1x01 The Big Bang

The premise of Atlanta is an intriguing one: rather than focusing on the well-publicised excess of those rappers who reach the peak of their careers, we instead follow the travails of an up-and-coming rapper, Paper Boi, and the people around him. This offers a unique opportunity to examine various issues like the treatment of and lack of opportunities for black people in America, the class structure and the ways it grinds people down who are simply trying to survive and the liminal space occupied by those who aren't quite famous. This all sounds like serious stuff, and it is, but what marks Atlanta out from, say, David Simon's material is the wry, humorous tone it takes, mixing cynicism with a subversive and at times surreal sense of the absurd.

Anchoring the show is Donald Glover as Earn. I have mixed feelings about Glover; he's often an irrepressible and charming screen presence but also feels like one of those oversaturated media presences that throws so much at the wall that only a little sticks. Thankfully, he's on the best form I've seen him on here—Earn feels like one of life's amiable losers, crestfallen but cheerful as he is casually discarded by those closest to him. That isn't to say that he's powerless; he manoeuvres past his cousin Alfred's suspicions about his motives and the racist white staff at a local radio station to establish himself as Paper Boi's manager and give himself a chance at something better. This, for Earn, is the so-called 'American dream' and it will be interesting to see how he has to compromise himself and everyone around him as, inevitably, the 'dream' forces everyone to.

All four leads to a good job of giving a sense of character, even in this short episode, and all of the elements to create a compelling scenario fall into place nicely. It's stylishly made with Hiro Murai giving the episode a sense of craft and care that will hopefully continue through the next nine episodes. I'm excited to see how Atlanta uses its central premise to explore the weightier questions it hints at in this episode and whether it can continue to do so while expanding on the inner lives of its central characters.