his girlfriend's strategy.
>
>Or I could be interpreting the convenience store scene wrong.
>And getting a picture all bloodied up was to show the public
>how real he is.

without confirming it was a dream

shift to Al still sleeping.

Could be showing us time lapsed footage of him dreaming

then the foot thing, which was weird even by darius standards
the old man in the woods
even the timeline with that girl was a bit off
everything was a bit off or surreal

>then the foot thing, which was weird even by darius
>standards
>the old man in the woods
>even the timeline with that girl was a bit off
>everything was a bit off or surreal

The actual pasta in the foot.

Good observation.

fame/career all while having his mothers death on his mind. Wild episode.

it's definitely transitional as he's starting to accept his fame.

it's also likely gonna lead to him dropping Earn as a manager.

..might've mentioned that before in this thread. He's always wrestling with something.

a few seconds before they actually did anything

BTH relays so much more with just facial expressions than damn near any actor i've ever seen

>BTH relays so much more with just facial expressions than damn
>near any actor i've ever seen

I didn't realize that wasn't him rapping the "paperboy" song!




Going back and re-listening, its super obvious lol

the surrealism would be more palatable if it wasn't so dark. it's not even moody. there's zero joy for ANYONE seems like. i wouldn't mind it if it was more revealing about something but...only feeling half this season

dealing with the dangers of fractured identity caused by fame, the same duality paperboi has been uninterested in and running from all along.
The pizza guy/critic who fronts for the camera. There was the suburban black rapper dude who swings back and forth in an extreme fashion from down right chipper to threatening and violent in the studio. Benny and his "brother" who are so fucked up they don't even realize they're the same damn person and how they go from meek and nostalgic or even handicapped to maniacs set on mutual destruction.
I think Al walked home instead of calling an uber because even though he hated what the insta-famous girl said about playing up to the camera for fame, he contemplated it and has been contemplating it for a while, even though he's been publically "keeping it real."
The woods episode reminded me of all those Victorian allegories where people go wondering through dark woods and on the edge of the path are dark spirits ready to play tricks on them and pull them into the underbrush if they are not careful.
_______________________________________________________


DJTB YOMM

I was watching the show over the shoulder of a dude on the train which made me focused on the visuals and damn near ever shot is so perfectly framed and cinematic. That Director is really incredible.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

I think this is partially due to dude being a music video director.

I've definitely been paying attention, since the first ads, and season 1.

This season?

What's that about? The first season made an effort at making sure we knew Earn and Van had a child but I don't think they even made as much as a mention this season.

I think the show just isn't about parenthood or reducing our characters to just being parents like some ABC sitcom so there's really no reason to focus on their daughter

>I think the show just isn't about parenthood or reducing our
>characters to just being parents like some ABC sitcom so
>there's really no reason to focus on their daughter


It was just a question. I know the show isn't about parenthood. I just find it odd that Season 1 kinda put Lodi out there as a reason why Earn was getting more invested in coming up as well as a reason Van wasn't as willing to just relax as much. That hasn't come up this season to my recollection. Also, Earn's been virtually homeless this entire time. Van's been jobless. These plot point aren't character reductions, they're holes in the story.

One of my criticisms of this season is that I think the show is partly willing to take so many creative detours because the writers might not know how they want to flesh that part of the story out. Earn and Van's relationship is pretty much all their story is this season whereas there was more going on earlier.
---------------------------------------


---------------------------------------

Earn screamed about funding Van and Lodi right now because he is seeing a little money from managing PB.

I don't think the baby needs to be seen for us to know she exist.

>RE: how you ask a question and get mad at an answer?

I was just saying the kind of show it is, I wouldn't expect to see the baby much

ending episode, but it was best that they addressed it.

earn had hella l's to try and avenge.

iono if he really thought he was gonna do something, but they showed it don't work like that. bet it felt nice to actually throw some punches, i guess.

so much to unpack this ep. shit was wild.



peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

Either this is rock bottom for Earn, and the last two episodes are his redemption, or the show just reveal that it's never really been about him, and Alfred is the "hero" of the story.

When Tracy came from all the way from Zumunda and stole on dude, I let out a yelp lol

This is season 1 back to the basics kind of stuff.

I had grown man tears from laughter, watching this!!!

Because they've demonstrated how bad Earn is at being a manager all season.

College gig and no hotel room? That’s a bad idea.

Hilarious episode.

