Narrative comedy on TV is changing.
It is a change long in the works, one that began years ago. The first seeds of TV comedy’s evolution were evident in shows like “The Office” and “30 Rock,” which began injecting elements of nuanced emotion and realism into their plotlines, delivering a needed dose of pathos to the form.
In the years since, single-camera and documentary style comedies have dominated the TV laugh market and have become something of a new art form since their expansion to cable.
The brilliant FX show “Atlanta,” which has just concluded its first season, is one of these transformative new comedies that succeeds at pushing the genre in ambitious creative directions.
“Atlanta,” created by actor, rapper and former “30 Rock” writer Donald Glover, details the story of Earn (Glover), an aimless young man from Atlanta living with his ex-girlfriend Vanessa (Zazie Beetz) and their daughter as he scrapes up a living by managing the burgeoning rap career of his cousin Alfred, better known as “Paper Boi” (Brian Tyree Henry). “Atlanta” is very much Earn’s story, but it is also a story about a city, race, relationships and above all, the true nature of success.
The theme of success permeates the story lines of every character in “Atlanta.” Vanessa seeks success in her job as a schoolteacher, is cynical about the growing upward mobility of her jet-setting, basketball player-dating friends and ultimately strives to gain personal vindication by furthering herself while providing a good life for her daughter. Meanwhile, Paper Boi, an aging rapper, finds himself struggling to reconcile his old-school rap views of excess equaling success with the hip-hop community’s changing attitudes towards female objectification and violence.
Earn’s personal concept of success is perhaps the one most in turmoil; he wants to validate himself as a father in Vanessa’s eyes by financially helping her to support their daughter, but is also constantly being presented with alternative ideas of success, whether through the lavish lifestyle of Paper Boi or through the bizarre entrepreneurial ventures of Paper Boi’s eccentric friend Darius (Keith Stanfield).
Darius is perhaps the most important key to understanding the show’s fundamental ideas. Some kind of cross between an unaware child, a clever con man and a guru drawing his wisdom from various aspects of African-American culture, Darius is a major foil for Earn. Earn, although a highly pragmatic figure, does not understand what success means to him but still finds it becoming increasingly important in his life. Darius, meanwhile, seems both spiritually and materially successful, yet lacks any kind of pragmatism or drive, and makes most of his decisions on a whim. Earn, Vanessa and Paper Boi struggle to define their notion of success, while Darius searches for no such answers, yet finds the most personal prosperity.
Bizarre characters like Darius (who, at one point, takes Earn on an episode-long journey that involves exchanging a samurai sword for a greyhound) are what inject “Atlanta” with a distinctly postmodern brand of comedy. The show also has some unusual single-appearance characters, such as a black man who bewilders Paper Boi by identifying himself, literally and culturally, as white, a club owner who avoids paying an irate Earn by using a trapdoor built into the club’s walls and a student of Vanessa’s who wordlessly taunts her by sporting whiteface in class. These jarring, confusing and often surreal characters ground the plot of “Atlanta” in an absurdity that helps us see the world as Earn, Vanessa and Paper Boi do: bizarre, confusing and constantly changing.
These recurring oddities and ironies make it clear to viewers that “Atlanta” is unmistakably a comedy, but a comedy that is hardly concerned with making its audience consistently double over with laughter. The comedic elements in “Atlanta” are beneficial to the show’s story, which could arguably not be told to maximum effect in a dramatic setting. The confusion and struggle at the thematic core of the show are reflected in the confusing world it portrays, demonstrating Glover’s masterful ability to translate Earn’s inner conflict into story-necessary humor.
Shows like “Atlanta” mark a decided turning point in the way comedic television is presented. The program’s commitment to character and story is an achievement in television writing – an achievement that indicates the impact a story can have when viewed through a humorous lens.
In successful narrative comedy television of the past, a story existed to support the jokes. In the new school of comedy presented in “Atlanta,” the jokes exist to support a story.