atlanta movie review

Is Atlanta 10.0 a true story? The thriller’s real life inspirations

• by Chege Karomo
•  – on Feb 19, 2024
•  in Film

Atlanta 10.0 is a crime thriller that explores the dark side of Georgia’s capital, Atlanta. Its description on Amazon Prime reads : “Atlanta 10.0 is a dramatic, gut-wrenching thriller, crime film that displays some of the many tragic and real events that have taken place in Atlanta. This film will change your view of Atlanta forever.”

The ‘tragic and real events’ that inspired Atlanta 10.0 are unclear

The real-life inspirations behind Atlanta 10.0 are unclear. Ryan Givins, the film’s director, has yet to speak about the true stories that inspired the film. Nevertheless, Atlanta, a city that has struggled with crime since the mid-20th century, is a hotspot for true crime stories. Givins could’ve been inspired by any number of crimes that happened in the city. 

Atlanta 10.0’s synopsis on IMDb reads : “Atlanta 10.0 is a dramatic, thriller, crime series that displays some of the many tragic real events that have taken place in Atlanta. While Atlanta is known for being a place where people come to prosper, it also has a wicked side that many discover when it’s too late.”

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Pitch Perfect

The best movies that are set in atlanta.

Atlanta, a vibrant hub of culture and history, sets the stage for some of the most memorable cinematic experiences. The films featured in this list not only showcase Atlanta's unique skyline and neighborhoods but also weave the city’s rich heritage and modern dynamism into their narratives. These movies range from heartwarming dramas to high-stakes thrillers, each capturing different facets of Atlanta's character.

The significance of Atlanta in these films extends beyond mere backdrop; it plays a pivotal role in shaping the stories and characters within. Whether it’s through depicting key historical events or celebrating local culture, these movies offer viewers a taste of what makes Atlanta both distinct and universally relatable. As you explore this collection, consider how the setting influences each story and adds depth to its characters' journeys. Share your thoughts on which movie best captures the essence of Atlanta and help us determine which ones stand out as fan favorites.

• Released : 1998
• Directed by : Hype Williams

What Men Want

• Released : 2019
• Directed by : Adam Shankman

• Released : 2012
• Directed by : Jason Moore

• Released : 2011
• Directed by : Steven Soderbergh

• Released : 1995
• Directed by : Wolfgang Petersen

• Released : 2015
• Directed by : Ari Sandel

‘Atlanta’ Series Finale Recap: What a Long, Strange Trip

By Alan Sepinwall

Alan Sepinwall

A review of the Atlanta series finale, “It Was All a Dream,” coming up just as soon as I tell you how many seasons of Homeboys in Outer Space there were…

The thing about Atlanta is that the series is so fluid, and so unpredictable in terms of subject and tone, that it could have ended in almost any way, and it probably would have felt appropriate on some level. Could have been something dark, something silly, something thoughtful. Could have focused on any of the regular characters, or even revisited the Justin Bartha character from last season’s reparations episode . Heck, “The Goof Who Sat By the Door” would have been an incredible mic drop. No matter what Donald Glover and company(*) did, we wouldn’t be able to say that we hadn’t been warned.

Yet after watching “It Was All a Dream,” it’s hard to think of a more fitting conclusion to this incredible show.

After two of the previous three episodes provided emotional closure for Earn and Van , and then for Al , the finale largely turns its attention towards Darius. But how on earth do you wrap up the arc of a character as eccentric and inscrutable as Darius? Closure for Earn and Van is easy; they want to be with each other, even if it’s been hard to admit that after all their starts and stops. Al discovering that he loves the farming life is perhaps a surprise, except that we know how uncomfortable he is around almost all people. Darius, though? Darius is a riddle, wrapped in an enigma, buried under a pile of jollof . We know what he is like, but not necessarily what he wants, what drives him, or what lurks beneath that chill, empathetic exterior.

