Atlanta (TV Series) Juneteenth (2016) User Reviews

Jim Crow

[dannylee-78082 · 8/10 · 14 January 2023]

1. Earn and Vanessa go to a party 2. Craig does poetry 3. Earn and Van make out

What an interesting episode. This episode is centered around a Juneteenth party hosted by a rich white man named Craig. Talk about irony! Craig has "black people as a hobby" and it's hilarious. He follows black culture religiously to the extent of making him look ludicrous. He even gets himself a black wife for that purpose. Earn and Vanessa feel weirded out by these people in the party and the show pulls out its classic surreal vibes.

As a non-black person who enjoys black culture, particularly in music, I wonder if I am being that way sometimes. Where is the line between appreciation and appropriation? I'd like to think that I am on the appreciation side but I think it's hard to truly "understand" the other side. You can only try to understand and that's probably enough for many people.

Black history is neither black nor white.

[hamidullahgenc · 9/10 · 27 January 2017]

In this episode, Earn and Van goes to a newly friend of Van and they seem rich and "cultured" while they force Earn and Van to behave a little according to their perspectives.

All the art, all the fine drinks, all the drawing the longbow, all that "we are free and better off of the black street culture" attitude backfires at the end. To Earn, it is safe to say that those people at the mansion are all "whitened people".

Or maybe, Earn was so in the middle of trying to make it that everything that is irrelevant to it seems awkward and confusing.

I mean, who would know the culture down in Africa and also who could tell if the African-Americans are living the life all wrongly if they behave like white American people or maintain the black street culture?..

The black human being -who were dragged away from their sweet homes from 15th century onward seem not to be perceived as equal to the white people some of whom tried hard not to exploit the black people while some of them really saw black people as a being below the white people- should decide what to do with their lives not looking at white / whitened people, or the black culture, but looking at their hearts and minds and skills alongside the needs of the universe.

In sum, Earn seems to want that for himself as well as his family and friends. Okay, he seems very confused all the time; but he is not that lost.

P.S.: Mr. Craig Allen represents the white people who took all the shame caused by the exploiters and enslavers of the black people in the history and who, deep down, know that they should do something about it all but who also clearly do not know what to do that really counts for something in the black lives!.. Wow!..

So, I give this one a "8,7."

"And walk not in the earth exultantly. Lo! thou wilt never tear the earth open, nor canst thou stretch to the height of the mountains."

Thus The Gracious Koran speaks on the matter in the 37th Verse of its 17th Chapter called "The Night Journey."

That Was Awkward...

[lassegalsgaard-45284 · 10/10 · 20 February 2018]

The one thing that has constantly bothered me about this episode, is that there never seem to be any stereotypical white guys present in the show. Now, this is not because I particularly wanted a white guy to be on the show, but mostly because I thought they had done a great job of presenting various stereotypical characters in the show, but had never included that particular stereotype. I always thought it could be the funniest thing ever if they decided to include it, but it wasn't anything that I was calling for. I mean, they have had some very corny white characters on the show, like the manager guy who was in the premiere episode, and then never seen again since. The show has done a great job of keeping everything consistent so far, but still be able to change up the format a little bit for each episode. And this was another homerun episode, that had so much funny humor and some great and memorable moments.

Something that I have loved ever since the first episode, was the chemistry between Donald Glover and Zazie Beetz. They are great in their respective roles, and they both knock it out of the park everytime they are on the show: both together and in their standalone scenes. They have always been strongest together, and I think that this episode showed the power that they have on screen. There are many small scenes in this episode where they have to play off each other, and they do that so well and to the point where it does feel a little bit improvised, but never in a bad way. Plus, the ending scene was very satisfying for the people who are shipping these two characters.

This episode was another one that focused a lot on Vanessa, and I never think that is a bad thing, because her character is very strong in the show, even though she hasn't appeared in that many episodes. She has a great role to play in this episode, and it does play off the thing that happened to her at the end of the sixth episode, which I hoped they would. And seeing how things went in this episode, it feels like we are not done with this storyline yet, which means that we will probably get some more Van in the future, which makes me very exciting for what's going to come in Season 2.

I mentioned the stereotypical white guy, and we get that character in this episode in the form of the rich Craig. This was such a fun character and to see his interactions with Earnest were some of the highlights of this episode. Craig is one of those who doesn't want to offend black people, to the extend where he becomes obsessed with them and their culture, which made Earn feel incredibly uncomfortable. I never knew I wanted these scenes or a relationship like this, but I enjoyed watching it, and I hope that Craig is someone who we can revisit in a future episode.

The episode's setting also gave an opening to introduce a lot of fun and goofy characters. There is a very invested priest and a very awkward playwright, and I loved the awkward interactions they had with Earn and Vanessa. I loved those scenes and not only because of the introductions of these weird characters, but because it gave Glover and Beetz something interesting to play opposite and helped improve their respective performances.

Juneteenth

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 20 June 2018]

Why does Van have friends who think that if you are black you need to marry well to get on in life?

Van takes Earn to a Juneteenth party thrown by a new friend, Monique. She is black but married to a white man, Craig who regards himself open, haughty, Iiberal and some kind of poet/artist with a love of black culture. The party in the mansion is conservative and cultured. To Earn it is all seriously whacked. These are not upper crusted black enlightened people but whitened people.

Earn does his best to behave like a couple for Van's sake but he finds it all awkward and then he is recognised as Paper Boi's manager.