In the week the opening episode of Atlanta debuted in the UK on the BBC, Childish Gambino AKA Donald Glover caused waves with his video for 'This is America.' I am sure that the BBC publicity department were chuffed.
Hiro Murai who directed the This is America video also directed The Big Bang.
The episode opens with a confrontation between some black men in a parking lot. Earnest 'Earn' Marks (Donald Glover) is trying to keep Alfred 'Paper Boi' Miles (Brian Tyree Henry) calm. Paper Boi is a bad boy who is on the verge of making it as a rapper. He is also Earn's cousin who aspires to be his manager. The argument is over a broken wing mirror and there is a gunshot.
We then loop back to the previous morning and see Earn has unusual relationships. He sleeps with Van (Zazie Beetz) who is the mother of his daughter, Lottie, yet she is also having a date with someone and asks him for rent money.
Earn might be a young dad but he is also a Princeton dropout. Her works at the airport trying to sign people up for credit cards. When he arrives at this parents home, they do not let him in as they are tired of him sponging off them for money.
Earn gets knocked back as he latches on to Paper Boi once he finds out that he could be a rap star.
Glover wants to portray the complexities of black life and the shallowness of fame in the inner city. It is labelled as a comedy but I did not find many laughs but I did find the parents interesting.