What I’m Watching: Atlanta

Atlanta: Season 3, Episode 7 “Trini 2 De Bone” (B+)

I really do feel like I’ve started watching the wrong show almost every time I turn this one on, and that was especially true here since we’ve actually seen Earn, Alfred, and Darius on a regular basis for a few episodes running. This episode played very much from a white perspective, showing how assumptions are often made about Black people and where they come from, and poking fun at that in how they respond. The suggestion of a “more metropolitan option” as a replacement for their newly deceased nanny was very much coded to imply that Sylvia’s cultural influences on their son hadn’t been entirely welcome, and the implication that she wasn’t cheap was that someone like her shouldn’t have been worth anywhere near as much as, say, someone American or white. Miles was nervous about just leaving his keys on his car and Bronwyn pushed the person next to door on being from Tribeca when he clearly had an accent that he denied was there. It was when they got up to leave when things got loud and intense at the homegoing that it all stopped and they were directly addressed as leaving because they, the white people, were scared. The arrival of that package at the end with the picture day photos that had Sylvia in them because his own parents didn’t even realize what parts of his life they were missing was powerful, and while elements of this situation are surely exaggerated, the idea is one that certainly says a lot about the appreciation of the thankless work people do for ignorant employers.