The Prestige TV Podcast - 'Atlanta' Season 3 Premiere Recap

Episode Date: March 25, 2022

Van Lathan and Rembert Browne sit down to discuss the two-episode premiere of 'Atlanta'. They recall what made the first two season so endearing and memorable (01:39) before they get into the first two episodes of the show's highly anticipated third season (06:58). Hosts: Van Lathan & Rembert Browne Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joanna, do you ever wish you could definitively prove that you had the right opinions about movies? Uh, yeah, Neil, because I do have the right opinions about movies and television, right, Dave? No, because I'm more right about those things, and I demand trial by content. Oh, boy, what is trial by content? Each week, we'll take on a huge question. Each of us will bring a choice and combine with listener submissions and your votes, we will come to a decision. It's trial by content every Tuesday on Spotify, the ringer.com, wherever you're listening right now. Don't let Neil win.

Don't let Dave win. Welcome to the Ringer's prestige TV podcast. I'm Van Lathen here with my brother. When I say my brother, I mean my brother. Yep. Rembert Brown. Rembert, how are you doing? I am great, y'all.

I'm just excited to talk about a show that I just, I forgot how much I cared about it until I did the rewatch. And I kind of treated Atlanta like a Kendrick album where I listened to it. And then I had to like put it down for a while because I was like, that was the thing. And I'm going to come back to this. But I just want to like live in it in the moment as these dudes and these ladies are rolling out the show. And so I never did the big rewatch until leading up to this. And I'm just so excited to talk about it because it's good.

And if you guys haven't caught on by Rims' impassioned diatribe right there, we are talking about the brand new season of Atlanta, and in particular, the season premiere. Now, before we go into the season premiere in this brand new season, you talked about your rewatch. Now, when Atlanta first came out, it was then, it still remains a show

like no other show I've ever watched, right? And that's kind of the thing. It just, it hits on rhythms and hits on, uh, it hits on rhythms and hits on aspects that are both incredibly familiar and then super duper foreign. You are from Atlanta.

So you are even more indoctrinated into the Atlanta way than I am. What do you think about that idea that Atlanta is both very, very Atlanta but so artsy that exists in some other plane? I mean, what I'm not surprised about is that some human beings from Atlanta made something that Atlanta gives the cosine to and then everyone else gives the cosine to. I remember 2016 knowing that this show was about to happen and being very nervous because I'm like, y'all named it Atlanta like it's got to be right

and I think they understand the pressure of this show which is to me part of why it's so impressive because like how do you please all these different types of folk from Atlanta and the answer is you don't even try to. You're just like, I'm going to make my own thing. We're going to make our own thing that we are going to carve our little story about Atlanta. And, you know, I stand by. I'm just like so excited by the creative license that they have given themselves to just be like, yeah, we're going for it. Like that when I, when I watch the show and I think about it, I'm like, they went for it. And I respect. Yeah. So the show in and of itself is very much a family business. This is a bunch of guys who crewed up to do this. This is Donald Glover working with his brother, Stephen Glover, working with a director and Hero Moray, who is a frequent collaborator of his to make something that's very, very personal, but also pushes art. And specifically, if I'm being honest with you, black art for it in a way that not very many shows have, um,

that I've ever seen. The only other show, and it's an amazing piece of art, and I hope that people can watch it. It was on HBO. I think I only got one season. It was called Random Acts of Flyness. Yes.

Yeah, and it was that same type of energy for black creatives that you don't really get a chance to see very often, but Atlanta exists right there. For me, being from the South, there were both things that I recognized and the things that I didn't, because, you know, I'm not from Atlanta.

I'm from Baton Rouge. But you country. I'm country as fuck. And there's some country shit in the show. which I know you get excited when you see the country shit. Okay, the first thing I recognize, we'll talk about the season premiere in the second, but I just want to talk about some of the past seasons and episodes of Atlanta that really, really resonated with me.

Number one, the very first episode when you had that cousin that went up to some Ivy League or fancy school, but then washed out and came back home, that's something that I would see all the time. You see that boy right there? You never know it, but that boy, that boy right there went to Stanford. You know, it was almost me. That was almost me. Talk about it.

Talk about it. I was like, yo, I don't know what way I'm coming home. Like, I'm either coming home because I don't got nowhere to go. I'm coming home. There's going to be a parade. I don't know what way is going to go. But like, a couple of those years, I was like, I might be me. So you are from Atlanta and then you went to.

I went to Dartmouth. I went to Dartmouth. So how much of Earned do you see in Rembrandt? how much of Rembrandt is in Err? I mean, I, there's, there are, there are a ton of very relatable moments, watching him be, like, unfairly accepted by white people because they know one thing about you. And they're like, oh, like, you, you belong up here because I know this attribute about you.

And I think part of what I see happening with Erd and something I remember happening to myself is like, no. not letting white people get away with that. It's like not letting white people exceptionalize you. It was like a very big part of my late teens, early 20s, because like I didn't move to New Hampshire for four years. Like I came home a lot. And I remember the like my mom,

I'm sure she gave me like thousands of pieces of advice when I went off to college. But she was like the one piece of advice, and this is a woman from Atlanta, she was like, never stopped coming home. She was like, if you stop coming home, I'm going to be a little worried about, like, where are you going to go? Because to some degree, leaving Atlanta kind of puts you in the hands of white people a little bit, you know? And, like, that was always my pull back to Atlanta. It still is my pull back to Atlanta.

