This year, one of television’s funniest, most imaginative, most thought-provoking shows is nearing its end. Atlanta’s most interesting and darkest season to date finished with a completely wild climax that left us all with a great deal to ponder. In fact, Atlanta Season 4 arrives on FX on September 15, 2022.
The most prominent question raised by Season 3 was how the developers and the rest of the cast planned to top that craziness this season. These Atlanta Season 4 questions will help us think about it even more as we anticipate for the Emmy-winning dramedy’s final episode to air on our 2022 TV schedule.
What is Waiting for the Paper Boi’s?
The majority of Atlanta Season 3’s action occured in Europe as the gang accompanied Brian Tyree Henry’s Alfred “Paper Boi” Miles on a tour of the region. According to the Atlanta Season 4 trailer, he and the crew are now returning to the titular Georgian city, and we’re interested to see what the rapper has to offer us.
The answer is implied repeatedly in the trailer, which features Al after what initially appeared to be a performance at a bar mitzvah, at a music studio with a yodelling country singer in which he, evidently, dismantles the control board, getting attacked at in a shopping center, as well as vocally requesting to watch ESPN from what turns out to be a “regular damn remote.” With all of this in mind, Paper Boi might be at a low period in his career and is more vulnerable than ever. He may not be the only one, though.
Will Darius Have A Bigger Part on the Screen in Season 4?
Lakeith Stanfield, an Academy Award nominee, is one of the Atlanta cast’s most dynamic breakout performers and unquestionably the best scene-stealer. We must admit that after starring in “Teddy Perkins,” one of the finest Atlanta episodes, we all were a little sad that he did not have a bigger part to play in Season 3.
Fortunately, the Season 4 trailer does give some indication that Paper Boi’s odd but kind friend might be portrayed more heavily this season and might even be encountering some phenomena even more terrifying than what we went through in that previous Season 2 episode. In fact, one of the teaser’s images appeared to pay homage to Stanfield’s performance in Jordan Peele’s Get Out, featuring a half-naked Darius acting bewildered and yelling in a weird setting that resembled “the Sunken Place.” I now worry even more about the wellbeing of this generally laid-back dude.
After her fascinating time in Europe, how is Van doing currently? Vanessa, played by Zazie Beetz, is the one whose well-being we are particularly worried about. We had last seen Vanessa in Atlanta Season 3’s finale “Tarrare,” where she was talking with a French accent and hitting people with a stale baguette. It turns out that her existential crisis, which was brought on by her worries as an unemployed single mother, was the source of this odd and aggressive persona. In other words, is she okay?
It’s difficult to address that question based solely on the trailer, which depicts Van, purportedly, experiencing a camping trip with Earn and their daughter Lottie one moment, and then wandering out by himself through an eerie, dark emptiness the next. Having said that, we wouldn’t be shocked if the character played by the Bullet Train cast member still needed to go through some “dark feelings” in order to feel whole. The teaser does, however, also allude to a good thing happening in her relation with Earn.
Are There Going to Be Any More Crazy Celeb Cameos?
Atlanta’s third season featured the most perplexing lineup of celebrity cameos I’ve ever seen on a TV show, featuring Liam Neeson parodying his own contentious past statements and Alexander Skarsgrd playing a deranged version of himself. We’d love to see some more thought-provoking cameos in Season 4, and the teaser teases that R&B singer D’Angelo may make an appearance. It may also be like the time Van attended a New Year’s party at Drake’s house and was welcomed by nothing but a cardboard figure of the actor-turned-rapper, or like the time we met the Black Justin Bieber from our reality.
Will Season 4 Include the Repercussions of Season 3, Episode 4?
The only anthology episode that was officially acknowledged as canon to Atlanta’s own reality is “The Big Payback,” the episode I previously described about white people being forced to pay slave reparations. In the mid-credits sequence of the Season 3 finale, Earn receives a travel bag by mistake that belonged to a white man with the same name, Earnest Marks (Tobias Segal), whom Justin Bartha’s character from “The Big Payback” meets at a hotel. To add to the unsettling atmosphere, this Earnest also made an appearance in a dream inside a dream that Earn, played by Donald Glover, had at the start of the season.
Anyway, our point is that we can now categorically state that Atlanta is situated in a time and place in which the goal of slave reparations has been met and they are now a normal occurrence. If this subject wasn’t further explored in Season 4 in some way, I believe it would be a significant missed opportunity.
It is a sad feeling to hear that Atlanta Season 4 is coming out because it means that I will soon be saying goodbye to a show that enthralled me with its difficult subjects, comedic tone, and stellar acting from some loveable characters.
When FX returns in September, make sure you have a Hulu subscription at the very least if you don’t have access to it.
