How Atlanta Has Changed Since We Saw It Last

More weird, more surreal, and higher stakes are coming in season two of Atlanta, premiering Thursday March 1 on FX

By Lauren Piester Mar 01, 2018 4:00 PMTags
Watch: "Atlanta" Cast Talks Big Changes for Season 2

It's been a long time since we last saw Atlanta, and a lot has changed since then.

The season one finale aired November 1, 2016—just about a week before Donald Trump was elected president. While Atlanta is a great comedy, it's also a show that has always been a very socially conscious slice-of-life show about characters who happen to be poor and black in Atlanta. 

The show will continue to be about race and class, but you won't see its characters majorly affected by recent politics, according to star and creator Donald Glover

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"I think we're just respectful to the environment and to the characters in the situation and position they're in and try and treat the world the way it treats them," he tells E! News. "I think yeah, a lot has changed, but for a lot of people at the bottom, maybe things didn't change too much, you know. I think being poor means you're not seeing all the ripple effects from the top all the time, really. You're just going to see it from your one perspective, so I think we're gonna attack it that way, just try and give an honest portrayal of like what it feels like from that perspective." 

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"You know, everybody's like ah, Trump is president, you know, it's crazy, but the average person, like day to day life, Trump being president didn't change it that much," explains executive producer Stephen Glover. "So I think we're kind of somewhere in between there."

Director Hiro Murai adds that the shift in politics is "more of a mood" or a "social atmosphere" than anything that directly affects Earn or Alfred or the many other characters who pop up in their world. 

The show has also grown in other ways in season two, or "Robbin' Season," as it's actually titled.

"It's just like, weirder," Zazie Beetz tells us. "I think definitely the first season touches on a lot of surreal things, but this one just like, the characters are under a lot more pressure, and so when things combust, they burst. So it's just more." 

"The stakes are a lot higher and a lot riskier, so I think that's definitely going to bring some different twists and turns for our heroes," teases Brian Tyree Henry. "You're gonna see the humor's still there, but there's still a little bit of darkness that's going on in the underbelly of Atlanta, so we're showcasing that." 

What hasn't changed about the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning show is that it's still funny, still often uncomfortable, and still surprising as hell, which are all very good things. 

Atlanta premieres tonight at 10 p.m. on FX. 

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