It's like, this is where, like, I developed a code about how to be around black folk, but also how to deal with white folk. Sure. Amazing. the first episode of the show. The first episode is called Three Slaps. It is written by Donald Glover's brother, but not Donald Glover's brother because he's a writer and a fantastic writer,

whether or not he was Donald Glover's brother or not. His name is Stephen Glover. This was a curveball for me. I also want to say, Stephen has written some of my favorite episodes of Atlanta. The season finale of season one, when we, you know, it ends with seeing that Earn lives in the storage locker.

Oh, amazing, yeah. That was like, that was just like, a beautiful episode of television. And I, I, I, I, something that excites me about not just the actors, but also just like everyone involved in the writing of this show. Like, all the people that make it into this room are also like,

stars in their own right. Like all people that, like, will go and, like, write movies and run shows and blah, and are already doing that. And I think that's something that's super exciting about the show is, like, the black people are out front and also writing the thing.

And, like, you can feel that in the way that they, like, land it right. Like, a lot of these episodes could have been, like, almost right, but just, like, didn't stick the land. landing. And I think just that there's like a clear like, like center of knowledge like that like they feel very confident and like their, their instincts, which is, which is exciting.

Yeah. So this premiere episode starts off and it is the tale of a young black boy named La Quarius who, because of his excitement from his class getting a free trip to see Black Panther 2, ends up going through a whimsical, farcical, scary journey through American culture. He becomes like a symbol, an escape, a victim, a hero, all of those things. It's allegorical for so many different things. Before we even get to that, it starts off with one of the more terrifying scenes I have ever seen on television. television, and that is not hyperbole.

That is not hyperbole. White after black actor, I assume they're on Lake Lanier. They are talking about the people that are live, the spirits, if you guys don't know about a Lake Lanier, you should go look at it into it. It's fucking chilly. Oh, my goodness.

The spirit and the town that is rumored to be under Lake Lanier, this white guy goes into a monologue about like what it means to be white and what whiteness does to you. He turns around and all of a sudden the black guys ripped into water, it turns out to be one of Lecarius' dreams. In this premiere episode, you don't get

any of the main characters until the very last scene. Everything that happens with this kid who goes from being Laquarius to being Larry, he ends up going into a foster home raised by these overly woke white women. We at the end see that they use him to make

pro cop propaganda. He then escapes his place, goes back to his mother. He gets taken away from his mother, because he gets slapped by his grandfather and the funniest three slaps that I've ever been on television. But at the end, this entire thing

ends up being a super vivid dream from Earned. When I was first watching this, I ended up loving this episode. I'm gonna tell you straight up. I ended up loving it. When I first watched it, midway through it, I was like, what the fuck are they doing?

Like, what is this? At first, I was wondering, because, you know, we're watching screeners. I was wondering if I had clicked the wrong show. Like they weren't in it to all the way at the end Is this stranger things? Is this like, yeah. I'm like, is this some new black Twilight Zone show?

The FX got coming out that I clicked the wrong show. I went back out and came back into it. It's a bold choice to make the audience that's been waiting for years to see these characters together again to wait another 30 minutes. Why do you think they did that? They can? Like I think part of it is just like, we're going to take y'all on a ride

and I you know I also was just like huh like you know I think it's a it's a good place to be where it's like you kind of before I hit play I'm like they're going to take me on a ride

I wonder how it starts I did not expect this and I don't know if you picked up on this but I'm watching this episode I'm watching this young black boy go from like whatever situation complicated family situation that felt, you know, similar to things that I felt and seen,

just like a busy single mom and a little boy who's hyperactive, you know, to now he's in the foster system and like living with these white people. I was just like, I wonder where it's going. And then I see them put the fedora on his head and I see him hug a cop. And I see that in the paper. I was like, oh, I know what's going on. I was like, like that this, I bet this has something to do with the story that guy, Devante Hart, who was that kid, who white people put on billboards, it's like, racism is over, look at this young black boy, hug this white cop. And then down the road, not too far after, we find out that this boy and his black siblings are living with this white family. And the white family killed him. And I was like,

oh, like even before the kids in the show realized these white people are about to kill them, I was like, this is, it was interesting because, like, I remember season three was written in 2019, and I remember, I can't remember what year this was,

but as soon as I kind of like picked up that they were playing around with this story, I was like, this actually does make sense because for me, one of the through lines of Atlanta is just like showing white people and like all of their glory, you know,

in the sense of just like, these are things that actually come out of white people's mouths. Like, these are things that they feel about us. Like, these are things that like the liberal crowd gets away, you know, from the Juneteenth, like the line between the Juneteenth episode and season three, episode one, does not feel crazy far. You know, like, I kept writing, like, from, you know, those two white ladies being like, we're just going to call you Larry, you know, to like, you know, and like some of it is obviously like picking at white people like they, you know, microwaveing the chicken, you know. With flour on it.

We'll flower on it. Come on, but then also. Fucking disgusting. Yeah. But then also Atlanta gave me some of the jokes that we all make, like white people don't have washcloths in their house. I'm like, I love that joke. I'll take that joke forever, you know, like that joke's my reparations. Like that joke, being able to make fun of white people for that, like, that's for me.

But like, the boy running to the police and then after that, after that, you know, picture goes up, it's like, we want, we raised our kids to believe that, like, the police are black people's friends, you know? It's just like they're really, like, hammering the point of what they're trying to do. but it didn't feel overdone because... They hit you over the head with it, yeah. Yeah, because like the foundation of that story is like a true story of white people basically like enslaving little black kids. Right.

