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Image via FX Networks
The long-awaited premiere of Donald Glover’s Atlanta TV series is finally arriving next month, and we couldn’t be more excited. On a press tour ahead of its September 6 debut on FX, Glover sat down to talk about what the show is really about. “The thesis with the show was kind of to show people how it felt to be black,” he told reporters. “What was important to me was that this show was personal and had a specific take, because that’s all you can really ask for from a show nowadays, is having a specific point of view on something.”
While the show, which follows two cousins trying to make it as rappers, is a comedy, Glover says that the show features somewhat of a dark tone. “You can’t really write that down,” he said of the show’s tone. “You kind of have to feel it, so the tonal aspect was really important to me.” He’s previously gone on record saying that he wants the show to be “Twin Peaks with rappers,” and from the sounds of things he’s definitely nailing that approach.
“We’re trying to a create a tone in a world where things can happen, where you are allowed to laugh at the hard jokes,” said executive producer Hiro Murai. “People can get shot and die and you actually care about these characters.” Glover added, “I always want people to be scared, because that’s kind of how it feels to be black.”
During the press event, he also took the time to explain why he doesn’t play a rapper on the show himself, saying, “Because that would be weird, that would be so weird. I wouldn’t have enjoyed that. It’s possible to do that but then, that makes it harder for me to do music. It just clouds a lot of things. There’s a level of magic realism and suspended disbelief that you need for all genres, and it’s important for me as an artist to keep those all in tact.”
Speaking about his departure from the much beloved but now canceled Community he said, “I just like endings. I think everything should have death clauses. Thank God, one day Trump is gonna die. That is guaranteed. That is awesome. It’s important that things end and, I’m glad things end because it forces things to progress. I get really frustrated in the world because I see a lot of things that could be better but aren’t better because things haven’t died yet. I had so much fun on Community. It’s not like I wanted to run away from that.”
Glover is expected release a new album as Childish Gambino next month, too.
