Anyone who sees this masterpiece understands the USA
Experiencing a culture shock of political correctness in Europe: the boys from “Atlanta”
Quelle: © 2016 FX PRODUCTIONS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
One of the funniest series of recent years is “Atlanta”. Her protagonists have an allergy to everything moralizing and hypocritical. They just want a good life with music, fast food, cars and joints. The last season has it all.
WIf you want to understand the USA, you have to watch “Atlanta”. Not because the show would explain everything so nicely. On the contrary, she often explains nothing and lets the viewer draw his own conclusions from what is shown. For example, Earn, one of the protagonists we get to know in the first season as a helpless college dropout from the elite university of Princeton, is now – in the fourth and final season – invited to an event in Princeton. It could be a triumphant return, with his daughter Lottie and her mother Vanessa, who is sometimes his girlfriend and sometimes not (a plot constant in this inconsistency). If it wasn’t for a white woman at the airport who harassed them – all black – until they missed their flight.
So far, so bad. When Earn now stages a revenge choreography of gigantic proportions, you no longer know what to make of it. Understanding of the all too human desire for revenge? Admiration for the sophisticated execution? Shocked by the merciless public humiliation? Even Earn has his doubts after his friend Darius comments “not so cool”. He decides to resume his recently ended psychotherapy. You don’t get to see such a clever comment on the destructive Shitstorm dynamics on German television, where uptight despondency and thigh-slapping jokes prevail.
“Atlanta” doesn’t even try to pre-determine moral ambivalences for the viewer. On the contrary: the more glaring and harsh the contradictions can be shown, the better. And above all: the funnier. “Atlanta” is one of the funniest series of recent years. You can tell that its creator, Donald Clover, who plays Earn, began his career as a comedian, not afraid to try his tools on the political debates of the day. It’s dark humor with surreal elements, reminiscent of Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” (2017) and Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You” (2018). Or Franz Kafka at a concert by 21 Savage.
In season three, Earn and Darius traveled to Europe in the wake of Alfred, who found success as rapper Paper Boi. It’s an absurd trip from Copenhagen via Amsterdam to Paris that doesn’t leave out any hot topics: blackfacing, microaggression, cultural appropriation. The three experience a culture shock, triggered among other things by a grotesque political correctness. Where does the obsession with racial issues come from, Darius marvels, aren’t Europeans more focused on class? Times are changing. It’s an outsider’s view that playfully plays with clichés, including the success of hip-hop in Europe.
Earn and Vanessa, forever on-off lovers
Quelle: © 2016 FX PRODUCTIONS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Which brings us to the next thing that makes “Atlanta” a masterpiece: the excellent music. It is a loving homage to the eponymous southern metropolis, the capital of US hip-hop. Atlanta is the city of OutKast, Gucci Mane, Ludacris, Soulja Boy and Migos. And it’s the city of Martin Luther King, the first black colleges and a large black middle class, a black-majority city. The connection between music and politics extends to the present day, the rapper Killer Mike appears again and again as a prominent supporter of Bernie Sanders. The universal artist Clover himself makes music under the name Childish Gambino, with “This is America” he achieved a much-discussed success almost five years ago.
Learning to understand the USA
After the wild third season, Alfred, Earn and Darius return to Atlanta once again, things are getting quieter, even between Earn and Vanessa. More soul, less gangsta rap. It is an impressive depiction of diverse black living conditions in the tradition of the classic “Nothing But a Man” (1964) by the German Jew Michael Roemer, who fled the Nazis. We see nothing but people in “Atlanta”, normal people with common sense who want to have a good life with music, fast food, cars and joints and have a natural allergy to everything pretentious, pretentious, moralizing and hypocritical. A common sense that finds expression in both popular music and hip-hop.
The first two seasons were even rougher, playing more on the streets. But the boys have gotten older, and suddenly the quiet surroundings are becoming more attractive. Or even a job in Los Angeles? Hip-hop is changing, Tik-Tok teenagers are now calling the shots. Is that melancholy or nostalgia? But before it comes to an end, there is still a real gem hidden in “The Goof Who Sat By the Door”, a special present for the 100th anniversary of the Disney group. It’s a mockumentary about a black animator who happens to become the chairman of the film giant – and with “A Goofy Movie” (1995) wants to bring the big black film to the cinema. Not only does it give you a glimpse into Disney’s corporate history, but you’ll never look at the cartoon character Goofy the same way again.
One can only repeat it: With “Atlanta” one learns to understand the USA. And will be entertained at the same time. With the end of the series, it will be interesting to see what the only 39-year-old Donald Glover will do next. You probably won’t have to wait long. At the Golden Globes, Glover revealed that he is currently working on a new Childish Gambino music project.
“Atlanta,” the fourth and final season, out January 18 on Disney+