You know? And I think there's a way to lampoon cultural translation. There's a way to do it to where it it feels mean-spirited and non-constructive, right? But there's a way to lampoon cultural translation that is both hilarious and also makes this point. One of the key parts where that happens in this episode

is when they go to sell their kombucha that they make at home. Larry, who's now been renamed, there are two things. I'm going to come back to about the kids. There are two things, number one, Larry who has now been given a shirt to where that says free hugs, a man walks up to him and asks him if his father's name is hugs. And so, and so, look, and so, this is,

Think about that. That's why I, so think about that. Free hugs in and of itself is an attempt to make a connection with a human being. It's an attempt to tell a person, hey, I'm on the same wavelength enough with you to where you can come up to me and you can have a hug. Free hugs is saying, hey, you might be having a bad day. You can have my body. come take my body, come hug me, right? To have that turned into subconsciously and probably very, very honestly,

you're black, so you must have a father in jail, is hysterical. And it's an hysterical look and a real look at how implicit bias sometimes leads to our wires getting crossed. And we don't even know they were crossing them. Something else about the kids that I noticed. So the microwaved chicken is disgusting, right? You put flour on chicken, you put it in the microwave. It's disgusting. Why?

Chicken is a comfort food. It's a food that's supposed to make you as a young black kid, as a black person, as an American, because I got news for America. I got news for America. We're not eating all the fried chicken. I don't know if y'all know this. Everybody loves fried chicken. We're not eating all the fried chicken.

Is this breaking news? Are you breaking news? I don't know, well, we are not eating up all the fried chicken. It's not fried chicken empires based on 13% of the population. Everybody is eating them some fried chicken. It's delicious. So, but it's obviously disgusting, right? It's a discomfort food now.

It's a food that signals discomfort, but guess what? Except for Larry, the rest of the kids are eating it. So if you get fed that discomfort for a long enough time, you will start. start to live on it. It will start to be your sustenance. The pain, the degradation, the feeling of inadequacy, all of those things. If they get fed to you long enough, you'll eat them. And those other kids are eating it up and they're probably looking forward to dinner. So it's little things like that in this particular episode, but also in the show overall, that always get me just how dope these guys are with their pen.

I was worried that we were going to lose him. I thought he was going to become like the other siblings. I was almost sure that he would. Yeah. Also, when they said when he was wearing the fedora that he looked like aloe black. Wait, wait, let me ask you a question. If you're aloe black, do you feel like you caught a stray?

That's an incredible stray. It's like my first thing. It's like my favorite stray. Like in a very, very, very, it's a layered stray. It's like, bah, bye, bye. It's like a three, it's three slaps. What they're essentially saying is al-a-black is a guy that white people were recognized.

Which is, I look, man, I don't have no problem with al-Black, man. No, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man. I don't have no problem with al-Black. That's my share. Yeah, Al-Black catching those strays for me in my Spotify. Right. Obviously, Larry McQuarius gets to freedom, right? After he's, he's, think about this, he's come back to a plot from a spot where he

almost gets saved by the only people that ever come to save us, which are black women. The black woman that comes to save him is killed for doing it, which is oftentimes what black women get in in exchange for trying to save us. they often get killed for saving us, which is something that we have to be more responsible for and something that America has to be more responsible for as well. I have to stop you. So the black lady that came by and was like checking up on them,

they killed her? I'm pretty sure they killed her, yeah. Damn. Because he has... I was like, where'd she go? Remember her chain? They saw her chain, like the necklace she was wearing. And then he has a nightmare that her head is in the thing.

I'm pretty sure she was the, she was, she was a victim. They, they did away with her. Yeah. I want to, I want to just throw this out there on our first episode. One funny thing is like, I haven't like really thought critically about a TV show in like three years. I just be like. We've just been watching shit. I just be like having my eyes open, watching shit.

Like, oh, that was fun. Oh, that was bad. And then I just move on. So it's kind of nice to be back. But every now and then I'll be like, Van, wait, what happened? Is she dead? But then at the end of this, he escapes back to his home.

Love it. He doesn't escape to some place. He, oftentimes we feel like, people feel like, not just black people, that the place you have to get to is always some place that's unfamiliar for you. That you have to go somewhere you've never gone before.

And oftentimes that's true, but sometimes it's not. Laquarius ends up going back to the place that he thought he was unhappy in. He wanted milk. Mama said, you know, eat some spaghetti. He felt like he was getting treated unfairly. He felt like no one understood him. But he was actually the only place where everyone understood him, even his grandfather who gave him the three slaps.

and off of that, off of that, that escape back home, that is when Earn opens his eyes in a foreign land, in a place that he is not particularly familiar with. So I'm wondering if a theme of this coming episode is going to be these guys not actually taking it further, but finding some way to get back to their roots. When I think about that last scene of him going home, like my, like when the,

And when the credits came, my first reaction was like, when I'm done with Vann, I'm going to call my mom. Oh, yeah. Because, like, but like, I remember this moment. And I feel like it happened to me a little bit earlier than some of my other homies, where I, like, remember a switch flipped in my head. And I was like, oh, like, stuff is hard for my mom. Like, I got to, like, be, I got to be less.

of a issue for her, you know? And it's like little stuff happening where it's like, I'm not asking for $125 Jordans, you know? Because it's like, I know, like, things would be easier if I had like calmer taste or like when I, when he comes into the house and starts doing the dishes. That's when I thought of it.

