Atlanta: Cancer Attack

April 18, 2022 5:45 PM - Season 3, Episode 5

Earn and Al try to solve a crime backstage after a Paper Boi show. Darius gets distracted from an eerie adventure and Van is even more cryptic than she's already been. Al has a revealing moment.

Extended essay by Charles Holmes at The Ringer on the first 5 episodes
Sepinwall liked this one better than I did
The AV Club inexplicably wants to see more of Socks
Vulture notes the gap growing between Al and Earn

posted by mediareport (6 comments total)

I loved the "Hey man, how you been?" conversation between Al and Earn before the show, and there were some decent laughs, but overall this one didn't do much for me. The idea that Socks was now part of the tour after what he did made little sense, and the weirdly inhuman way Wiley behaved, and the mostly pretty dumb ways Al and Earn reacted, left me not really caring how things turned out. The quiet conversation between Wiley and Al brought me back some, but the final reveal of the true culprit, combined with the near-complete absence of Van, just left a bad, kinda bored taste in my mouth.

I know that any other show would be setting us up for an all-Van episode soon, which makes me think this show won't, but I really hope we see more of Vanessa soon, and Glover's previous statement that this season would have a focus on Van wasn't misdirection.
posted by mediareport at 5:59 PM on April 18, 2022

Hey now, we got a whole 👍 from Van.

The details that Wiley knew are quite inexplicable if he didn't take the phone, but the season is leaning into surrealism so I'll let that slide.
posted by Marticus at 12:54 AM on April 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

The AV Club writer was sent by the devil to raise readers' blood pressure. He consistently manages to miss key details or the entire point of every episode of this show. Being happy about more Socks just feels like trolling.

I want Wiley to get inserted into everything on television. I want Wiley on Law & Order: SVU ducking interrogation room rape threats by telling the detectives unnerving stories about a cow he saw once. I want Wiley on AEW Dynamite singing a sad song to Samoa Joe about accidentally leaving a mixtape that meant a lot to him in the pocket of his jeans and sending it through the wash. I want Wiley on C-Span testifying before Congress about his favorite lentils recipe.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 10:05 PM on April 19, 2022 [6 favorites]

Loving the show but getting a little whiplash. Episodes 1 and 4 were amazing standalone stories about social justice issues. Episodes 2, 3, and 5 are hijinx from Earn and his pals in Northern Europe. Both shows are interesting! Episode 4 is my favorite so far, it's gotten me to re-think my personal relationship with the idea of reparations. And it's not like the Paper Boi tour episodes aren't full of social commentary and fun weirdness too. Just struck by how different they are. The Economist had a short article that talks about this show structure.

I'm struck watching this episode how good the actors and writing are for Socks and for Wiley. Wiley is played by Samuel Blenkin, Socks is Hugh Coles. Both actors with existing credits but not well known. They were both believable as Euro club rats. I also appreciated they were given a lot of space to be characters, that this show isn't just a star vehicle for Glover and pals.
posted by Nelson at 11:24 AM on April 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

More Darius dancing, please.
posted by cocoagirl at 1:31 PM on April 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

"If we just follow this--"
"we're not doing the map thing Darius"
"I know."
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:40 AM on May 3, 2022 [1 favorite]