TV REVIEW: ATLANTA - Season 4

4/5

Georgia On My Mind. 

10 Episodes. Starring: Donald Glover, Brian Tyree Henry, LaKeith Stanfield & Zazie Beetz. Created By: Donald Glover.

You know what they say. You wait years for a new season of 'Atlanta', and then two come along all at once like buses. But then just like that, they're gone. That's it! As going fourth, this is the final series of the FX series and the best thing on television since 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' in a succession of shows. But this is not HBO. Instead, it's the most compelling and subversive on the small-screen for your regular ass TV. Spot the logo for your credits. Because 'Atlanta' is iconic. And after a terrific third season that saw Liam Neeson passing the cancelled bar, an accented Chet Hanks for a death at a funeral, a brilliant baguette beat-down and beautiful bottle episodes. It only gets even more epic for Season 4 in the A. 

Hiro Murai's definitive direction of this peach of a show has set off these ATL stars like T.I. in all sorts of directions. Donald Glover showed us 'This Is America' as Childish Gambino and gave us the greatest soul album of our generation in 'Awaken, My Love'. Zazie Beetz became a 'Deadpool' Domino hero and a western one ('The Harder They Fall') amongst a realm of other roles. LaKeith Stanfield stole the show in 'Judas and the Black Messiah' like he did in 'Get Out'. And 'Bullet Train' and 'Widows' star Brian Tyree Henry has just copped himself an Oscar nomination for the outstanding 'Causeway'. Now that's paper, boy! 

Hard to Earn, here the gloves are off for career performances from the Donald we actually like, even if his 'Homeliest Horse' revenge is as unbridled as they come. Beetz's Van takes us even further into the heart and soul of the series. And Henry's Miles, AKA Paper Boi gives us another outstanding one-shot episode on a farm, ee, I, ee, I, o. Yet it's Stanfield who steals the show in the opening and classic closing episode, spinning around in a toy car like 'Otis' as this show watches the game of thrones it sits upon. From getting into an altercation with a knife-wielding supermarket customer in an electric chair. To spending longer than "thirty min-ooooootes" in a sensory deprivation tank for the best moment of the series and maybe the entire show. 

Offbeat and obliterating to anything else in its path, it's time to get your hawk talons into the brave (still feels like it's) new show that is 'Atlanta', young world. Hey, it's 'The Most Atlanta', like all your exes living in the mall, not Texas like Drake said about George Straight, or the band of the same song name. There's country, cornbread rappers born to die like a Lana Del Rey song. A search for a milk carton family member that will leave you saying, "sheeeeeeeet!" A killer that you should probably tell Soulja Boy about and another mall scene that feels like it's straight out of 'Terminator 2' for your judgement day. All this and you almost got to meet D'Angelo. Now, how did that feel? Like kissing for Jordans? Well, how about Mr. Chocolate instead, for Donald's latest, classic character creation like the iconic time Glover became Michael Jackson without a single, silver glove? This aint Willy Wonka. Or Disney as the real history of Goofy will leave you shook in perhaps the greatest episode that's truly, satirically saying something in the entirety of 'Atlanta's' great Georgian run. 

Let's just say, I looked at Tokyo Disneyland differently last week when I took my girlfriend for her birthday/our first anniversary. But the resort of Earn and Van's trip into the woods with their lovely Lottie may restore your faith in love again. Or straight scare the s### out of you. Maybe it's because it arrived on Disney + just in time for Christmas here in Japan, that our review for the slice of TV we love the most comes a few days after Valentine's. Better late than forgetting a special day (I didn't, don't worry), the fourth and final season of 'Atlanta' came in September, just before the time you'd usually rouse Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong from his slumber. You already know we anti-binge want to savour everything these days. Or maybe we're just late to the party because we didn't want to leave 'Atlanta'. This otherworldly dark comedy feels like home. And without it, the world feels a little less brighter. This is the America that gives us hope the dream isn't dead. WAKE UP! TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'Atlanta (Season 1)', 'Atlanta (Season 2), 'Atlanta (Season 3)' (just watch this show).