'Atlanta' Season 3 Was a Bad Trip

The latest in pop-culture news, recaps, and reviews, plus close reads, profiles, interviews, and more from Vulture.com. [Brand Logo]( urgent reconsideration [Atlanta Season 3 Was a Bad Trip]( After a four-year break, Donald Glover’s FX series returned unsure of what it wanted to say. Four Vulture writers and critics try to make sense of it. Photo: Oliver Upton/FX In updating our list of the [best television of 2022](, Vulture’s TV critics opted to remove Atlanta season three after viewing it in full. Here, Atlanta viewers Angelica Jade Bastién, Roxana Hadadi, Craig Jenkins, and Tirhakah Love break down their reactions to the season. Angelica Jade Bastién: After a four-year absence from our screens, Atlanta had a lot of audience curiosity and expectations weighing on it. The series, often shot through with horror and the absurd, has always been slippery in the way it frames its main characters and the weird spaces they inhabit. But in its third season, Atlanta feels scattershot: Four of its ten episodes consisted of stand-alone story lines considering ideas like the material effects of reparations and the costs of choosing to be white-passing. The [season premiere]( fantastically rewrote the narrative of the Hart-family murders to provide a better ending for those mistreated Black children than reality could. But there’s a cruelty in the crafting of the wayward, downright mean Black mother, the episode’s protagonist, that made me wonder if the series was revealing truths about anti-Blackness or merely wallowing in it. The other six episodes only loosely follow Atlanta’s main characters, leaving both Alfred’s vaulting success in Europe and Van’s interior life scantily defined. Season three felt like empty provocation, relying on buzzy cameos meant to rile up audiences and slick stylization to hide its hollow interior. [Read The Story »]( Devour pop culture with us. [Subscribe now](for unlimited access to Vulture and everything New York. The Latest TV Recaps • [Evil:]( Horny As Hell • [Becoming Elizabeth:]( Elizabeth Learns a Lesson • [The Real Housewives of Atlanta:]( Drop It With Drew & Co. • [Westworld:]( Christina’s World • [P-Valley:]( The Real Househoes of Chucalissa • [90 Day Fiancé:]( Free Bini, Kobe, and Shaeeda [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Stories We Think You’ll Like 1. [Welcome Back to John Early and Kate Berlant’s Absurd Duet Would It Kill You to Laugh? is a monument to surrealist queer pettiness, standing high atop a foundation of incredible comedic harmony.]( By Kathryn VanArendonk 2. [Robin S. Is Riding the Wave of Beyoncé’s ‘Break My Soul’ “‘Show Me Love’ is my legacy. And Beyoncé thought of me enough to be a part of my legacy.”]( By Justin Curto 3. [An Interview With Stranger Things’ Most Oblivious Dad “If you remember Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the vixen, Jessica Rabbit, is like, ‘I’m not bad; I’m just drawn that way.’ Ted is like that.”]( By Devon Ivie 4. [A Timeline of the David Dobrik Allegations and Controversies Jeff Wittek threatens legal action two years after the accident that nearly blinded him.]( By Florence O'Connor and Zoe Haylock [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( 5. [For Kevin Iso, Interesting Beats Funny Talking Flatbush Misdemeanors and That Damn Michael Che with the comedian and writer.]( 6. [Jodie Sweetin Pushed by Police at L.A. Abortion-Rights Protest, Responds “This will not deter us; we will continue fighting for our rights.”]( By Justin Curto [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [Today’s Crossword]( 31-Across, Four Letters: Number of Oscars for Glenn Close, inexplicably. Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos by Getty Images and Lucasfilms Ltd. Vulture Recommends We consume it all so you don’t have to. [Baz Luhrmann’s flashy, tacky Elvis]( might be a hazard to your corneas. But it’s also a lot of fun. As Alison Willmore writes, the film is “bloated, hectic, ridiculous, and utterly shameless in all it glosses over to present its thesis on Presley as a talent too beautiful for this earth — the Christ of show business, sacrificed to our rapacious desires and the cruelties of capitalism at the age of 42. And you know what? I liked it.” [Read more from Vulture]( Introducing Dinner Party, a lively new evening newsletter about everything that just happened. [Sign up]( to get it every weeknight. [logo]( [facebook logo]( [instagram logo]( [twitter logo]( [unsubscribe](param=daily) | [privacy notice]( | [update preferences]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Was this email forwarded to you? [Sign up now]( to get this newsletter in your inbox. [View this email in your browser.]( You received this email because you have a subscription to New York. Reach the right online audience with us For advertising information on email newsletters, please contact AdOps@nymag.com Vox Media, LLC 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, 12th Floor Washington, DC 20036 Copyright © 2022, All rights reserved