It was like, we're not telling this like young boy to like, now it's time to be a man. Like, no, like, you're still a child. We'd still want you to. be able to be a child, but, like, sometimes you got to appreciate what you have and, like, understand some of the stresses that exist in the house, outside of the house. And I, like, I, that felt very, as, like, someone with a, a single parent, that felt very relatable of being, like, I'm still a kid, but me and my mom are kind of, like, teammates.

little bit, you know? And I thought that was like a very real thing of like, I remember my mom, like, wanting to make sure I always knew how to get home. And I felt like, you know, like, how many places do you know? Like, where would I go? I know how I get home, you know? It's like, you're a little kid. You all know nothing. So like, I thought that was, I was hoping that all the kids would get out the car. And I was, you know, I was hoping for that. And like, as soon as I was like, this is kind of connected to that real story, I was like, oh, everyone about to die.

Like, this is going to be kind of a bummer. But, yeah, that like going home, like, just like your language with your mom, like, forever changes. Like, we're like, they haven't even talked about the traumatic thing that happened to him today. And, like, who knows if they'll talk about that? Right. Because that's also real.

It's like, that's just some bottled shit. Like, yeah. I jumped out the back of a thing and like almost got killed by these two white ladies. Right. I'll tell mom when I'm 20. Right. Exactly. When we have that heart to heart.

Yeah. All right. That actually does it for episode one, but this is a two episode premiere. So we're going to take a quick rate. Come back on the other side of it and talk about Sincter Claus is coming to town. The hilarious second episode of Atlanta that finally sees all of our main characters back on screen. One second. We wake up and we're back.

Rem, we are back. We see Earn. He wakes from the bed that we saw him in at the end of three slaps. And we are back with the old crew. Our Earn gets the news that Paperboy is in a Dutch prison, a Dutch jail. Dutch jail. Right. he also

his phone has gone just a quick recap of the of the episode real quick and I'll do this as clumsily as everyone knows I can't wait I can't wait for me that I do it okay so quick recap of the episode

go off king urn wakes up he is in the bed with a random his phone has not been charged he charges his phone in and this has happened to all of us when he blows his phone up to charge a barrage of messages come

We realized that A, he was supposed to go pick up van. He did not do this. That B, he is late for an engagement to make sure that he gets Paperboy's performance. The reason why they are in Amsterdam in the first place together. So he sets out. He sets out. First place he goes. He calls Darius on the phone.

We see Darius sitting, admiring his Jesus. is Jesus, which is the city of Amsterdam. The city is my Jesus. Also, Darius wearing a top five coat I've ever seen. The Gucci coat.

Oh, my Lord. He ends up hooking up with Paperboy, Paperboy who was in jail, the most comfy jail I've ever seen before. Okay. By this time, Van has actually hooked up with Darius, and they go off on their own incredibly moving.

slightly jarring journey that we're going to come back to a little bit. They end up talking to a death duel, someone who helps you not enter the world, but exit the world. Somebody's about to die in Darius and Van are right there to be a part of the people

who are going to see this person to the hereafter. While this is all happening, we're noticing that the people in Amsterdam are all in blackface. I guess this is a custom there. You're a well-traveled, man. Is this something that you knew about this Amsterdam blackface tradition? You know, I'm a well-traveled man domestically, been a lot of road trips.

I'm actually kind of new to the passport gang, password, hashtag passport life. What I will say is blackface is everywhere. Yeah. And I was equal parts shocked and like, yeah, I forgot. Blackface is just like Erware. And I will say this, what a brilliant way in a sense. to depower Blackface, which is something that has

a fucking shit ton of power over me, right? Yes. I see it. What a way to depower it to use it as a comedic device in this episode. Do you think that worked? Oh, it definitely worked.

Like, my favorite part is when they were talking to their driver who was like talking about how it came from the guy who fell down the chimney. And that, just like that whole interaction where there was just like, I mean, like, I guess,

Y'all just like reappropriated blackface. Like y'all just, y'all just turned it into your, it was very funny. Like, like, this didn't become the blackface episode. It didn't. Like, and it wasn't like, it wasn't unnecessarily happy. It was just like a fucking crazy thing that happened. And it didn't become the blackface episode because the episode did something amazing. It was able to demonstrate through narrative device cultural difference,

is very, very tough to do. We talked a little bit about that with episode one, but they did this episode two. So we end up finding out why Paperboy was in jail. He was in jail because a threesome went wrong when the N-word was used. And his two girls that were going to be

the threesome started fighting each other. They destroyed a hotel room. He ended up getting picked up for it. He went to jail. Fast forward back to the death dula. The death dula is definitely a death dula but because as Van, who had a heartwarming heart to heart

with the woman who is the dula, had a different heart to heart with the man that was dying, we see that the death dula actually kills the man, like takes his last breath. That was crazy, Van. Like, I was not, like, I wasn't okay with it. I had the same reaction as Van. Well, I was just like,

fantastic acting, like, Looking around, like, help that this lady just, like, guillotine him. Suffication's guillotine? Yeah. Is that what I'm watching? And it was also one of those moments that I was like, how long is this, like, how long is it going to take for this man to die? To die.

I was like, are they going to cut to commercial? Like, will they please cut to the dog? Damn, they're going to make me watch the whole thing. And I really thought didn't let you off the hook. And I thought he was already on his way out anyway, which would have meant that it would have been a lot quicker. I thought it was a rap. I thought they were just going to be like flatline.

Right. So we then, fast forward to Paperboy's performance. Once again, we are in Amsterdam because Paperboy has a performance. We've had gotten a little bit of the back and forth between the promoter. This version of a promoter, we've seen promoters depicted all throughout Atlanta. but this version is the other side of a promoter, slightly weirdly intense foreign promoter guy. They go back and what do they see?

