With a third season of FX’s Atlanta now feeling quite imminent in the wake of a new teaser, a debate about perceived similarities between the Emmy-winning Donald Glover creation and Lil Dicky’s FXX series Dave has been revived.
Notably, the discourse surrounding the two shows—both of which have been the subject of positive reviews—was given new life by way of some since-deleted tweets from Glover himself. As seen in the screenshots below, Glover stated “just for the record” that he’s aware of people who point to the shows as comparable in terms of quality.
“Like y’all forgot what we did,” he wrote, adding in a “no disrespect” closer in one tweet. In another tweet, Glover brought in the “sellout” argument by linking it to any debate about whether Atlanta or Dave is the better series.
While comparisons between the two series—both of which have proven very successful for FX Networks—have persisted for some time, some have instead argued that the series are quite different tonally. Lil Dicky, who co-crated Dave with Curb Your Enthusaism alum Jeff Schaffer, made this argument when asked about the Atlanta and Dave parallels in a New York Times interview back in June.
At the time, Dicky noted that he’s also a “big fan” of Atlanta, which he considers a “great show.” As for the comparisons, Dicky pushed back against any such assessment.
“I think they’re very different,” he said. “I think our show is trying to be funny—a lot more jokes. Theirs is just the tonal brilliance. I see them as different shows.”
Atlanta premiered in September 2016 on FX, followed by a Season 2 run in 2018 that ended with a pivotal move from Glover’s character Earn. Dave, meanwhile, debuted on FXX in March of last year and recently wrapped its own second season.
As previously announced, Atlanta will return for its long-teased third season early next year. The new episodes—straight from the mouth of FX chairman John Landgraf—were “shot primarily in Europe,” which makes sense given the events of the prior season. Speaking during a TCA presentation in August, Landgraf also expressed excitement about what’s in store for the soon-to-follow Season 4, saying he “absolutely [adores]” the scripts.
While you wait, see a sampling of the current Atlanta x Dave talk below.