It's the reason why Earn put them there.

Earn was trying to pocket the hotel fee. Something like a measly $150.
But Earn is that desperate for money that every little bit counts (where is he living now btw?)

and missed some/most of the dialogue early on

But he really thought his only problem was letting Tracy tag along on the trip. Though Tracy was obviously wrong to put his hands on that girl (who I think wasn't even the girl who spilled the drink,) Earn was the reason they were forced to rely on a woman with cannibalistic sex dreams to begin with. Outside of getting the radio station to play the song in the pilot, he hasn't really demonstrated any value as a manager of someone who is at least famous enough that he needs to worry when he meets a fan in the wild.

wasnt the girl that spilled the drink?

it was the same girl from the apt. She was mad Al was talking to those other girls.

this show is incredible

style with the Aaron Burr hand musket.

And lol @ the white frat dude not knowing anything about the Pajama Jammie Jam going on on the other side of campus. That's how it was at my PWI - the white kids didn't know anything about any of our stuff basically at all.

well, at least that's how it was at my first PWI.

At VCU tho.. we threw the parties and my roommate was big on inclusion because he wanted to make as much money as possible.

Which made for some cool ass wild ass parties.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NXBgSCSrIk

where the dude who cant fight thinks he's gonna get by on anger and will (like in the movies)

everyone not named Earn knew exactly how it would go

"Smarts" and emotion isn't going to get you to win a fist fight with a dude half a foot and like 50 lbs on you. And you ain't going to "prove" anything by volunteering for that ass-beating.

albeit a silly one

this one was pure emotion.

I read a couple things that said he knew he would get his ass beat, but I took it as he knew he was gonna fuck Tracy up. The rational part of his brain was MIA. It's like punching a wall. You'd never do it if you thought about it for half a second

this dude just ran 6 races in 10 minutes. he gonna be tired == i'm super duper frustrated and mad AF so i'm gonna snuff out this big mofo who diesel, enjoy knocking mfers out, AND just came back from up norf.

that's past weed logic. that's them new school drugs logic.

>albeit a silly one
>
>this one was pure emotion.
>
>I read a couple things that said he knew he would get his ass
>beat, but I took it as he knew he was gonna fuck Tracy up. The
>rational part of his brain was MIA. It's like punching a wall.
>You'd never do it if you thought about it for half a second
>

iono how many underdog ass movies he watched to think that shit was gonna work.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

or even a not terrible one. Just that he thought about the Vick thing at least a little, and it wasnt all emotion. He didn't think about fighting Tracy, like, at all. He let his rage control him, and get him feeling all hulked out (i.e. punching a wall)

I like how Tracy was restrained but firm with it. He fucked Earn up but it could have been so much worse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo44c0VoYjM

Like, "Oh, Tracy might be a big ass hoe nigga" and would go down on one punch. I didn't even wanna watch any more of it after Earn whiffed that first punch.

i rewinded it 'cause he fall and face was so on point, one some one gets their shit rocked

1. Mushing a college girl (a girl in general obv but still) in front of a staircase = no chill, no regard for human life
2. dat Jermaine O'Neal sliding punch
3. Him trying so hard to convince Earn not to fight him in and of itself is an admission that he coulda done some ACTUAL damage if he wanted to
4. He just jokes like a nigga that, if it came down to it, has no regard for his own life, let alone the next man's

was like a grown man fighting an 11 year old

I knew main man was some isht, at that point! He funny AF, though. I feel like know bammas just like this.

its more than that but a part of me wondered if he thought he could win Al over by showing some fight was left in him.

ionno tho, I can definitely see Tracy fucking up Al's bread in one of these last 2 episodes.

I mean, I know the answer is - "crazy"
But like what sequence of events leads to that


And was something specific on the laptop?

Or was that just normal nerd rage of losing your Mac

There's no telling how many hours/years worth of work/planning Earn has saved on that.

There might still be some unrevealed aspirations that Earn has. So far we've only seen him in survival mode but despite showing him make a bunch of stupid decisions, dude is still supposed to be really smart so he might have been trying to create/plan something.

and having to replace a laptop is not just some "digging in the couch" money.

And it's going to get leaked

It’s going to be ugly.

