Donald Glover's FX dramedy ATLANTA

the seamless tonal shifts in this are very impressive, it can be funny as fuck and quite moving, and to do this in the half hour format is such good work.

Forgot this returned so just catching up but man that alligator scene was beauty

some proper LOLs there!

I liked the Keanu ref in the recent one

two guys in the movie, and they put the cat on the poster

One of the only shows that balances the truly bizarre and the mundane with serious panache

this is easily the best show on television right now
darius is maybe the most interesting character on television
last night's episode was as good as anything I've ever seen
so happy that they're letting him get away with any goddamn thing he wants... no ads!

darius is awesome - totally chill existential dude

agreed this is the best show rn, second only to nirvanna the band/high maintenance which both wrapped up recently anyway.

ahhh jesus, Teddy!

I enthusiastically endorsed this show so many times over the weekend and was at a loss for words about, although I definitely tried to explain the premise of, the most recent episode

There's something about how there are so many moments about the absurdity of normal experiences that makes me kind of daydream about the characters

recent article here is good, btw:
https://www.theroot.com/atlanta-donald-glover-and-the-invisibility-of-black-ge-1825116384

The Teddy Perkins episode was more rewarding to watch than the entire third season of Twin Peaks

Yeah great episode but ... nope

was teddy perkins ep double-length or am i just remembering that way because there was SO MUCH in it?

it was not quite double, but it was commercial free and long

35 minutes where the rest are usually 23 - 26 minutes, looks like

trying to remember if this was the first show I noticed variable run times on...maybe that was girls?

have you seen Fawlty Towers

yes. did it have variable run times? I don't remember any of those being longer than 25 minutes.

netflix has broken time.

a bunch of shows have had longer episodes lately, or variable length. Mr Robot, Legion, lots of HBO stuff, and I think years back there were some Lost episodes that ran long

high maintenance as well

yes. did it have variable run times? I don't remember any of those being longer than 25 minutes.

wtf why would any of them be so short?

they range from 29 to 36 minutes.

those are the numbers including commercials, I believe the one I mentioned was without

standard half hour shows are 23 - 24 I believe

Fawlty Towers aired in 1975 and had no commercials

current US network sitcoms can be under 20 minutes, in order to fit in more warnings about how you should buy these drugs that can kill you

yes sure, I forgot it was up to about 30 minutes. my point is that some of these other shows run 35 minutes, 47 minutes, 90 minutes, whatever. that's a fairly new development in television.

36 minutes is over 30!

I'm not trying to win a fight or anything, just suggesting a programme with variable episode lengths, which you might have seen, that's slightly older than Girls.

(televised Dr Who episodes vary in length from 19 minutes to 90, and that's older still, but not as likely to have been seen by Americans)

it depends on how you define the contemporary era, really

i remember lots of people complaining about variable episode lengths with Sons of Anarchy

http://www.indiewire.com/2014/11/why-sons-of-anarchys-excruciatingly-long-episodes-are-ruining-the-show-68125/

seems like a fairly common thing among FX shows

I was going to praise them allowing variability in creative, cool shows but.... Sons of Anarchy

Game of Thrones always had variable times

The first couple seasons of SOA were OK. I like to pretend they all died in a plane crash on their way to Ireland.

Otm

fair

Just watched last week's episode. Simply an astonishing piece of television. Was emotionally drained at the end. This season has been incredible so far.

Does anyone know if it really was Donald Glover beneath all the prosthetics?

pretty sure it was.

Yeah, it was
One of the articles about the episode mentioned that he stayed in character the whole time and a couple people on set didn’t know it was him

Found the egg eating scene forced af - weirdness for weirdness sake - but credit where credit is due - at least they're trying new things

i mean it was a weird episode transplanting michael jackson into a tim burton wonderland

omg the bibby episode

the outrageous formalism of it

like something unearthed from a contemporary account of commedia dell arte, Molière, i don't know what, somehow it felt like it was reaching across time

I got kind of a Candide vibe where Bibby was constantly explaining that everything was going fine

lol

that was a good episode but man was it stressful to watch! I guess we learn something about the kind of guy Alfred is beneath the posturing because I was shocked he didn't put Bibby up against the wall about a dozen different times before he actually did.

it's illuminating to see the near infinite level of patience people have to attempt in order to cope with the mundanities of everyday life, especially when you know them in a different context and they're _not_

like thinking one of your coworkers is kind of quick to judge things, and then finding out they have to run eight errands after work, have two sick kids, and their wife can't find a job but none of that seems to provoke a strong reaction

this show is really great. find it hard to binge which is a relief, each episode is so self-contained it's easy to take yr time with it

The real genius of that episode was in taking the played out barber/client dynamic and mining its absurdity by taking it out of the actual shop.

Plays on that bubbling anxiety you feel off of shit you wouldn't tolerate in any other professional environment, cause until you get a good cut you're completely at his mercy.

your barber has multiple side-hustles and is never shy about trying to put you on
your barbers personal life often plays out in real time as he cuts your hair
your barber will waste the fuck out of your time
your barber is always on the fucking phone
All of this is better than the alternative of sitting in some strange chair with a more reliable guy who doesn't understand your hairline.

From the nose, the height, the head shape and hunched shoulders did nobody else immediately realise that Teddy Perkins was Donald Glover?

I was pretty sure, but was open to there being a twist in the plot

Barber episode is easy to relate to. It’s like any experience with a dealer

From the nose, the height, the head shape and hunched shoulders did nobody else immediately realise that Teddy Perkins was Donald Glover?

There were a couple of times when I thought "I wonder" but tbh I was so caught up in the episode itself I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it.

It was a lot more apparent on a second viewing with the knowledge it was Glover.

I could tell by his voice that it was Donald Glover (he uses a similar voice in Community when he is getting freaked out by something), also... Earn wasn't in any scenes with him. not that they couldn't do that