Earn deals with family beef in a grounded, spectacular Atlanta
The show brings back Earn and Al's extended family for its best episode in four years
TV Reviews Atlanta
Atlanta has proven over three seasons that it can be anything it wants to be. It can go from a psychological horror in “Teddy Perkins,” to an intimate journey through Paper Boi’s grief in “Woods,” to a lovely coming-of-age piece in “FUBU,” all within the span of five episodes of its second season. This week’s episode “Light Skinned-ed” takes another unexpected topic—Earn and Al’s family dynamics. It’s a theme that comes after “Earn’s therapy session” on the bottom of the likely-Atlanta-storylines list—and produces an expert family saga that will join the series’s other legendary stand-alone outings.
Critics, including myself, have already spent lots of lines parsing through why the third season didn’t entirely land (and I’ll try to make this my last time bringing it up). But none of those European adventures gave me the specific joy I felt when the gospel track kicked in over the broken side-mirror serving as a title card for “Light Skinned-ed.” Ahead of the series premiere back in September 2016, Glover said that the thesis of Atlanta was “to show people how it felt to be Black.” While there is so much rage, pain, indignation, sorrow, and bullshit involved in the Black American experience, there’s also joy and laughter, and this episode deals with the specific mirth, familiarity, and schadenfreude that comes with watching someone else’s fucked-up family situation play out on screen.
This episode is filled with good-old Black elder shenanigans, which are universal but so culturally specific that I immediately texted all my aunts to tune in on Thursday (even the religious ones who haven’t seen a single prior episode). It also has a relatively low-key escalation. Earn doesn’t think that his mother Gloria (Myra Lucretia Taylor) is serious about stealing his grandpa away from his Aunt Jeanie (Michole Briana White) until she speeds off with the elder in the backseat. It becomes so much more due to the loaded history between that generation of Earn and Al’s family, which is a given because of some nasty asides from Gloria and Jeanie, a firm boundary from Earn’s dad (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), and a biting sibling group-call. Writer Stefani Robinson—who previously wrote “Value,” “Juneteenth,” “Woods,” and “Tarrare”—does an outstanding job while treating the audience like adults, allowing viewers to piece all the drama together without any backstory dump.
And y’all, there is a lot of drama to parse through. This is the first extended look at Earn’s role in his family since “Alligator Man,” but rather than entering the fray as a nephew who still has a degree of distance, it’s his mama who sets the whole thing off. I was not mad at him at all when he tried to dip away from Jeanie at the church because he was in a no-win situation. Anyone who’s been forced in on some family mess on behalf of their parents knows: Unless the parent has done something inexcusable, stay quiet and stay neutral while also showing you’re on their side, so they don’t blow up at you later. Plus, it seemed like Jeanie would assume anyone is against her, which isn’t helped by the fact that she’s a piece of work.
Once Jeanie follows Earn to the studio, where Al gives up the whole plot without even being asked (thanks for that, man), the ancient beef that led to the day’s antics is finally aired out in a contentious family party line. First, let’s get the big reveal out of the way: UNCLE WILLIE IS BACK! He’s grilling burgers! He doesn’t think Gloria kidnapped their dad cause “kid” is in the name! Jeanie owes him $800! (No alligator sighting, but that would’ve been a lot anyway). Once again, Emmy-winner Katt Williams shows why he’s perfect in the role, with Willie joining his sister Pearl in bagging on Jeanie as only siblings can.
I used the word “sanctimonious” at least five times to describe Jeanie in my notes, and she’s obviously throwing a lifetime’s worth of wronged feelings into this call. You can tell her insistent claims that their dad doesn’t recognize Gloria and the family’s always against her are all based on old shit that’s probably brought up every time she gets a chance. After they laugh at her claim that they hate her because she’s “light skinned-ed” (I swear I thought she was going to say “because I’m the pretty one”), Jeanie takes the gloves off with the jab towards Gloria that was always left unspoken, that their father doesn’t remember her.
It turns out that he does, because of course he does. There may be a smattering of dementia with that Egypt comment, but Gloria and her dad have a deeper relationship than Jeannie’s been insisting. The aunt’s need for control, to the point of calling the cops and leaning on them even when they want to drop the whole thing (she even tells them to arrest Earn and Al), comes from a tragically hidden well of resentment. Maybe she grew up the dad’s favorite and will lord that over the rest of them as long as she’s his guardian. All in all, it’s a very complicated dilemma that cops aren’t gonna solve, and Jeanie doesn’t come any closer to compromise by the end of the episode.