Hopefully the writers for this episode did the rest of the season.

and this season is better than one

this is literally the only corner of the internet where the season gotten so much flack, critique, hate this is GD in 2018 so not surprised... I mean look at that Kelis post

>and this season is better than one
>

Nah

>this is literally the only corner of the internet where the
>season gotten so much flack, critique, hate this is GD in 2018
>so not surprised... I mean look at that Kelis post


Yeah the Ok GD bubble is real and that Kelis post is gender wars, but this season was inconsistent.

1. He "learned" from Ciara that by not having the right management, he's leaving money and opportunity on the table. So he links up with Clark County's manager who seems to know what he's doing in that regard.

2. He also still wants to be "real," and was effected by getting jumped by the three teenagers last episode. So he wants to keep Tracy around because he knows he'll have his back if/when shit goes down.

Going back to last year's club episode, Al knew Earn wasn't built for that part of the game.

Al had to take his money in order to get it.

Earn never would've done that.

It could be assumed that any money they made in the interim would've been made with or without Earn there. There really wasn't any indicator anywhere else in the season that Earn made any moves that actually worked out.
---------------------------------------


---------------------------------------

>It could be assumed that any money they made in the interim
>would've been made with or without Earn there. There really
>wasn't any indicator anywhere else in the season that Earn
>made any moves that actually worked out.

In last season's finale, they at least implied that Earn helped set-up the tour that Al was going to go on (which is part of the reason Al broke him off a lot of money at the end of the episode).

And this season, even though Al didn't like the visit to the Spotify stand-in, it was an important move to make. Hell, it was where they first showed Clark County and his manager.

And in the first episode of the season, Earn was the one who got him on the radio.

naw earn set up a lot of things for him

the spotify thing...that paperboy didnt want to do
the Rap Snacks deal...that paperboy didnt want to do
the pajama jam...that paperboy didnt want to do
i think in the ep where he got robbed, earn sent him some paperwork to sign for a new opportunity...that paperboy didnt want to do

earn doing alright for someone who is winging it.

Clark County's manager just has better connections and CC is WILLING to do whatever his manager sends his way.

Paperboy needs to own his side of it as well. it aint all on earn.

I want to see what happens when PB goes to another manager and doesn't put forth the effort needed to succeed.

Al is reactionary

he only smartens up after becoming thoroughly disenchanted

Earn been getting down and dirty however he could

he's actually doing ok to good but Al is caught between wanting to be the opposite of CC and envying him all at the same time

Earn is a loser and he's totally fucking up as usual but he's largely done nothing but good things for AL's career when Al acts like he wants one

I think Al's gonna learn the grass isn't always greener on the other side

in general?

Or stayed in some crazy girl's apartment.

Earn is on the right track though. He's just not as seasoned or connected as CC's manager. He's def doing more than PB gives him credit for.

him, "did you get that paperwork?" and al was like, "nah, i'll get to it eventually".

i felt like that was important b/c of the dynamic w/ PB looking at what the next man doing / getting.

and he jive blew off the streaming place appearance. CC on some shuck and jive shit, sure, but dude coulda threw a LITTLE effort into making the event work.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

https://instagram.com/p/BiMyhemDXuV/?utm_source=ig_embed

can't have PB too happy tho

It costs a LOT of money to license songs for TV. Atlanta is already an incredibly expensive show that had a whole episode without commercials this season.

amazing

that dude got nary a laugh from me this last episode, and will no further in the future. I now got someone to root against on this show.

and you do not rub the genie bottle or break glass to summon them type niggas unless you ready for shit to jump off.

they not mean spirited. they just ignant, dgaf, and act wild impulsively with no regard for consequence. them wide open type muhfuckas be HIGHLY entertaining. but any time you hang out it's buyer beware.



peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

lmao


even his clothes wasn't ripped up

I bet the stalker girl got to Tracy's clothes and was like, "Naw, this one ain't right. Lemme leave his wish alone."
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DJTB YOMM

between the FUBU and the DBZ reference I'm gonna say this was in 2000/01 ish timewise. which is squarely in 5th grade to me and i guess Earn/Al were freshman in HS then.

i dont think i have EVER been so triggered by an episode of TV
- the pressure to have fresh gear everyday (my school was low income so they brought uniforms into play 3rd/4th grade but Friday was free day. 5th grade they got rid of uniforms)
- legit checks
- the bipolar kid (i think the girl was abused. looked like she had a black eye in the first scene)
- passing notes/phone games
- parents saying mr popo was racist
- the white kids just wearing whatever, multiple times a week and nobody giving a shit
- (edit) looking proper. aka NO CORNROWS/DREADS because those were for thugs & criminals in my household. now my mom tells me i should get dreads everytime i go by for dinner

FUCK

as far as the show, after this ep i cant see Al firing Earn. family gotta look out for each other.

