Earn, Paper Boi and the whole crew are jetting off to Europe! After four years, Atlanta is back and the action is heading across the pond. To celebrate the return of one of TV’s best shows, we’re counting down the 5 best episodes of the series.
Donald Glover’s Van-centric directorial debut moves from dinner into a hilariously humiliating search for drug-free urine before ending with the wild, confounding, and indelible shot of a Black kid in whiteface.
While Paper Boi enjoys a post-shooting fame bump, Earn endures county lockup. The bureaucratic nightmare is a great demonstration of Glover’s exhausted deadpan, which was shocking so soon after his jaunty Community days.
Boasting Brian Tyree Henry’s most nuanced performance so far, this episode sends Alfred on a harrowing, transformative journey through the woods. He emerges a changed man, reaffirming that Atlanta’s single-character-focused episodes are its best.
No Atlanta party is ever just fun. When Van spends New Year’s at Drake’s house, the weed-gummy farce turns mind-bending. Season 2’s hot streak seemed to invent new shows every week. You could imagine six seasons with Van’s riotous friend group.
This Emmy-nominated ep has all of Atlanta’s strengths. Darius’ (LaKeith Stanfield) deceptively simple mission to pick up a rainbow-keyed piano becomes horror as a reclusive, disturbed former child star takes Darius on a tour of his dark mansion.
With its consideration of Blackness, fame, and the relationship between pain and art, this stylistically distinctive episode feels a piece with not only the series but Glover’s entire career.