Whatever this custom is in Amsterdam, the Santa Claus came down a chimney custom where everyone's dressed up like him and they have blackface on. They're all wearing this in the audience of the show. Paperboy sees this. It's like the opposite of Freak Nick. The opposite of Freak.

The opposite of Freak Nick is like white people of all ages in blackface. Right. It was a fucking blackface ball is what it was, right? And now there's a payoff of a joke from earlier in the show where the promoter had asked if Paperboy could wear a specific outfit. And now we see everybody in the crowd wearing this outfit. It is Christmas time. I forgot about that. Right.

Thank you. Nice. Right. It is the holidays, and they wanted him to wear this because it's festive and it's traditional. Everyone says he's not going to perform.

Obviously, when he sees the crowd, they leave. When they leave, the promoter, Ernd tells the promoter that they're not going to do the performance. The promoter gets mad and pulls a Liam Neeson. Do you guys remember this Liam Neeson situation? William Neeson said that he was in a foreign

country. He had heard that one of his friends had been assaulted. Allegedly it was by a black man, and he just went looking for a black man to be up. That is exactly what this promoter did. He was wronged by a black man. And he went down there looking for this black man when he couldn't find him. He just picked somebody in blackface and just beat the hell out of them. Genius scene because it was like in that moment, whoever that person was got to see what it's like. Just getting your ass kick because you're black.

Incredible. It was incredible. So there's this great moment when it's on Earn and he's like watching this innocent white man. I mean, innocent, you're innocent, but you're in black face. So it's like kind of, it's like, but this man, this man wrongfully get his ass to be. And Err makes kind of that face where like all is actually right in the world for once. Like, I got away, someone else got their ass beat. And it reminded me of these, there have been a couple moments in my life that I can remember where, like, racism worked in my favor.

Happens sometimes. They're very interesting. The most notable one, the one I always go back to is in Atlanta, there's this bar called Mose and Joe's that had a loose door, if you will, for people. underage. And I was too nervous to actually get a fake, but I got past- They didn't know how old you were.

I already know. No, no. Oh, my-ah. No, I got like a, an older homie, my homie, Blake, like, gave me his real ID. And so I'm like nervously

going up to the door. I have the address memorized. I go up. I give it to the, bouncer. And as the bouncer is looking at my idea, Blake comes out and puts his arm around the bouncer's shoulder. So the bouncer has Blake right here and Blake's idea right here and looks at me and it's just like, come right in. I was like, this is incredible. This is incredible. You like really just like, we all look, wow. Okay. You know what? Until I turn 21, I'll take it.

Do you want to know a story I have of this? I always tell about this story. Yes. So I was 12. My sister was 14. My boy, Jibril, was my same age. Ashley, his little sister was three years younger than us. And we were at the house, and the cable guy was scheduled to come cut the cable on.

Right. Now, back in the day, now it's like, whatever, right? It's not a thing anymore because there's too many ways to entertain yourself. But when I was a kid and we moved to a new place, there was like literally a house was not a home until the cable vision man came and put the cable. Yeah, yeah. It was just a big husk.

Like my dad used to be like, my dad used to be like, we'd be moving someplace, my dad would be like, I want the TV immediately. Yes. And then they would be like, what? He's like, my dad would be like, I don't want to wait, no, two, three days, tell the TV man to come out there.

I want the TV immediately. And then we get the bed. And then we get everything. Then we get all of that. He was like, I'm telling you now. He used to be so mad about it. God rest his soul. I love it.

He's like, I'm telling you. I'm telling you. We're moving in on Wednesday. I want TV Wednesday night, Thursday morning. Anyway, it didn't work out this time, right? So the cable guy is going to come over. And we're all waiting for the cable guy to come over. It's about to be fucking Nickelodeon, whatever, whatever.

Yeah, yeah. But you have to have somebody that's 16 there for them to cut the cake. belong. My sister was 14. Oh, no. The guy came, he looks at her, 14 year old girl. He goes, oh, she's here. I can put, I can cut it on. It's a full two years under. And my mom, I remember that I never forgot my mom came back and went. They don't know how we grow. And I was like, I was like, well, fuck it. Like, I was like, fuck it. It is incredible. Yeah. It was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it worked for us. And this case. Anyway, last part of the episode that I'll talk about, they do not do the show.

Earn goes back to his hotel room. Two things interesting about this. Number one, throughout this episode, Earn started with a sneeze, then developed a cough. After the cough, he developed sweats and fatigue. He runs into van four o'clock in the morning just before he's going into his room, I'm not so sure he didn't hallucinate her. I'm not so sure he didn't hallucinate her, right? Because, because, like, he's in a, he's in a bad way and he sees her getting ice and she looks, face, good. Like, so I'm not sure he didn't hallucinate her.

And he falls on the bed. He gets a, he gets a, a text from paper boy. Paperboy wants 300 pieces of chicken. So much chicken. So much. So he now has to get up. This is his job to go get the chicken and go out there. Question.

I'm going to ask a couple of questions about this episode now that we've fully gone through it. The longest winded recap ever. First question is, though, does Earn have COVID? I thought. So first sniffle, I didn't know what type of sniffle that was. I was like, it's early morning, so probably not a party sniffle. But like, oh, maybe he's got maybe, maybe, maybe. Maybe he's sick.