>between the FUBU and the DBZ reference I'm gonna say this was
>in 2000/01 ish timewise. which is squarely in 5th grade to me
>and i guess Earn/Al were freshman in HS then.

But this sounds reasonable too.


>as far as the show, after this ep i cant see Al firing Earn.
>family gotta look out for each other.

I think Al sticks with firing Earn, but doesn't cut him off. He still breaks Earn off so he can support himself and Lottie.

i remember getting my FUBU jersey in 3rd grade which was 99 but i'm pretty sure i didn't get into DBZ until 4th grade when one of my mom's coworkers told me about it.

some days you are up and some days you are down.

every single iota abt her interaction with her teacher displayed that

from my experience

That Tracey Chapman song playing in Marshall's was from 96, but as someone who spent a lot of time in Marshall's in HS, that makes sense. The popularity of that kind of Fubu jersey was definitely before 9/11, I'm going to guess and say 1999.

thoroughly enjoyed...
yet reminded me of 6th grade and was triggered by some of it
LOL at Al...
and that girl wasn't 'crazy'

what I know now.

Me after this episode: Oh no, burn all high schools to the ground, they're filled with monsters.

It's a cliche at this point, but kids really can be the cruelest fucking people on Earth. And as immature and wrong as I know it is, I still get nervous that a group of teens are going to roast me if I'm on the train or whatever.

What do we think of Earn's White Friend absolutely not giving a shit? Is this a case of "white kid at a mostly black high school catches enough shit just for being white that they don't bother roasting his clothes?" A "he's white so he knows that ultimately high school's going to end and he'll likely wind up living among mostly white people after that so he doesn't care?" General teenage indifference to any problems that aren't yours?

And I don't care what anyone says, that was a young Darius just chilling inside the rack in Marshall's at the beginning, probably having a deep conversation with a pair of pants.

I remember some of the richest kids dressed bummy as shit.

and some of the brokest kids (me and my crew) had to be fresh to death every day. We didn't have to be but that's just how we do.

Kids can be so shallow. That shit was way too real.

But I can see that being the case for white kids at a mostly black school.

and the rich kids dressed like fucking bums bruh...

they still had nice cars tho.

not all but most of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0XL5Hnf9U4


>It's a cliche at this point, but kids really can be the
>cruelest fucking people on Earth. And as immature and wrong as
>I know it is, I still get nervous that a group of teens are
>going to roast me if I'm on the train or whatever.
>

I know I'm doing okay in life.

All of that goes out the window if a 15 year old I will never see again as soon as I leave points and laughs at my shoes.

like the white kids that tried to run in the IN crowd, had to be on point or they got roasted

but the white kids could fall into skater styles, grungy shit, goth, wigger shit, etc. so it didn't really matter what you wore. if you dont fit in w/ the cool kids then you can find your tribe.

black kids had to be as fly as possible. no ifs ands or buts. if you dont fit in then you're out on your own and will probably end up hanging w/ the white kids of similar interests..

i remember this one kid i went to HS with finally got a pair of white forces and he was proud of em. got to lunch and the cool kids roasted him like "damn ricky finally got some fresh gear. that's cute" and shot ketchup all on em. damn near broke that kid.

if you can't fight then you better be good at sports...if you ain't good at sports then you better be ok to nice looking...if you ain't ok to nice looking then you better be funny...if you ain't funny then you better have a big brother/cousin who is one of the above
if you don't have a any of the above then you're nobody...and get treated as such


public school in a nutshell

Al is giving him some game and that shit just hit me hard. Family gotta look out for family. On that side of things I'd say they were raised right. Only makes me wonder more about what happened in Princeton. When that brother in the suit walked in the class I knew exactly what happened and didn't feel good.

Great ep.

in a way I hadn't felt in a long time




I'm also an educator, so watching for me was this weird experience bringing back memories of my own childhood but also identifying with the adults in the episode.



You guys catch that the girl acting up in class was just hungry? They showed the McDonalds bag at the end when she's happy and ready to learn...



Food insecurity is a huge component of undereducation, and I'm happy to see they addressed it the way they did. Shit made me tear up actually


Never know whats going on in people's lives