What I’m Watching: Atlanta

Atlanta: Season 2, Episode 6 “Teddy Perkins” (C)

I’m really not sure what to say. My first thought is that it was foreboding to watch Darius drive off to a remote area to meet a mysterious white man after seeing what happened to Lakeith Stanfield in “Get Out.” This episode makes sense in the trajectory of Stanfield’s career, which next includes a role in another project slyly – and wildly – taking on race relations, “Sorry to Bother You,” which will be out in theaters this summer. I think what a lot of people like about this show in particular is how it tends to separate from reality and hone in more on dark parody, like the “B.A.N.” episode last season, not worrying about how or whether it will connect to the main storyline, if this show could even be described as having one. I was curious, as I’m sure all viewers were, what actor that I should have recognized was playing Teddy, and it turns out that it was Donald Glover. I’m not so sure what this episode accomplished, and its weirdness didn’t feel worth it for me because of the uneasy feeling it created for no clear purpose. Darius calling Paper Boi while he was demanding that his burgers come without fries and getting the motivation to close the deal was a nice interruption from everything, and the fact that such a distraction was welcome is a sign that this episode really didn’t need to exist at all. I imagine there are those who loved it, but I’ll just stick with being perplexed.