I thought about COVID at the end. I'm like, I feel like after episode one, everything's on the table. I did not think about the hallucination, but I think that's very good. Because I also was like, it's 4 a.m. She looks incredible. Like, what did her? But I was like, that feels wrong because the last time we saw her, her and Darius had seen the most insane thing of all time. Sure.

Yeah. Yeah. COVID's on the table. So let's stay here for one second. There are a couple of different themes in the episode I want to talk about, but let's stay here for one second. Is it possible that Atlanta season three could give us a COVID arc? Because remember, we're further along in the world than the show is.

The show is probably still, we're in 2022. The show hasn't been around for a couple of years. So the show might be in 2020. You know, the Marvel shows are a couple years past us. This show might be a couple of years behind us in chronology or whatever. So here's what I'll say. What I'll say, two things. One, I'm confused, but two.

And more importantly, it is funny because, like, I don't know if you probably know this, like, the narrative that COVID never made it to Atlanta. Yeah, yeah, of course. Which is just like, you know, like I was like, I wish people wouldn't say that about my city. and then when I went home for the holidays, it was like, oh, like, the only people that have masks on are, like, the people who are the servers. Yeah.

And it's the club. So, but yeah, I'm open. I'm open to that, like, the, the, it is kind of a mind fuck of a little bit to, like, know that you have these two seasons that were made, like, like, maybe some of it was, like, far along, like, long ago. Like, I don't really know where we are.

Like, we know, I think what we learned in that episode is, like, a very real career jump has happened for Paperboy. And, like, Earn is moving in a way where, like, he knows the business now. Like, Earn is, like, a seasoned professional. Like, he, like, the way he dealt with the promoter guy, it was just like, yeah, it was insurance. Boom, boom, boom, blah, blah. But we, like, don't actually know, like, how much time went by.

Right. We don't. And the reason why we don't, I just thought about this. I was assuming that it was picking up, but when we left off on season two, they were going to Europe, right? But that trip already happened, and we know that because when Earn is talking to the promoter, he asked him if you've ever been to Amsterdam before, and he goes, yes, last year, but we played a smaller venue. So this is their second trip out there for bigger venue. You can see Paperboy has a lot more European fans as evidence

why the people that were waiting outside of the jail that he was in when he made it rain on them. So yeah, we don't know how much time. I'm assuming that it could be around the same COVID time, but it could be closer to what it is now, which wouldn't mean that Aaron didn't have COVID. It would just mean, well, you know what? Once again, though, they would have to know,

not know about it because another subtle subplot. Look at people's reactions to when he coughs or when he sneezes. Is there any way now that you would sneeze and then somebody would not look at you crazy or you would sneeze and then someone would come actually take the paper from you and put it in their own pocket? It would almost have to be pre-pandemic if you look at it in that situation. I think you're right. I think you're right. So there were no masks anywhere. No masks. Nobody was wearing a mask. But when like when Erd would cough, like lots of people would say, excuse you in whatever language. Yeah, whatever. Yeah. But I was like, is that just like a cultural thing? Yeah. Or is that like everyone's freaking out about sneezing thing? All right. All right. I feel like we're not going to get the COVID arc.

You're saying it right now. You don't think we're going to get the COVID arc. Do you think? think that they put this in the show purposely to make us think we're going to get the COVID art? Might be. I mean, it worked. Yeah, it definitely did work. It's very interesting. I think a lot of people going to be asking that question whether or not, whether or not earned a sick. Okay, let's talk about, let's talk about Van real quick. Interesting stuff from her in this episode for me personally. Her seeing the death dula seemed to me to be priming her to make some final decisions in her own life. She says it. She says it when she's talking to the woman. The woman asked her

who she's out there to see like basically why she's there. Is that your boyfriend? No, that's not your boyfriend. That is, that's not my boyfriend. That is the, uh, the friend of my daughter's father. Really, I'm not out here with my daughter's father. I'm just kind of out here. And I personally looked at that as like, that's not just her place in Amsterdam.

Right now that's kind of Vance place in life. She's just out here. And watching that guy die, watching that type of finale, and standing there and living in that reality might be sort of something that brings her closer to wanting real answers about her and earns future, her place and earns life with his friends. Is she there just aimlessly or does she have a purpose there?

I thought that entire scene, a scene that she kind of just happened upon from happening in a coat place in a clothing store in Amsterdam, was really, really interesting as far as a metaphorical thing. Am I looking too deep into that? No, no, no, no.

I thought it was a super fascinating episode for her in large part because, like, I don't know what she's been up to, you know? Like, we got some reveals. Like, we got a boyfriend reveal. You know, like, we got a not with earned, like, confirmation. You know, that seems much more real now than it was. last time.

But I thought it was super interesting that, like, to have this, like, Van and Darius little episode, little side episode, like, two people who we haven't really seen interact with that much. And, like, we can feel that awkwardness in the beginning. But then, like, it's those two people

that, like, don't have anything in common, but are, like, are both on, like, journeys. And I thought, like, the way that they kind of just were like, I'm with it if you're with it. Like we like there was like clearly a level of trust there because like they've got love for the same people. Of course.

So like so they can like lean on each other. But that felt like a very cool thing to watch happen because like it's Darius. So like you're like oh like what where is Darius going to take her? But it's actually her. that's like driving the boat and being like, no, we're doing this, we're doing this. I thought that was very cool. I thought, yeah, and then, you know,

like getting the sense that like she, you know, got the sense that she was actually going to like walk up like she did, but like did not expect the way that landed. Exactly. She had no idea. She thought she knew what she was getting to. Yeah, I was like, oh, she about to go see two. Cool.

