Donald Glover and the ‘Atlanta’ Crew Explain Why Season 3 Kicked Off With a Standalone Episode

variety.com:

Angelique Jackson After four years off the air, “Atlanta” returned to FX with a darkly comedic episode that reminded viewers to expect the unexpected.As the show began to air on the east coast Thursday night, stars Donald Glover, Zazie Beetz, LaKeith Stanfield and Brian Tyree Henry posed together on the electric blue carpet at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.Glover told Variety what thrilled him most about being reunited. “I think being away made me realize how much I missed hanging out and writing with them,” he said.The Los Angeles screening followed the show’s SXSW premiere, but when the foursome linked arms and stood before the abstract images of their characters’ faces, a clearer picture of the show’s legacy came into focus. “Atlanta” itself is abstract art that paints with such broad strokes and bright colors that it’s impossible to characterize and leaves audiences slightly off-balance at every turn. “We just wanted to have fun,” Glover said teasing the new season and noting that the most crucial element was that the execution feel “cinematic.”That can certainly be said for the season’s kick-off episodes.

Season 2 left off with the crew — Earn (Glover), Alfred a.k.a. “Paper Boi” (Henry) and Darius (Stanfield) — leaving Atlanta to tour Europe, with Van (Beetz) soon to join them.

But, the introduction to Season 3, titled “Three Slaps,” follows a young boy named Loquareeous (Christopher Farrar) in a plot that reimagines the tragic death of Devonte Hart.

In 2014, a photograph went viral of the crying then-12-year-old Black boy hugging a white police officer during a Portland, Ore.