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Among the elements that has made Atlanta so special is the way the series lets dream logic exist side by side with both farce and a degree of gritty realism. And none of the three male leads is more comfortable moving from one space to the next than Darius. So of course the show has to conclude with him sliding back and forth between all these tones as he struggles to figure out what is real and what is a hallucination brought on by his latest experience in a sensory deprivation tank — or, as he dubs it, dep sesh(*).

(*) Not to be confused with a Depp sesh, which Earn assumes is an underground Johnny Depp film edited from all his other films.

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…except that he wakes up in the deprivation tank seconds later. Thicc Judge Judy did not save him, but the sheer horror of the incident did — or so it seems. The rest of the episode is a Russian nesting doll of hallucinations, with each one beginning in relatively understated fashion before spiraling out of control. Even when it appears that he has misjudged the situation — like when he freaks out over how often the other deprivation clients keep saying the phrase “tea room,” then gets kicked to the curb because it does not appear to be a hallucination, after all — we eventually see that he’s just floating in the tank, having dreams on top of dreams.

(*) This is something of a callback to when Al imagined his mother cleaning up his apartment on the anniversary of her death, back in Season Two’s “Woods.”

All of this plays out in between an amusing subplot where Al, Earn, and Van attempt to enjoy lunch at a Black-owned sushi restaurant that one of Van’s friends has invested in. The sight of a Popeye’s across the parking lot from the sushi place is a cruel taunt to Al, especially when the sushi turns out to be unusual, at times bordering on inedible. With Van and Earn acting mostly as straight men, it is one last time for the show to unleash Brian Tyree Henry’s brilliant comic gift for playing silent disgust and longing.

But what starts as a lighthearted but relatively realistic story takes a strange, very Atlanta turn when the three friends attempt to leave the restaurant early to beat the mid-afternoon rush of high school kids to the Popeye’s. The restaurant’s mysterious owner Demarcus (Calvin Dutton) emerges, clad in the same kind of suit and bow tie that the creepy Ahmad White sported in a few episodes of Season One(*). Demarcus is fed up with having his culinary methods questioned, with the Black community’s failure to support one of their own, with the level of distrust coursing throughout that community. His oratory seemingly gets through to Al, but Demarcus follows it with an order for his staff to lock the doors so that these three wayward diners will be forced to eat the potentially poisonous blowfish his chef has prepared for them.

(*) Ahmad is the guy on the bus in the series premiere who offers Earn a Nutella sandwich, then gets out and randomly stands on the edge of the road, staring silently at the woods in front of him — perhaps the first sign that this show would not be what we expected. Ahmad later appears in Season One’s “B.A.N.,” where his commercial promised answers to anyone calling into his hotline.

It is so hilarious, so random, that it seems as if the episode is explaining that most of what we have seen so far has been part of Darius’ dep sesh experience, and that he has for some reason been dreaming about events where he’s not present…

…which, more or less, turns out to be how Darius is interpreting things. When the gang goes back to Al’s place, he explains that it’s no big deal that he stole the Maserati, because it’s just a hallucination, much like the one where London stole the cop’s gun. None of this is real, so no one can be hurt. It’s not an unreasonable assumption after the day he’s had, and if you follow Darius logic, it becomes possible that much — or even all — of Atlanta has been happening inside his head. It would certainly explain the oddness of things like Black Justin Bieber, the invisible car, or even Teddy Perkins. It would explain how this show’s seemingly mismatched pieces almost always fit together perfectly.

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But if it is all meant to be “real”? Then life is, for that moment, pretty great for Darius. And it’s been great for those of us lucky enough to watch this special, special show, and this all-time classic final season. Now let’s all fire up a new episode of Judy Justice and see how our favorite courtroom personality looks.

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Atlanta Recap: The Making of the Blackest Movie of All Time

I used to love sleepovers at my grandma’s house because of her large television, premium-cable subscription, and vast collection of VHS tapes and DVDs. A movie that got a lot of time in her DVD/VHS combo player was A Goofy Movie, and of course its sequel, An Extremely Goofy Movie . I remember craving the overly drippy cheese pizza and crushing over both Roxanne and Powerline. Though I loved the movie, I never thought too deeply as to why until I saw a random Twitter thread years ago explaining how A Goofy Movie is actually about a Black man and his son. My jaw was on the floor. The people over at Vice picked up on the story too. It all made sense; my natural gravitation to the aesthetics, the familiarity of the energy, Tevin fucking Campbell … how did I not see it before?