Also like Tupac. That's fucking crazy. That's insane. Like that's so, that's so ridiculous. And I love it. I just love it. This episode was written by Janine Neighbors,

who is playwright and the television right, and who dealt with some of these same types of issues, the scope of race, a historical, looked at through a historical lens, bend it through a contemporary lens, customs and all those things as writing on a spectacular HBO show

called Watchman. And I saw threads of that show in this episode because it was kind of like you use, yeah, you use race and culture to sort of set the stage and wrapping all this narrative drama around it. Like, the reason why Paperboy

doesn't end up doing that concert is because he's, black. Yeah. The reason why Paperboy ends up in jail is because he's black. Now, these aren't things to where he's a victim necessarily because he's black. But the fact that he's black puts him in all of these different situations that he then has to react to, which was interesting about Paperboy's character in this.

He's with two women. One of them thinks it's sexy to say the N-word. The other one is black. She doesn't think it's sexy. if he was a white guy, probably wouldn't have had that problem. He's going out there to perform, right? He's going out there to perform.

Looks out at the people in blackface. Doesn't want to perform for them. If he was a white rapper, if that was Machine Gun Kelly, you're about to fucking get emo girl performed for all of those people in that audience. So I thought that was pretty interested with him. What did you think?

You said you wanted to say something about Alfred before. What were you some of your things about Alfred in this episode? I really loved how he, how jail this really comfy ass, bushy-ass jail. It represented a little bit more. It gave him like a chance to hit pause. And like, he was like, no, like, I don't want to leave. Like, I'm just have my, I'm just like have some me time. Uh-huh.

And, like, for that to show up in what is, like, a bad moment, like, you got arrested, like, even if things are great, you're supposed to, like, want to get out of there. And so for him to be, like, ah, no, like, just give me, like, two hours in jail before I go have to be paperboy. Right. Again, I thought that was just, like, you know, that felt like a relatable thing. of just like looking for moments to not be on looking for moments. And it has to be who people think you're going to be. Yeah. Like that was just like a, yeah, like that's real shit, you know.

He did not want to leave. No, he was just like, yo, like I forgot what that, what the, what the guy's name was. It was like a wild name. But he was just like, yeah, I'm like, Schlen, like Schlen, like Schlen got me. She's like, Schlen, you got the lights. You're going to get me like the right. food, blah, blah, blah. He's giving me good advice. I thought that was just like a very...

I just, you know, I like all four characters and I have moments when I'm like more invested in one, but I think the paper boy character is just like so unique and so like there's just so much range and like the different things

and the different ways we've seen him be all while being like the same dude the whole time. But it's just like it's really cool to watch. I was like, oh yeah,

like we get a, we get a paper boy sex scene into that. And then like, obviously it goes awry. But I'm just like, I like that we, I like that we are seeing

all of these characters. Like we're getting even more of a well-rounded version of them, you know, and what I find to be like, a cool way. Exactly.

These little glimpses. Like that little, just like, I need a, I need a break. That's such a glimpse into like, that lets me know how the last X number of years have done. Yeah, without having to write it out and do a montage or anything like that. The fact that he, the fact that he needs to, feels like he needs to take a breather. Also, I think that the show does something interesting too in the way that they frame these things, right?

So it's not a show that's long on exposition. It doesn't like sit there and have two characters. explain things to one another, right? Like we, as superhero geeks, Steve Alman's a producer on this show, he'll know what I'm talking about when I say this. As superhero geeks, the one thing that we kind of

sometimes loathe about those movies that we absolutely love is because of time's sake and because we need a reason why Batman has to stop City Hall for being blown up because we really just want to see that, but we need a reason why

or else the movie doesn't make any sense. Sometimes characters have to get to what I'm doing right now is a long, drawn-out diatribe of exposition. Hey, and Dark Night Rises. Hey, you know what the Clean Slate is. The Clean Slate is this program that allows you to

erase all of your past mistakes, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they do it in such a way that we know that that's what they're doing. It even happened in this past movie, the Batman Steve pointed out on the Ring of Verse podcast. You guys go check that out. But in this episode, in Atlanta, they don't ever do that, right? Obviously, it's a different show

than a superhero movie. But they don't ever do that, because they put so much meat between the fat. And they do think subconsciously to you. We just saw a jail scene, right? We don't need anybody to say how different things are in Amsterdam because we watched it. We've seen jail scenes in Atlanta before, and we know how jails in Atlanta look,

and this is how jails overseas are, right? That doesn't mean that being black won't be a reason why you get put in jail in Atlanta and it won't be a reason why you get put in jail in Amsterdam. It just means that in Amsterdam, jail is different. Doesn't mean you won't see blackface in America, all right, at some corporate guys' Christmas party where there's only 30 people in the picture

and they still put the fucking pictures on Facebook. Listen, here's a deal. Dude with a job at corporate executive of Westside Rubber. in Jacksonville, Florida. You make $300 a year. You make $300 a year in Jacksonville. You're doing good, bro.

You want to go to your company party this Halloween as OJ Simpson. We know you want to do that. I'm not even going to tell you not to go, bro. Your name is Bart Anderson. I'm not going to tell you not to go, Bart Anderson. No, Bart. Bart, go ahead and do it. Bart, you want to do the blackface your little company?

I don't give a fuck. I'm not even going to see it. Go ahead and do it. I mean, I care, but I'm not about to cry over it. All I'm telling you is Bart, can you just not be a dumbass enough to put the pictures on Facebook? Y'all want us to see it.

