Dispatches from the Fury Road: Give the Audience What They Kinda Want
Atlanta just finished season three and it appears some super-fans are unimpressed.
In the first two seasons this was ostensibly a show about Donald Glover’s character Earn trying to be the manage his cousin, the up-and-coming rapper Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry). This season has seen the ongoing stories of Earn, Paper Boi and pals metamorphosise into a surreal anthology series that sometimes resembles the Atlanta we used to watch. In the just concluded season we rarely saw our favourite characters and even when we did, we only experienced a handful of moments where they interacted together. In fact, 4 of the ten episodes were standalone one off stories that tangentially spoke to the great themes the creators were exploring. This has led to many critics and fans declaring the return of Atlanta being a disappointment and wondering just what this season was trying to achieve. Were Donald and his team trolling the fans? Why did they make a new season of Atlanta when they appeared to have little interest in the OG characters? Why tune into your favourite show if your favourite characters aren’t going to appear? Does anyone want to watch an episode of Seinfeld that doesn’t have Kramer sliding through the front door? Were there fans who wanted an episode of Cheers where the bar never appeared and everybody doesn’t know your name? Was anyone craving an episode of Friends without any friends? So many questions and very few answers.
I won’t get into the cultural impact and themes behind Atlanta because, to be honest, they were often beyond me. There were cultural touchstones that I wasn’t initially across and would require some research after the episodes aired to understand. If you’re nerdy like me and love digging into that type of extra curricular activity, I’d like to suggest the recaps by Alan Sepinwall (links here) and the Prestige TV Podcast episodes with part of the Midnight Boys (pew pew!) Van Lathan and Charles Holmes explaining the African American experience of watching this latest season (links here.) What I’m more interested in is what is the responsibility of the artist to their fans.
I loved this season of Atlanta with the ongoing story juxtaposed with the one off stories. If that is what they wanted to produce, then I was lucky enough to be a prime target. I think one of the reasons it worked for me comes down to my history of devouring comic books in the early 90s. I was fuelled by the works of Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Pete Milligan, writers who created seminal runs on titles that bucked what was traditionally adhered to in a normal comic title. Sometimes it was something as subtle as The Sandman often excluding the titular character from the cover, a no-no in comic book publishing. Sometimes my favourite ongoing monthly titles wouldn’t feature any of the main characters. There’s a particularly brilliant issue of The Invisibles by Morrison and artist Steve Parkhouse that centres on one character, a man called Bobby Murray, who doesn’t appear to have anything to do with the ongoing story. It is only towards the end you realise how his story intersects and it is not only devastating, it makes you completely rethink your idea and affection for these “heroic” characters. It is one of the best single issues of a comic I have ever experienced and it had a lasting effect on all the media I have consumed since.
While there was a lot of criticism about the standalone episodes, it didn’t phase me in the slightest. I would have liked to have seen more of the gang hanging out together, but if the creative team had something new to say, something new to express, then they have enough equity with me that I’m going to go along for the ride. I didn’t think any of the standalone episodes were removed from the overall narrative and themes anyway, so it all felt connected to me.
Yet I understand why some people didn’t like it. I’m not going to say to those people that they’re wrong for not enjoying it. Sometimes we just want the things we like to be the things they were at the beginning. And while I support an artist’s desire to explore new grounds, there’s been plenty of artistic choices that weren’t for me either. I remember Elvis Costello once saying that you can still be a fan of someone’s work and not love everything they do. It was a lightning bolt moment because I had always believed you just had to love everything your favourite artists created unconditionally. It was also a relief because now I could stop listening to Costello’s country-ish album King of America and know that my fandom was still rock solid.
Another example: I respected Arcade Fire’s albums Reflektor and Everything Everywhere for where they wanted to go musically but it wasn’t a journey was interested in taking. Now I’m back on track with their latest album, which was in some respects, a return to their earlier sound that I am more receptive towards. I watched the Star Wars film The Last Jedi and didn’t really care for it. Not because Rian Johnson shouldn’t have tried to upend the Skywalker saga in a meaningful way, but because for me, Star Wars has never been the sort of franchise that experiments with the way it tells its story. Why start now? Funnily enough, the toxic side of fandom that overreacted to this film were way more upset with the parts I was completely fine with. Personally I’d have preferred more Rose Tico and less Space Casino, thank you very much.
When it comes to entertainment and art, I’d rather experience an artist taking a chance than churning out photocopies of a photocopy. It is one of the many reasons I feel the Marvel fatigue as each film churns to the inevitable conclusion with the same monotonous beats. I’m done. I’m out. I’m over it. Give me something that breaks the mould. Give me a movie that has two different stories occurring at once, like the Godfather Part 2. Present me with a film that doesn’t rely on CGI for the final half an hour. Surprise me with a character who doesn’t have to quip in a life threatening moment. Just surprise me. I like surprises. Surprises are good.
On the flip-side, I acknowledge that most people don’t watch movies and TV like I do. Normal human beings are tired, working long days and dealing with a world that gets more and more expensive with every passing second. When they sit down to watch telly, they just want to tune out and let it wash over them. This is why so many people in my life haven’t watched Atlanta because they’d rather be on a WhatsApp thread with their friends bitching about everyone on MAFS. I get and respect it. This is also why I only have about three people I call to talk to anymore. To each their own!
I want to be challenged, I want to be shown something new. I will gladly grapple with anything that doesn’t quite succeed as long as it is sincere in the story it is attempting to tell. Heck, sometimes I experience art that I just don’t understand. If that’s the case, I’ll return to it over time to see if it clicks. I tried to watch Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2 twice before in my life with disappointing results. Turns out the third time was the charm. I needed to broaden my cinematic palate to truly appreciate it. I get this from Mum. She’s watched Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey three times and each time has come away thinking it is pretentious bollocks. This is horrifying to me but I get it. Sometimes an artist will just produce work that doesn’t appeal. I love Steven Spielberg but not all of his movies are for me. I love Stephen King but I haven’t enjoyed all of his books. I love Stephen Colbert but I don’t laugh at all of his takes. I’m all about the Stephens, from V to PH, but sometimes they go places that aren’t for me…and that is alright.
I’m guessing some people won’t return to Atlanta, even though it only has one season left. That’s a shame but I also understand. Once burned, twice shy about tuning in. My take is if an artist has entertained me more often than not, then they have built up some cachet that will inspire me to find out what they’re going to do next. I’d rather experience someone’s work that they are completely engaged with that is quite different tham someone pandering to their audience because it is the easier route. If someone has a misfire in doing so, that’s okay. I’ll come back and check the next product. If I’d completely written off all of the artists that haven’t quite fulfilled what I wanted from them, I would have missed out on masterpieces like Arcade Fire’s We, Rian Johnson’s Knives Out and Elvis Costello’s Blood and Chocolate. I loved this season of Atlanta but even if I hadn’t, those creators have done enough that I would have tuned into the final season anyway.
Now I’m off to listen King of America one more time to see if I finally get it.
Justin Hamilton
Surry Hills
May 2022