Donald Glover pays homage to the movie that’s now considered a cult classic in this week’s Atlanta with a hilarious mockumentary-style episode that chronicles the making of “the Blackest movie of all time.” The entire thing plays out like a bit you take too far with friends after a smoking session: What if Disney made A Goofy Movie Black on purpose? What if a Black person made A Goofy Movie ? What if a Black person was the CEO of Disney? Well, that’s exactly what happened in the Atlanta universe. We’re treated to a complete timeline of events that led to the beloved film, and eventually the beloved “Damn bitch, you live like this?” meme .

It’s the early ’90s and amid Disney’s resurgence due to the releases of The Little Mermaid , Beauty and the Beast , and The Lion King , an early-career animator named Thomas Washington suddenly, and accidentally, becomes CEO of the company. Washington began working at Disney after a lifetime of drawing and getting his degree from Savannah College of Art and Design. He grew up obsessed with cartoons, and his talent and creativity, combined with the fact that he was one of the few Black students on campus, made him a standout. At SCAD he attended a speaking engagement led by Art Babbitt, the man who originated the Disney character Goofy. One of Washington’s previous teachers read a quote from a fictional article written by Babbitt that breaks down Goofy’s characterization: “Think of the Goof as a composite of an everlasting optimist, a gullible Good Samaritan, a half-wit, a shiftless, good-natured colored boy, and a hick …” The quote continues with pretty coded language about barbershops and laziness, but the point is, Goofy was created to mimic racist stereotypes about Black people.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a fictional account of how Goofy was created. I found an article published in 1996 that quotes the real Babbitt saying most of the above nonsense verbatim in a memo written in 1934. If you look closely at some of the older comics of Goofy, like in the clips shown in Atlanta ’s mockumentary, it’s startlingly obvious that some of his actions have a racist undertone. (The watermelon was overkill.) Washington’s old professor goes on to say that his student developed an attachment to both Babbitt and Goofy, and that Babbitt’s quote became the basis for a series Washington called “Goofy, Please,” which depicted the Disney character as a Black man playing basketball. During his time at SCAD, he also created a short film based on his father’s death. The film was so poignant it landed him a job at Disney straight out of college as part of the company’s initiative to bring in diverse voices.

Washington’s position at Disney gave him a solid job and stability as he worked on one of the DuckTales movies. It was around this time that the 1992 L.A. riots broke out, an event that deeply impacted his life and inspired him to vow that if he ever did a movie for Disney, he wouldn’t hold back. As racial tensions rose in L.A. and across the country, Disney happened to lose its CEO due to ultimately fatal health complications. The executive board voted for Tom Washington — a man whose real name was Thompson Washington, not Thomas — thus installing a Black CEO due to a clerical error. Not wanting the optics of quickly hiring and firing a Black man, and being unable to sweep things under the rug because of Tom’s insistence that he is rightfully the CEO, Disney moved forward with the accidental decision.

A previous employee of Washington’s tells the cameras that on his first day as CEO, he showed a clip of Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Pluto where Mickey is tugging on Pluto’s leash. Washington asked the room, “Why is Goofy letting Mickey do that? Goofy’s a dog and Pluto’s a dog, so why is he letting Mickey do that to one of his own?” Phew. He ran his entire tenure at Disney with this attitude; he knew his situation was precarious and it was inevitable his time at Disney would be short, so he set his sights on creating what he considered to be the Blackest film ever made. Washington enlisted fellow Black Disney animator Frank Rolls as director and pitched why Goofy was the perfect character for the project: He wanted to use Goofy’s story to highlight the systemic factors a lot of Black fathers deal with. Rolls was surprised by these thoughts coming from Washington, a man who he thought had a solid home life.

