Earn deals with Family Beef in a grounded, spectacular Atlanta

Atlanta has proven in three seasons that he can become anything he wants. It can start from a psychological horror “Teddy Perkins” on an intimate journey through the grief of Paper Boi in “Forest,” into a beautiful coming-of-age piece “FUBU”, all within five episodes of the second season. This week’s episode “Light Skinned” explores another unexpected topic — Earn and Als’ family dynamics. It’s an issue that comes up after “Earns Therapy Session” at the end of the prob-Atlanta-List of storylines – and is producing an expert family saga that will join the series’ other iconic standalone outings.

Critics, including myself, have already spent many lines analyzing why season 3 didn’t fully land (and I’ll try to make this my last time to address it). But none of those European adventures gave me the particular joy I felt when the gospel track kicked in over the broken wing mirror that served as the title card for “Light Skinned-ed.” Ahead of the series premiere in September 2016, Glover said that the thesis of Atlanta was “to show people what it feels like to be black”. While there is so much anger, pain, outrage, sadness, and bullshit involved in the Black American experience, there is also joy and laughter, and this episode is about the special joy, familiarity, and glee that comes with seeing someone other shitty family situation is playing out on screen.

This episode is full of good old black elder shenanigans that are universal but so culturally specific that I immediately texted all my aunts to tune in Thursday (even the religious ones who haven’t seen a single previous episode). It also has a relatively low-key escalation. Earn doesn’t think his mother Gloria (Myra Lucretia Taylor) is serious about stealing his grandpa from his aunt Jeanie (Michole Briana White) until she speeds off with the eldest in the backseat. It becomes so much more due to the strained history between this generation of Earn and Al’s family, given some awkward trivia by Gloria and Jeanie, a firm boundary from Earn’s father (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), and a biting sibling group call. Writer Stefani Robinson – who has previously written “Value,” “June”, “Forest” and “Tarare”– does an excellent job treating the audience like adults, allowing viewers to piece together the whole drama without any backstories.

And y’all, there is one a lot of to analyze the drama. This is the first in-depth look at Earn’s role in his family since “alligator man”, but instead of going into the fray as a nephew with some distance, it’s his mom who sets the whole thing in motion. I wasn’t mad at him at all when he tried to get away from Jeanie at church because he was in a situation where there was no chance. Anyone who’s been forced into any family mess on behalf of their parents knows that if the parents haven’t done anything inexcusable, remain calm and neutral while showing that you’re on their side so they don’t blow you up later. Also, it seemed like Jeanie assumed someone was against her, which isn’t helped by the fact that she’s a piece of work.

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When Jeanie Earn follows into the studio, where Al abandons the whole plot without being asked (thanks for that, man), the age-old beef that led to the day’s antics is finally aired in a controversial family party line. First, let’s get the big reveal out of the way: UNCLE WILLIE IS BACK! He grills burgers! He doesn’t think Gloria kidnapped her father because “child” is in the name! Jeanie owes him $800! (No alligator sighting but that would have been a lot anyway). Once again, Emmy-winner Katt Williams shows why he’s perfect in the role as Willie joins his sister Pearl in bagging Jeanie like only siblings can.

I’ve used the word “hypocritical” at least five times to describe Jeanie in my notes, and she’s obviously been throwing unwarranted feelings into that call for a lifetime. You can tell her that her persistent claims that her father doesn’t recognize Gloria and that the family is always against her are all based on old shit that’s likely to come up every time she gets the chance. After laughing at her claim that they hate her because she’s “fair skinned” (I swear I thought she was going to say “because I’m the pretty one”), Jeanie takes off the gloves and stabs Gloria in the face, which always stayed unspoken that her father doesn’t remember her.

It turns out he does it because of course he does. There might be a bit of dementia in this Egypt comment, but Gloria and her father have a deeper relationship than Jeannie claims. The aunt’s need for control, to the point of calling the police and leaning on them even when they want to drop the whole thing (she even urges them to arrest Earn and Al), springs from a tragically hidden one source of resentment. Perhaps she grew up as her father’s favorite and will rule the rest of them as long as she is his guardian. All in all, it’s a very complicated dilemma that the cops won’t solve, and Jeanie doesn’t get any closer to compromise by the end of the episode.

The real connection to the overall arc of season four is that Earn shares his fear: he doesn’t want to fight with his siblings in old age. In the absence of other siblings we’ve met so far, he probably envisions Jeanie and Gloria’s relationship as a warning of what might become of him and Al. Hopefully the cousins ​​will make an effort to ensure they never indirectly insult each other via a family party line

While Earn is dealing with all the drama, his father Raleigh (Whitlock) has drawn a line in the sand and is enjoying three hours of solitude at the mall. Distracted from his usual schedule by a hat saleswoman, he gets an ego boost when she compliments him on buying a flashy fedora decorated with gold crosses. The delay could largely be viewed as an innocent trap that Raleigh fell into, topping up the family’s Mastercard to feel like a boss before realizing the gaffe means he’s running out of time to go before the mall gets crowded.

In one of my worst nightmares, a young punk humiliates him over the very hat that made him feel like a G, while a crowd of malls surrounds the interaction like a playground fight. He loses his little burst of confidence and control, and once he reunites with the family over dinner, Raleigh is back in his role as a husband listening to his wife. His blow-up at the waiter is a great way to tie the entire episode together and I love that it ends there. There wasn’t a chance that decades of family stuff would be resolved in one day, so they just walk away and get back to normal, just like in real life. You could say that is Atlanta‘s finest example of a ‘normal’ episode that is also expertly written and directed, hilarious and cutting, endearing and meticulous, and all in all a fantastic television episode.

Scatter Observations:

• Gloria planned out of the cold when she wouldn’t let Earn drive.
• Worship facial expressions are both a real thing and a callback to the whiteface child of Van’s suspension from school in “Value”. (If you haven’t seen it, add Horn for Jesus. save your soul to your watch list instantly.)
• Al and Gunna’s Uno match was not only a cute moment, but also showed that Uno is one of the top three games to start a fight. (My other two are Monopoly and Scrabble. Comment your top 3 below!)
• Aunt Jeanie said she liked Gunna’s earrings was all.
• Earn’s reactions add another excellent layer to the phone call scene, from him and Al sitting with their heads down like reprimanded children to his look at Jeanie as she pulls out the Gloria Bomb.
• For those wondering how Al fits into the family, his mother is presumably another sibling (she died before the show’s timeline began).
• Though he successfully embarrassed Raleigh, the kid’s play was weak. (Being like Prince is now supposed to be an insult?)
• Earn and Al definitely got lucky using the Shmurda exit, but also, how could this studio not have a back exit before he built it? Isn’t that a fire hazard or something?
• While I’ve really enjoyed my time with Earn and Al so far, it’s about time for a Darius or Van solo episode, and I’m excited.