Its real connection to season four’s overall arc is when Earn shares his fear: He doesn’t want to be bickering among his siblings in old age. In the absence of any other siblings we’ve met so far, he’s likely picturing Jeanie and Gloria’s relationship as a warning for what could become of him and Al. Hopefully, the cousins will make efforts to make sure they’re never indirectly insulting each other over a family party line
While Earn’s 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. He gets distracted off his usual schedule by a hat salesman, getting an ego boost as she compliments him into buying an ostentatious, gold-cross-adorned fedora. The delay could mostly be seen as an innocent trap Raleigh fell into, racking up a charge on the family Mastercard to feel like a boss before he realizes that the derailment means he ran out of time to leave before the mall got crowded.
In one of my worst nightmares, a young punk humiliates him over the very hat that made him feel like a G, with a crowd of mall-goers surrounding the interaction like a playground fight. He loses his little burst of confidence and control, and once he reunites with the family at the dinner, Raleigh is back to his role as the husband listening to his wife. His blow-up at the waiter is a great way to tie the entire episode up, and I love that that’s where it ends. There wasn’t a chance that decades of family shit would be solved in one day, so they just walk away from it and go back to normal, like in real life. You could say this is Atlanta’s best example of a “normal” episode, which is also expertly written and directed, hilarious and cutting, lovely and minute, and an overall fantastic television episode.
Stray Observations:
- Gloria was plotting from the cold open when she wouldn’t let Earn drive.
- Praise miming is both a real thing and a callback to the whiteface kid from Van’s in-school suspension in “Value.” (If you haven’t seen it, add Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. to your watchlist immediately.)
- In addition to being a sweet moment, Al and Gunna’s Uno match showed that Uno’s one of the top three games that can start a fight. (My other two are Monopoly and Scrabble. Comment your top three below!)
- Aunt Jeanie saying she liked Gunna’s earrings was everything.
- Earn’s reactions add another excellent layer to the phone-call scene, from him and Al sitting with their heads down like admonished kids, to his look at Jeanie when she brings out the Gloria bomb.
- For those wondering how Al fits into the family, his mom is assumedly another one of the siblings (she passed before the show’s timeline began).
- Even though he successfully embarrassed Raleigh, the kid’s game was weak. (Being like Prince is supposed to be an insult now?)
- Earn and Al definitely just got lucky while using the Shmurda exit, but also, how did that studio not have a back exit before he built it? Isn’t that a fire hazard or something?
- Though I’ve really enjoyed the time with Earn and Al so far, it’s around time for a Darius or a Van solo episode, and I’m excited.
27 Comments
I feel way too white to watch this show. Not because I wouldn’t like it, but because I’m literally too white. It’s a weird guilt thing, like “this is not meant for me.”
Friend, most everyone has family and family problems are the most universal form of suffering on Earth. Watch the episode; you’ll be fine (and there’s no brown paper-bag test for Glover’s audiences).
theres enough universal experiences in this for anyone, but then also theres a lot thats outside my experience, and its a good thing and interesting to see things ive not experienced and how other people might see the world
The thing about shows like this and Reservation Dogs – there’s levels & layers for everyone. If you’re a black lifelong Atlanta resident, you’re gonna be watching this from a different layer than a white suburban New England viewer, but all the layers are good. There’s a lot of specificity to the character experiences, but there’s also a core of universal humanity (the beautiful and the hideous) that shines out from that specificity.
“Reservation Dogs” is a great example of not needing to fear getting the jokes/meanings/layers of what’s going on with a community one isn’t a member of. It laugh my ass off and cry when necessary watching that show. I’m sure a lot goes right over my head and passes me by, but like Atlanta, there is enough humanity in the show to make anyone feel welcome and in on it.
I think leaving this comment is more inappropriate than not watching the show.
God forbid you might learn something about other people, bruh.
That episode felt so lived in and real that I swear it has to be based on someone’s actual family.
Mine? Yours? The funny thing is that you can literally make up the craziest shit and you’ll find a family member who has lived it. It’s no accident that ‘families’ are featured in every genre of film and tv – Succession, Orphan Black, even Guardians of the Galaxy.