Washington married his wife, Annie, young and had one son, Maxwell, with her. He had a very close relationship with his son; scenes like Goofy and Max’s camping trip were inspired by Washington’s real relationship with his child. Maxwell describes some of the Easter eggs in A Goofy Movie that are direct winks at Black culture. The episode hits a stride here in terms of comedy as the mockumentary reaches to make A Goofy Movie seem a lot deeper than it is, comparing the road-trip map to The Negro Motorist Green Book or saying the movie confronted ideas around Black exceptionalism. It gets so ridiculous that one white employee describes hours of drawing until his fingers bled so he could get the Black dance moves just right for Washington.

The creation of A Goofy Movie snowballed into something so big it began to take over both Washington and the Disney offices. He would refer to Mickey Mouse as “this white boy” and ran a social club out of his office with the biggest Black stars in Hollywood (and Harrison Ford), giving us cameos from the legendary Sinbad and Brian McKnight contributing to the documentary.

Things started to spin out of control for Washington as the pressure of creating A Goofy Movie became too much. He started binge-drinking and cheating on his wife, leading to their eventual divorce and a rift between him and his son. When a Disney executive questioned if Washington was in control of the overinflated budget, he replied, “Of course I am! I’m Goofy,” letting out a demented Goofy “hyuck” laugh. They offered to buy him out to step down, but Washington refused. He started getting paranoid and aligned himself with numerous Black nationalist groups like the Nation of Islam and eventually with multiple gangs, promising shout-outs at the end of the movie. The ideas for the ending started getting really radical; Washington wanted Goofy and Max to get pulled over by a pig policeman in a scene that would end in … a shooting? Or Goofy could get shot at the Powerline concert for running onstage. Either way, someone’s getting shot. Oh, and he wanted Max and Goofy to stumble into a thrift store and find Huey Newton’s rattan throne, realizing the greater meaning of it all.

By the end of production of A Goofy Movie , Washington had a mental breakdown, recording a video of himself heavily inebriated, deeply depressed, and almost manic while crying on-camera repeating the phrase, “I’m so close,” and promising that this was all for the culture. Disney cut ties with Washington but still let him on the lot to see the final product of the movie. Replacing some of his more radical scenes, Disney watered down the concept to what we know A Goofy Movie to be today; instead of finding Newton’s chair, Max and Goofy find Bigfoot in the woods. This was the last straw for Washington, who drove off the lot only for his car to be found at the bottom of a lake 40 miles from Burbank — the same lake he went fishing with his son. They never found his body … but they did find his oversize white gloves.

Atlanta After Hours

• As hilarious as this episode was all around, I did see some parallels between Washington and Glover in terms of the internal struggle to “represent the culture.” It doesn’t help that a large chunk of Glover’s fan base is white. Even recapping the show can be difficult since sometimes it’s very clear that Black viewers and white viewers have drastically different experiences watching because of our different worldviews. For example, some white viewers didn’t understand why I, as well as Earn and Van, clocked the white man in the last episode as kind of creepy . This episode’s ideas about how A Goofy Movi e is viewed through our lens as Black people is a great metaphor for how race informs how we consume media.

• When Rolls said that Washington wanted to address a plethora of issues in the Black community including fatherhood, gang violence, segregation, incarceration, and “the amount of cheese in African American diets,” I fell out. The cheese on those pizzas looked so good, it’s forever etched in my memory. What can I say? I’m a Black woman who loves cheese.

• The amount of care that was put into making this seem like a completely plausible documentary will not go unnoticed on my watch. There was the perfect amount of detail, nostalgia, and archival clips from real events and real cartoons. It stretches the absurdity at the perfect points, like finding the Goofy gloves and costume at the crime scene, but stays grounded in reality when necessary, as when drawing connections to real-life events including the riots, making the final product an excellent satire.

