Liam Neeson visits ‘Atlanta’ to poke fun at his racist controversy

OneTaking an unnecessary detour into some of the Upper East Siders’ white penthouses last week, we finally reunited with Paper Boi tonight Atlantawhen he learns about key recordings from a shrewd stranger he meets in Amsterdam and comes face to face with notorious sex crime actor and police officer Liam Neeson.

More than halfway through the rather sporadic season, you can still feel the writers are looking for a piece of content throughout all the random trailers and parodies they’ve decided to tackle. It’s refreshing, then, and possibly a good sign for the rest of the season, that “New Jazz,” written by Donald Glover and directed by Hiro Murai, is an attempt to improve its perspective. Alfred’s point of view as a new entrant to the music industry. That’s what made Seasons 1 and 2—especially 2—so great and allowed the show to wrap up all of its narrative excursions. Throughout Robbin ‘Season, we watched the rising rapper go through the downsides of his own merchandise business and learn the difference between fame and wealth in the worst scenarios. Now that Al is doing well financially, he seems to lose focus on how that money is being managed or where he should put it.

He learned this lesson the hard way from a fellow American named Lorraine, whom he met in a museum after he took a weed cookie with Darius and started wandering around. Amsterdam. The Lorraine caustic may or may not be hallucinogenic, since Al doesn’t read as high as when he interacts with her. But the ending, where he literally shakes, cries, and throws out a cookie, would suggest that his weird night chasing her through the Red Light District, was all just a fantasy. For the most part, this distinction doesn’t really matter, as she plays the ungrateful role of a sassy oracle. Other women have existed with this ability before on Atlanta, such as during the previous season’s “The Club” and “The Woods” seasons. Unfortunately, “New Jazz” doesn’t deliver on the emotion of the latter.

Notable is Lorraine, played by actress Ava Gray, who you may have seen on FX’s Posture, is a transgender woman. Whether or not Glover poses it — though, one can assume he’s knowledgeable about the raves the show has garnered based on tweets and “interviews” — the episode is addressing or at least exploiting the show’s earlier humorous attempts at transitions that have both been praised and scrutinized in previous seasons. Specifically, in the critically-acclaimed episode of Season 1 “BAN.“Paper Boi was accused by a white feminist of singing through the air on a talk show because of the not-so-sweet lyrics about Caitlyn Jenner in one of his songs. Like many men. other black cishet, Al protested that he didn’t hate transgender people but also didn’t necessarily care about their situation when conversing with him. ” than at the end of the interview, which reflects the auteur’s approach to Atlanta.

Likewise, much of “New Jazz” is rather boring based on the element of surprise considering this non-aggressive, nonviolent exchange between two often culturally conflicting demographics. At some point, you can feel the script drawing attention to the fact that Al is, on the surface at least, not embarrassed or upset about being caught in public with a transgender woman. world in a city where everyone immediately recognized him. Instead, he’s irritated by Lorraine because she’s willing to tell him things no one else would – like how stupid his wide-brimmed hat looks – and a bit bad at her delivery. that. The fact that Glover gave him a reason to upset her was a choice, one could argue. But no matter how much Lorraine attacked him, Al never responded to anything problematic.

Overall, the episode’s pretentiousness doesn’t change anything because Lorraine’s presence drains the episode as much, Glover doesn’t make her particularly funny or memorable in the way that most movies are. minor characters in this series – just mocking. In one scene, she calls a pretty white woman posing in an exhibit “White Lizzo,” and then goes on to say that Lizzo is already White Lizzo. It’s a rich joke coming from a musician who mostly flirts with white youth and didn’t get any play on hip-hop radio until very recently, but I digress.

Generally speaking, Atlanta It is very difficult to understand why Black women are actually funny, especially compared to all the nuances and humor that writers can exploit from specific archetypes of Black men. The women who make brief appearances on this show are often just obnoxious, loud, and brutally honest in a very generic way. Even Van, who gets the role more generously than the female cameos, isn’t particularly funny unless she’s giving Earn shit.

Similarly, Lorraine mainly acts as a wake-up call for Al that he should probably invest his Apple Music checks in the stock market, the NFT, or any other capitalist venture. “The problem with rappers is that you all don’t have any clue where your money is or where it’s going,” she said. She also asks him who owns his master records, which Al has never heard of nor knows who owns them. At the end of the episode, Earn assures Al, after a curious, pregnant pause, that he negotiated for owner ownership of his recording contract. You can definitely feel the voice of Glover – a rapper never known as a stuntman – jumping out in these brief memos about Black financial literacy.

After leaving the museum, Lorraine takes Al to a hidden nightclub, where she introduces him to her curator, New Jazz. Lorraine eventually disappears and leaves Al to talk to her friends, who ask if they’re dating because she regularly dates rappers, but Al insists. Before Al and Lorraine leave the club, an actor will appear on stage to present New Jazz. Lorraine suddenly shows up to get him out of the club before the spotlight hits him, telling him they’ll let him say no if he doesn’t want to perform. Whether these are some minor commentary on “wake up” performance or how Negroes are literally required to do the labor, who knows.

Coco Olakunle / FX

Before they get out, however, a rather forgettable episode turns unforgettable – and unforgivable – lousy when Al sits down next to none other than Liam Neeson. As with the guest appearance of Chet Hanks last week, you already know the sadness before Take the actor began to mention “incident.” Is this what happens when Ryan Gosling, a fan of the show’s popular no-nonsense vocals, can’t guest star because he’s filming? Barbie doll? Is this the kind of guest we have to deal with? Neeson’s conversation with Al was mostly like a PR stunt, as he explained his actions but seemed self-aware that they were actually bad in retrospect. Al tells him that, despite everything, he still “fuck[s] with Take” and he’s glad he doesn’t “hate all Negroes”. Neeson replied that he really hated all Negroes for trying to ruin his career. When Al said that he thought he had learned his lesson from the controversy, Neeson ended his cameo and said that because he’s white he doesn’t need to learn a lesson.

In the same way, you can say it, because Atlanta As a show primarily aimed at Black audiences, we also don’t need these “rigorous” lessons about white privilege. Maybe this was just an elaborate way for Glover to tell Black people on the internet to be less offensive. Maybe he feels powerful enough in his career and he enjoys being famous whites without favors because he can. Either way, the comedic, non-shocking appearance doesn’t rescue a rather compelling episode. It’s great to revisit Paper Boi’s struggle in finding new fame and money, but Atlanta still feel out of focus.