Set your DVRs: The first episode of Atlanta premieres on FX tonight, immediately followed by the second. It's the new half-hour program from Donald Glover, and despite his background in laughs (Childish Gambino, Community), most reviewers are agreeing it's not exactly a comedy.
They're also agreeing it's one of the best new shows this year, a sun-hazed, surreal, but drawn-from-life study of contemporary life in a southern American city. Glover plays a new transplant to Atlanta who gets caught up in his cousin's blooming hip-hop career and tries to make ends meet to support his baby daughter. Despite unusual filmmaking flourishes like this one...
... that serve to puncture the air of reality, all early reports suggest Atlanta gets its world absolutely right. Justin Charity at The Ringer says, "This is the realest hip-hop show on TV," which sounds very appealing to those of us who found Netflix's much-ballyhooed The Get Down to be weirdly disjointed and occasionally guilty of false dramatic notes. Charity goes on to say, "Atlanta is a new frontier in music-genre TV drama. It’s a hip-hop series, and yet there’s little glamour here; these characters labor under no delusions that hip-hop is either a higher calling or a potential windfall. Music, drugs, and pizza delivery are all concurrent low-profit hustles.
Alan Sepinwall of Hitfix adds, "It would have been very easy for Glover to do something safe with Atlanta—something broader, more accessible and overtly comedic, or maybe something trading off Gambino, where he played the would-be rap star. Instead, he wanted a chance to fail, and while not all of Atlanta works yet, it absolutely has that immersive quality Glover was hoping for."
It sounds excellent, and the first two episodes air tonight on FX starting at 10 pm. If you can't wait until then, here's a big, giddy hit of what Atlanta has in store. It looks anything but typical.