Race to the bottom
Atlanta S3; a favour requested; latest June 2022 gig dates
Atlanta season 3 review
Now that Amber Heard has demonstrated that we don’t necessarily have to #believewomen, and Asia Argento let down the #metoo cause by raping that boy, the dominant theme of worthy progressive US entertainment is race.
But a lot of shows and movies which tackle ‘the racial reckoning’ do so at a certain remove.
One strategy is to set the show in America’s blatantly racist past. Lovecraft Country, based on the excellent book by Matt Ruff, is set in 50s America. Ditching the subtler approach of the book, it was an easy blend of cartoonish CGI monsters with characters delivering heavy-handed exposition about how racist things are.
This is an easy approach, because no viewer with any decency can fail to be disgusted by ‘sun-down counties’ and redlining. But it’s cheap, because it avoids tackling the modern reality of racism.
The other distancing strategy is to use the supernatural as a metaphor to address issues of race. The poster child for this is Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017), which has spawned many imitators.
There was a show called Them which combined the historical and supernatural approaches. The first episode stared with an amazing and compelling depiction of a black family moving into a white neighbourhood, and the way that the white neighbours, played by usually likable actors like Alison Pill, descend into open racial hostility. But then the writers decided that there also needed to be ghosts involved. You don’t need to bring in ghosts when you already have a cast of racist monsters, monsters who are all the scarier because they are just ordinary people with the values of the time.
I loved Get Out, but I thought Us, the 2019 follow-up which presented a quasi-supernatural metaphor for class issues instead of race, wasn’t as good. Get Out’s underlying premise is pretty wacky considered in the cold light of day, but watching the film I totally bought into it; whereas the premise of Us (everyone has underground-dwelling twins who live in vast unattended tunnel networks and apparently feed purely on rabbits) is handled so implausibly that it descends into magical realism.
It’s a shame that Us wasn’t as good, because themes of class and wealth inequality are de-emphasised by today’s industrial entertainment complex. In the 80s, the typical villain was a rich yuppy who wanted to foreclose on your house. I don’t think anyone in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever has to worry about paying their mortgage. How exactly could Aunt May, a charity worker, afford to live in that nice 15th Street New York apartment?
Often race boils down to ‘representation’: we’re supposed to be excited that the MCU has put its first ever asexual Inuit character onscreen, or applaud when a white Jewish voice actor stopped playing a black Jewish character. This kind of ‘representation’ often means already rich and successful black actors getting cast in a franchise movie, where they totally fail to represent the everyday reality of the average black American’s life. It’s the same kind of empty symbolic gesture as white American liberals making sure they capitalise Black, while blocking actual practical measures to improve the material conditions of black people, like Medicare for All.
At its worst, that kind of empty ‘representation’ can end up whitewashing history. I saw the trailer for the World War 2 horror film Overlord (2018) in a cinema with a young lady. She said she didn’t like that kind of film but she appreciated the ‘representation’ (two of the central squad of soldiers are black). But of course, in actual World War 2, the US army was racially segregated and you’d never have black and white soldiers in the same squad. So this film about the evils of Nazi eugenics also serves as propaganda denying America’s racist past!
All of that was the preamble to me recommending you watch Atlanta season 3 (and seasons 1 and 2 if you haven’t already; in the UK, the first two seasons are on Disney+ of all places, but the third won’t be on there until 29th June so you’ll just have to pirate it). Atlanta is a TV show about Earn (Donald Glover) who is the fixer for a rapper called Paper Boi who becomes increasingly successful with each season. It absolutely tackles issues of race in America, but also shows how economic issues are intertwined with race. In the first season, Earn is flat broke but because he’s associated with Paper Boi, everyone around him assumes he must be rich. In the third season, Earn and Paper Boi mingle with super rich white people, as well as rich black celebrities who run dubious ‘equity’ foundations, and we see how fucked-up and exploitative the rich are.
It’s a brilliant show. It’s sometimes serious for a while, but a darkly hilarious moment is never far away. The tone can flip from realist to absurd or surreal in an instant. Sometimes it does that Master of None thing of pivoting away from the main characters to tell a tangentially related story, but better than Master of None did it.
It doesn’t take a pious, lecturing tone on race. In S03E09, a black millionaire returns to his former high school and announces that he will pay everyone’s college tuition - if they’re black, which leads to a white-passing mixed race boy with a black father having to go on trial to prove that he’s black enough.
