“Atlanta,” FX’s new television show, stars Donald Glover as Earn Marks, a broke father in the titular town living off the hospitality of the mother of his child, Vanessa.
He works a dead-end job that he can’t afford to leave, dropped out of college for reasons as yet unknown, and is trying to figure out a way to provide for his daughter.
We learn that his cousin, Miles, has become popular in Atlanta recently as a rapper named “Paper Boi,” and Earn decides to become his manager.
In many ways, “Atlanta” is one of the first comedies that accurately represents the struggle of post-college adults trying to survive in the world. Marks isn’t a genius, and he doesn’t have some magic charisma, but he still has to find a way to make ends meet, much like us. While he is a dreamer, he is, by all accounts, a regular person, and that is what makes the show as special as it is.
Viewers don’t see Marks put in impossible situations for the sake of a joke.
Instead, we are shown the comedic pitfalls of our real world. We see snapshots of anything from the prison system to the rise of an Internet troll who starts fights via Twitter, and it’s funny because of how Marks interacts with these real-world constructs.
“Atlanta” is a comedy for people who already understand that our world has its funny moments.
While Marks may at times seem clumsy and incompetent, which creates its own comedy, you know that at the end of the day, he is trying to do right by his daughter.
Glover, who is also the show’s creator, has given us a fresh program that remains hilarious while giving its audience the ability to identify with its core characters.
Many shows feature an underdog, but “Atlanta” displays an underdog who may never be on the winning side.
Any progress made in Mark’s dreams will be because of hard work, and any obstacles standing in his way will be there because that’s just how the world is. Nothing comes easy, and the show somehow acknowledges that but still makes you smile.
Despite being set in some of the poorer parts of Atlanta, where violence and crime rates are higher, the show retains a sense of hope.
It allows us to laugh at the scary realities of life.
If Marks fails, it means poverty, loneliness, and, most important, letting his loved ones down, much like it might mean for us when we venture out into the real world.
But Marks never loses his drive to try.
We see an average person standing up for what he believes in.
To us, it doesn’t matter if his knees are quivering—he is still standing, and at that, you can’t help but crack a smile.
