ATLANTA

After being announced nearly three years ago, FX has finally given us a few glimpses of Donald Glover's highly anticipated television show, 'Atlanta.' Though none of the promos have included any dialogue fans are still extremely excited and, for the most part, already understand the direction Glover wants to take the series. At the beginning of the year Glover told the attendees of the Television Critics Association tour that “The tone is everything... I just wanted to make ‘Twin Peaks’ with rappers." For people that do not know, 'Twin Peaks' was a television series,that debuted in the early 90's, about FBI agent Dale Cooper traveling to a small town to solve a murder. The show was very surreal and proves the point that not everything is as it seems. Just from watching the latest promos it's really easy to see that Donald Glover wants to make 'Atlanta' a very surreal and artistic project. Listening to the music that's been playing during the promos, you can tell that Glover is continuing down the same artistic path that he started with 'Because the Internet' and 'Kauai.' Personally, I am a huge fan of those two albums, and seeing these promos makes me think that 'Atlanta' will be the visual incarnation of those albums. 

The show will revolve around two cousins, Earnest (Donald Glover) and Alfred Miles (Brian Tyree Henry), and their conflicting views of artistic expression. Earnest is a loner that leaves Atlanta only to return and work an "unglamorous" job, while his cousin Alfred becomes one of Atlanta's hottest rappers. Earnest sees a chance to manage Alfred's career and, most likely, this is where the conflict arises. 

As an African American man it's exciting to see more shows being created by and starring more black people. There are shows like 'Power,' 'Blackish,' Empire,' 'How to get away with murder,' and 'Scandal,' only proving further that out stories and our talents have mass appeal and that our culture has tremendous influence and value.