Strongly recommended. The only recent media I can think of that’s comparable is Sorry To Bother You (2018), which kind of goes off the rails towards the end but is also well worth watching.
That’s my hot take. Comments are open if you want to disagree.
Please do me a favour
Vocal.media is a bit like Medium: a site where you can post your hot takes and get paid per view. For some reason it is running a writing competition where you had to post the first chapter of a fantasy novel starting with “There weren't always dragons in the Valley.” The top prize is $10,000, and as someone who has done a fair bit of Dungeon Mastering, I’m decent at making up intriguing fantasy story hooks, so I thought I’d give it a crack.
I think my story turned out pretty well (if you like that kind of thing). It’s about a family in a Dungeons & Dragons type fantasy world who run guided dragon hunts for tourists from Earth. I even commissioned an illustration:
It seems like ‘engagement’ (comments and likes) is a factor in winning these competitions. A lot of entries to the competition are now showing up on the Fiction Top Stories page, but all of those have 10+ comments.
Would you please go to the page for my story, The Thunder Valley Guided Dragon Slaying Experience, click the heart button and leave a comment? You will need to register for free to do so. If you know anyone who is into this kind of thing or post on a community about fantasy fiction, please share the link too.
If you comment and I win, drinks are on me for the rest of the year (if I know you and we are in the same pub).
My gig dates for June
Oh yeah, this is supposed to be a newsletter about stand-up.
Sunday June 12th 6pm - Comedy Lock-In, FAVERSHAM, KENT
The Alexander Centre, 17 Preston St, Faversham ME13 8NZ
Monday June 13th 7pm - Lewis Schaffer’s Comedy Open Mic, Borough
More of a workshop than a show, but still highly entertaining to watch. Upstairs above the pub. £3.
The King's Arms, 65 Newcomen Street, London SE1 1YT
Tuesday June 14th 7pm - Gap Tooth, Pimlico
Book now if you want to see me try to develop my relatable mainstream 5.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gap-tooth-comedy-pimlico-tickets-170525243594
Constitution pub, 42 Churton St, London SW1V 2LP
Wednesday June 15th 7:30pm - G&B Abandoning The Comfort Zone
I’m going to dress up as a dog, with ears and an animatronic moving tail, and I’m going to do stand-up from the point of view of a dog. Bringer - please tell me if you want to see this.
Unit 1, West Ham Arches, Cranberry Ln, London E16 4BJ
CANCELLED: Tuesday June 21st 7:30pm - G&B Dark Delights
240 Great Portland St, London W1W 5QU
Thursday June 23rd 7:30pm (start dining at 6pm) - inamo, Soho
Eat Japanese food while I entertain you with my comedy stylings for 10 minutes. Now you know why I’m trying to develop some more mainstream stuff.
https://www.inamo-restaurant.com/promos/comedy/
Onyx Bar, inamo Covent Garden, 11-14 Hanover Place, WC2E 9JP
Friday 24 June 10:45 pm - Roast Battle UK, Angel
https://dice.fm/event/e2nnd-roast-battle-uk-24th-jun-the-bill-murray-london-tickets
Bill Murray pub, 39 Queen's Head St, London N1 8NQ
Tuesday June 28th 7:30pm (doors 7pm) - We Are Funny Project
Great lineup. Headliner Dan Antopolski. 10 minutes from Rob Moriarty.
Book here (will probably sell out).
Farrs, 17-19 Dalston Lane, E8 3DF
Wednesday June 29th 7:30pm - G&B Arch 1
No idea what I will do here.
Unit 1, West Ham Arches, Cranberry Ln, London E16 4BJ
Thursday June 30th 7:30pm (start dining at 6pm) - inamo, Soho
As previous week.
https://www.inamo-restaurant.com/promos/comedy/
Onyx Bar, inamo Covent Garden, 11-14 Hanover Place, WC2E 9JP
Talk about tonal whiplash, huh? From race in entertainment to Dungeons & Dragons. Although they’re not that far apart, really. I often carry around a bag with lots of pieces of paper I’ve printed out that say things like RACIAL POWER on them. And when I’m done handing out my leaflets, I play Dungeons & Dragons.
Recommendations
I saw MEN (2022) recently, deliberately avoiding learning anything about it. If you’d told me the premise in advance I’d have thought it sounded horribly heavy-handed, but it’s actually pretty well done. Don’t expect something like Straw Dogs or even Midsommar, this is way more in the realm of symbolism and magic realism.
The trailer for Jordan Peele’s next film, NOPE is out and it looks great: