Atlanta Sea­son 2: ​‘Alli­ga­tor Man’ review – A time­ly por­trait of black America

If there’s one thing unsur­pris­ing about Don­ald Glover and the music and visu­als he cre­ates, it’s that he man­ages to sur­prise us with every new project he presents to the world. Whether he’s chan­nelling the high, soul­ful pitch­es of Prince on tracks like ​‘Red­bone’, or giv­ing us a glimpse into the dis­tant inti­ma­cy of black Atlanta, the one thing we can always rely on when it comes to Glover’s work is that his vision and empha­sis changes from one episode, one song to the next. Atlanta’s Rob­bin’ Sea­son pre­mière episode, ​‘Alli­ga­tor Man’, is no exception.

It has been two years since we last checked in with Earn (Glover), his cousin Alfred (Bri­an Tyree Hen­ry) and the delight­ful­ly weird and sen­si­tive Dar­ius (Lakei­th Stan­field) try­ing to catch a big break in the bleak sub­urbs of Atlanta, and noth­ing much has changed. Earn still tries to skate by on a nomadic lifestyle that keeps him on a con­stant look-out for the next best couch to crash on; Alfred’s house arrest has gained his rapper’s per­sona, Paper Boi, some more street cred, just not enough to get his career to tru­ly take off.

And Dar­ius? Well, Dar­ius seems to be for­ev­er float­ing between his cho­sen envi­ron­ment, his strange­ly philo­soph­i­cal mus­ings, and an eerie aware­ness capa­ble of pick­ing up on the faintest of vibes. The most notice­able shift in Atlanta’s sec­ond sea­son is not found in the character’s cir­cum­stances, but the inten­si­ty of their dai­ly lives and expe­ri­ences hav­ing been accept­ed as a norm.

Styl­is­ti­cal­ly, Atlanta has always been a show of raw, unpre­ten­tious urban beau­ty cap­tured in a real­is­tic light – often grey and cre­pus­cu­lar, as though the char­ac­ters are stuck in the twi­light, nev­er quite man­ag­ing to ful­ly absorb even the small­est moment of bright­ness in their day-to-day lives. The open­ing moments of ​‘Alli­ga­tor Man’, which fol­low the rob­bery of a local Mrs Winner’s Chick­en & Bis­cuits, dull and unmen­tion­able in colour, accen­tu­ate the sad banal­i­ty of just anoth­er day in an impov­er­ished, black neighbourhood.

The fact that this par­tic­u­lar Mrs Winner’s estab­lish­ment acts as a front for deal­ing grounds is as cus­tom­ary as is the clerk’s access to an auto­mat­ic weapon. ​“Rob­bin’ sea­son. Christ­mas approach­es and everybody’s got­ta eat,” Dar­ius casu­al­ly remarks, sat on the roof of his car at the gas sta­tion. Across from them, anoth­er name­less black body’s funer­al march is announced with blar­ing sirens while oth­ers already fade in the dis­tance. A few cops linger around look­ing down on a pair of Tim­ber­lands stick­ing out from under a white sheet. ​“Or be eat­en,” Earn mum­bles in reply.

On their way to Earn’s appoint­ment with his parole offi­cer, Dar­ius tells him about the Flori­da Man – an anony­mous ​“alt-right John­ny Apple­seed” type who appears in the head­lines under this nick­name. The Flori­da Man who shot an unarmed black teen or burst into his ex’s deliv­ery room and beat up her new boyfriend while she gave birth. His take on the meme in the episode’s over­all set­ting is as point­ed as sea­son one’s ​‘June­teenth’, albeit in a sub­tler man­ner – a per­fect har­mo­ny of sur­re­al­ism and authen­tic­i­ty –and feels par­tic­u­lar­ly gru­elling just weeks after the Park­land shoot­ing, made pos­si­ble thanks to a gov­ern­ment ​‘in cahoots’ with the NRA.

Shows like Broad City have already shamed the sun­shine state for its racial hier­ar­chy and gun-mad­ness (as in sea­son four’s ​‘Flori­da’), but Atlanta’s ​‘Alli­ga­tor Man’ offers the Flori­da Man myth from the black per­spec­tive, in which the entire state – if not the coun­try – itself becomes the bogeyman.

Arriv­ing at uncle Willy’s (Katt Williams) house to smooth out a domes­tic sit­u­a­tion, Earn finds him­self in a posi­tion he doesn’t want to be in, one that could land him in jail, again, sim­ply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The cops are already wait­ing out­side and no amount of rea­son­ing is get­ting Willy to budge. Hav­ing tried his best, Earn leaves, short­ly fol­lowed by Willy’s alli­ga­tor, Coach, who majes­ti­cal­ly strides out of the house, caus­ing the cop to low­er the weapon already twitch­ing in his hand. It’s a cathar­tic end­ing to the sto­ry, giv­en how it might have end­ed had Willy exit­ed the house first, an anx­ious black man rais­ing his fists, pre­pared to fight a bat­tle he already knew he’d loose.

‘Alli­ga­tor Man’ hones what Atlanta was already known for – a steady mix of satire, dark com­e­dy and cul­tur­al nar­ra­tives. It’s hard to tell where this sea­son might lead, but we can rest assured it won’t be any­thing short of memorable.