Come spring, Atlanta is back on FX and the quartet finds itself across the pond, in the same ludicrous situations, just in different accents.
“We’re here for Will, for the party,” Earn (Donald Glover) says to an English woman in pajamas.
“You’re here for the ‘do, is it?”
“I, I don’t know what you’re saying.”
The season 3 teaser released on December 25 marks the third Atlanta preview released by FX. What is the gang getting up to in Europe and how will season 2 events unfold? (Spoilers ahead.)
The first series of episodes since 2018 finds them “in the midst of a successful European tour, as the group navigates their new surroundings as outsiders, and struggle to adjust to the newfound success they had aspired to,” according to an FX synopsis. In other words, the world is still wobbling on a tilted axis even if the gang is across the pond. Even as Earn, Alfred/Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), and Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) find elusive success, people are still a strange species.
What’s weird about the preview is that it looks likes Van (Zazie Beetz) is tagging along with the tour, though she and Earn were basically broken up at the end of season 2. With a child to raise between them, Earn on tour, and Van moving into her mother’s house, things are going to be difficult to navigate.
The real action will, of course, take place on tour. Earn trying to frame rapper Clark County at the end of season 2 seems to have cemented Earn and Alfred’s manager-performer relationship. What remains ambiguous is what to expect from Clark.
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On the plane, Alfred commends Earn, assuring him that this is the type of action he needs from a manager, especially after a season getting robbed by his plugger, getting robbed by his fans, and getting ghosted by his barber. When Clark shows up on the plane, with his manager apparently taking the fall for the gun Earn planted. Did Clark throw him under the bus? Did the manager take the fall? We’ll see what we get from the anti-Paper Boi — affable and charming and beloved by white executives and big corporations — in season 3.
Glover will once again serve as Atlanta’s primary writer for its third season. COVID-19 and Childish Gambino’s career combined to delay any new episodes for almost four years. This time off has apparently not hindered Glover’s ability to deliver a piercing comic metaphor. Take Alfred’s face as a red light worker snaps a cell photo of the rapper from her display window.
This signals good news for fans of the first two seasons. This audience apparently includes several of the Television Academy’s 20,000 voting members. Season 2, Atlanta Robbin’ Season, earned 14 Emmy nominations — the most for any comedy series. The show’s awards include five Emmy’s, two Golden Globes, two AFI Awards, and several more.
Director Hiro Murai will also presumably return to helm season 3 episodes, but there’s yet to be confirmation of that news.
Atlanta returns to Hulu at 10 p.m. on Thursday, March 24 with two new episodes — the first time the show will be available to stream and to watch simultaneously. The first two seasons of Atlanta are available to stream now on Hulu.
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