Fast and the Furious
They’re everywhere:/
It’s based on everyone’s actual family. I don’t care what color you are, there is someone in your family who always brings drama. I have an aunt who got herself thrown out of the Denny’s we were all eating at because she couldn’t stop yelling about all the same family bullshit she’d been yelling about for the past 20 years. We all have an aunt Jeanie.
The writing around here has fallen off, so this review was particularly enjoyable. You clearly bring experience to this subject and it’s nice to read something that isn’t laden with snark, for a change. I already see a lot of my own family disfunction, and maybe that’s why this episode will succeed so easily. I don’t know what it’s like to crash a millionaire’s party (hiding behind a trap house). Hopefully I’ll never meet a Teddy Perkins. But everyone has family and family is often a four-letter word. I read that Glover is working on a film trilogy. That sounds like a logical next step in a writer’s career. But wouldn’t it be something if a brilliant young writer said “nah,” I don’t need to do it that way? I don’t want to wait a few years between projects (that might fail – even spectacularly). But I’d watch any long-running series from him. Guess we’ll see.
Munchkin, Monopoly, Cards Against Humanity
My mother and father have wanted to play Cards Against Humanity with me for years. I refuse! I don’t want to hear either of my folks read something about “gobbling Oprah’s balls” or anything even close to that!
I once found myself playing this with someone’s 60-something mother. No one knew where to look as she bemusedly read aloud “Pac-man uncontrollably guzzling cum”.
Four years ago, Cards Against Humanity provided me with the memory of hearing my 89-year old grandmother mis-pronounce “clitoris,” stressing the mid-syllable as if it were a dinosaur.
I wish that Glover had played his own grandfather (give a nod to Tyler Perry and Eddie Murphy).
Earn and Al definitely just got lucky while using the Shmurda exit, but also, how did that studio not have a back exit before he built it? Isn’t that a fire hazard or something?Stop thinking so literally. The Schmurda exit was definitely symbolism or a reference to Lot’s wife from the bible. “Just keep walking, and don’t look back. That’s how it works here” is what the woman at the studio told Al and Earn when they asked about a back exit. Choose salvation, and more importantly, don’t get turned into a pillar of sand. .
Salt actually
Al hitting Earn for bringing their auntie to the studio and all that mess, lol. Now they gotta sit there like little kids wishing to be anywhere else. This episode felt too real. But it would be my mom that was like the Auntie.
the likely-Atlanta-storylines list —> the “likely Atlanta storylines” listthe series’s —> the series’stand-alone outings —> standalone outingsin September 2016, Glover said —> you can’t just call him “Glover” when it’s the first reference to him in the articlegood-old Black elder shenanigans —> good old Black elder shenanigans(No alligator sighting, but that would’ve been a lot anyway). —> (No alligator sighting, but that would’ve been a lot anyway.)Emmy-winner Katt Williams —> Emmy winner Katt WilliamsJeannie’s been insisting —> Jeanie’s been insistingover a family party line —> over a family party line.the phone-call scene —> the phone call scene
Now I have to look up praise-miming because I stupidly thought it was just a funny thing Honk for Jesus made up.
It’s a little stale seeing the constant jabs at season 3. That season was no less of a master stroke then the previous two. The humor was just as fresh, and the characters were still as well written as they always been. Even with the episodes that didn’t focus on them, it was still very well done. For those who didn’t appreciate the episodes without the main cast, I feel like the themes went over their heads. It was one of those seasons that won’t be appreciated until years later, when it’s reflected upon.
I’m glad that someone finally was willing to admit that the last season didn’t exactly land. Up until now I’d seen nothing but wild praise for it, but while I did enjoy it, it seemed fundamentally…not Atlanta.While the show takes wild and surreal turns, the whole alternating between Earn and the gang in Europe while cutting back to do little anthology vignettes was just…jarring. While it wasn’t bad, and I mostly enjoyed it, this new season has reminded me how much fun it is to have Atlanta back in Atlanta.The third season felt like a totally different show. If it had been, I think I would have liked it more. But shoehorning it into Atlanta seemed awkard.
Al fits into the family through his father (Kat Williams).
Edit: looking back I’m not entirely certain of that being their relationship. It seems like it could go either way