Author: LEIGH-ANN JACKSON / Source: New York Times
Earn and Alfred are allergic to winning. Why else would they go to such great lengths to avoid it? Even with cash in hand and opportunities placed at their feet, they each find a way to screw up success.
If he had his druthers, Al would just as soon make drug-dealing his day job, relegating rap to a side gig. Unfortunately, he’s got major supply chain problems these days.
At the top of the episode, his drug supplier — or “plug” — abruptly ends their 10-year work relationship by robbing him of a knapsack full of cash. It was the most deferential gunpoint exchange ever, starting off with a plaintive “Ay, my fault,” followed by sincerities like “Appreciate it,” and “I’d give you a ride home, but …” The guy may have succumbed to the wicked ways of Robbin’ Season, but that’s no reason to abandon his home training.
It turned out to be the first of three botched weed transactions this week, and it soured Al’s mood for the next day’s meeting at a streaming music company. But then, that meeting was doomed anyway.
The company is called Fresh — a term that hasn’t been synonymous with coolness in decades — and it’s filled with a mostly white millennial staff and stereotypical start-up fixtures (a Ping-Pong table, turf-covered walls, organic, gluten-free snacks). Earn feigns optimism but he clearly doesn’t want to be there any more than his cousin does.
The string of Fresh scenes — visually both brighter and whiter than is usual for “Atlanta ” — jab at the fact that even as the music industry has gotten a high-tech makeover, the practice of exploiting black youth culture persists.
There’s the visual of a young rapper energetically performing on top of a boardroom table as executives stoically appraise him. There’s the audio guy prompting Al to be “more cool” and to act “like you’re at a party” (code for “sound more black”) as he’s recording promo spots. Then there’s the scene in which Earn’s just mills about the office, munching Cheerios, until he realizes every other person is wordlessly watching him. Once they know he’s onto them, they quickly spark back into motion.This speaks to a feeling known all too well by those who’ve experienced “the only one in the room” syndrome. For those who haven’t: Being the lone minority in, say, a work environment or classroom can create an unsettling sense that people are silently observing your every move, no matter how mundane. Here the episode writer Stephen Glover brings that nagging notion to life.
The visit ends when Al storms out of an excruciating Tiny Desk Concert-style performance, after most employees can’t be bothered to leave their cubicles to watch him rap “Paper Boi.” It’s his second loss in less than 24 hours, and there are more to come.
Back on the illegal grind, Al tries his luck with a second plug only to have the star-struck dealer post a stealthy, potentially incriminating photo of him onto Instagram….
The post ‘Atlanta’ Season 2, Episode 2: Miraculous Waves appeared first on FeedBox.