Bart, after I see it on Facebook, I got to get you fired, bro. Come on, Bart. It's in the Black people's handbook. Once I see you in Blackface on Facebook, Bart, I got to tag your job. I got to get you fired. at job at

Bart is wild Hey Hey at West Side Rubber Yo This is who you got working for you Look at Bob man Bart I don't want to do it bro I don't want to care about your life

Bart Bart honestly Bart I just wish I didn't I never knew who you were I never Bart I don't give a fuck Like like just do Just don't put the pieces on face When I see the pieces on Facebook

Bart I got to get you And so, and so I got to get you. I got to get you, Bart. And so on this particular one, it's different because they don't care, right? There's no cultural stigma there around black face. So in this other situation where it's a secretive, foolhardy, stupid thing. And this, it's a part of their culture. So once again, it's not like being black means you're going to go to Amsterdam

and you're going to feel like you totally fit in. It just means that the energy around it isn't going to feel particularly pernicious overtly. You're still going to feel a certain way, but they're not saying nigger, nigger to you. They're just saying this is what we do. Deal with it and we don't care about the sensibilities. I got one question. What up? Would you like to believe that there is like a small but growing number of young Andstonians who are like,

yo, like I was on the internet and I read something about blackface and like maybe we should cut it out. Like because like what if they come over here on Blackface month when we only wear Blackface to work and wear Blackface to parties and get married in Blackface?

Like what if the Negroes make their way over here and it happens to believe Blackface Backface Quarter? Like we got maybe we should maybe we should not get out. Like, would you, do you like to, would you like to believe that that group exists in Amsterdam? Or is it like not their business to be worried about the dumb America shit?

It's such a good question. This is why I think we should do room. I think we should go to Amsterdam during Blackface Times. And I think we should get, I'd say like, we should get the, we should get like we should make an Avengers team. Oh, yeah. of Black people. When I say Avengers team, that means we need people that, you know, would be sanctioned.

Yeah. Because some of the people we would want to bring, shield wouldn't sanction them. Like, you know, we couldn't bring Dr. Umar. He would be useful, but we couldn't, we couldn't. Here's a day. Like, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want Dr. Umar to already be there. But like, he can't be on my team. But like, I want to know that he, that he, that he, that he,

is, oh yeah, yeah, he's on a different mission. He's like... Literally, we got it. Blackouts. He would be effective, but we're not going to get what we need. We're not going to get the jet to take it over there if we have Dr. Umar. We need to be, that's why we need our own jet. But we will go over there for like this little time and we'll bring it back to Atlanta

after me and Remer finish whiling out and having our Van Rim cultural fantasies. And we just go over there and for, I mean, let's see, Jesus was gone for three days. It's going to take us twice as long as he was gone. So for like six days, we just walk around Amsterdam and just go, no, no, no. And after that, they're held accountable. I love that. After that, they're accountable. But they can't be accountable.

I mean, this episode of Atlanta might make them accountable. After that, we just go and we say, hey, it's not cool, accountable. And they might say, hey, it's our culture, fuck off. But now we know where we stand. Darius. I just want to say, that sounds like an expect. It would be a great trip. Bill will pay. I feel like that's something where I might be like, yo, like, feels kind of racist if y'all

let us go do this. I feel like you got to get the jet so we can go, like bring down blackface. That's all we try to do. Darius, not that much Darius in this episode. He looked incredible. He looked incredible. I'm just coming back to that. Just like knocked it, knocked it out.

part. Darius is sometimes used as foil in this. Other characters play off Darius and then Darius comes back and we get like a we get like a Darius moment of Zen or a Darius moment of genius, a Darius flash of genius. We go and we do all of these crazy things. And then all of a sudden before you know it, Darius comes back and he says something really, really smart, really, really poignant. and he ties everybody together.

And of course, he is just sensationalally funny. Judging off this episode, like I said, episode two, do you think we'll see different things from Darius? Would you like to see a little bit more Darius in Atlanta?

Or do you think the dosages that we get of him throughout the show are enough that we don't need too much more? I think I said this in the first episode. and I'm going to stay on this road, which is like,

I think we're going to have a slow build to a big, Darius episode moment situation. But yeah, that's my, that's, it's less like that's what I think they're going to do. I'd just like to keep a real. Like,

that's just what I would like to see. Well, look, you guys, that is a double-stuffed, double-packed, two episodes. episode podcast from Atlanta. Ooh, can I, can I, I, I have a question for us to answer the next episode. I want us both to come ready to defend our three favorite Atlanta cameos.

Oh, done. Yes. I'm so looking forward to that. I can't wait. Three favorite, let's do this. On the back of each, several, of each episode, we'll put a little game in Atlanta-based game. Nice. Because I want to do the.

best three fictional songs of Atlanta. Oh, yeah. I like this. I love this stuff. We're going to celebrate the show this whole fucking season. The Uhoo song, the Bieber song is still like an absolute hit. These songs be bangers. That's how you know that Donald Glover is really, because Donald Glover is right,

he's pinning some hits. I like the Paperboy joint. Oh, I mean, yeah. You remember Muckin? Yeah. Bucking. Bucking. Massaginem.

Fucking. Fucking. But yes, I like this. I like this. A game. I like this. I like this. I love games.

I love games. Okay. We are out of here. This has been Rembrandt Brown and Van Lathen. The Ringer's prestige podcast feed, our coverage of Atlanta will continue next week. When we come back, when we cover episode three of Atlanta, season three. We're going to have a lot of fun this season. We hope you guys come back and see that once. Peace.