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Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children

HBO documentary series are typically a tier above other networks and “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children” is no exception. Over five hours, the producers of this series detail the Atlanta Child Murders of 1979 and 1980, in which dozens of Black children were kidnapped and murdered in the Georgia city. Forty years after the killing spree, there are still a great number of questions about how the case unfolded. As someone who knows a great deal about the case – I’m a fan of true crime series of all forms and wrote about how “Mindhunter” used this case in its second season for Vulture – I went into “The Lost Children” skeptical that it could teach me anything new about this American tragedy, but it is remarkably detailed and, most of all, compassionate in the way it approaches this story. Instead of just a typical, clinical true crime approach, the directors focus heavily on the people involved in this case, mostly the loved ones left behind. It creates a true picture of the impact of these murders and an argument that they were covered up by a city on the rise and maybe even a president who claimed to be color-blind.

From 1979 to 1981, Atlanta was paralyzed by a string of child murders. It was mostly young boys who would go missing. Sometimes their bodies would be found quickly; sometimes it took months. At first, because the missing children were Black and poor, no one paid much attention. It wasn’t until several of the mothers of these children started pushing for media attention that the world took notice. A task force was formed but made almost no progress. A series like this could focus solely on the inadequate and arguably corrupt investigation and political establishment that wanted to sweep these cases under the rug, but this isn’t exactly that approach to this story. It’s here, of course, but you will hear more from mothers and brothers of victims than you will from police officers or politicians.

And with a few exceptions – who are impressively given their time in front of the camera too to create a balanced impression – most of these people don’t think the case was ever really solved. Yes, a man named Wayne Williams was arrested and convicted of the two final murders, both men notably older than the typical victims, but dozens of questions remain. The final episode presents Williams’ appeal in detail I hadn’t seen before, including several alternate suspects who seem to have nearly as much evidence against them as the man the Atlanta authorities determined killed all these children. There have always been elements of the Williams case that don’t add up on either side. His story the night he was arrested never added up – he claimed he was going to an appointment that could never be confirmed – and there was suspicious activity in the days after he was first questioned. However, there are elements of pinning all of these crimes on Williams that just don’t make sense either. The theory that Williams was used as a blanket to put out the potential fire that would have started if it had been proven that a KKK member had been killing black children is given a lot of time here. Although it should be noted that there are people interviewed who know this case very well and are convinced of Williams’ guilt. I almost wonder if hearing some of the evidence presented in episode five won’t change their mind. 

So how do you make a five-hour series that doesn’t reach a definitive conclusion interesting? By being this balanced in terms of information and compassion. “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered” is a delicately nuanced production that doesn’t dip too far into stories of grief or feel too clinical in its informative nature. It walks that line in the middle. It has the perfect blend of the two, taking a story with so many players and so many issues and making it feel human again. The Atlanta Child Murders were a formative event in this country in the early ‘80s. You might walk away from this series thinking that the case was correctly solved. You might walk away thinking it was merely closed to stop a race war from destroying the city. But you will definitely walk away with a clearer picture of why this story remains such a vital part of Atlanta’s history. It still feels like its final chapter has yet to be written.

Premieres on HBO on Sunday, April 5th .

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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• AV Undercover

Atlanta drops its most daring episode yet

A b.a.n. documentary tells the story of the blackest movie ever made.

Atlanta has already proven that it can pull off any concept or format change it damn well pleases, but this week takes its chameleonic strengths to a whole other level. If you’ve come to this recap without watching yet, please go watch it now, because this, like “ B.A.N. ” and “ Teddy Perkins ,” is one of the episodes to experience with as little knowledge as possible. “The Goof Who Sat By The Door” is Atlanta ’s most daring and thematically-impressive episode yet, as it creates a revisionist history for the Blackest film of the Disney Renaissance.

For everyone who didn’t previously know that the Black community claims A Goofy Movie , here’s an article laying out all the details that resonate with Black millennial fans (and an academic paper ). For anyone who’s about to comment, “Why bring race in? It’s a cartoon,” here’s an interview that touches on why kids of color have historically glommed on to Black- and POC-coded characters when there weren’t any actual cartoons with characters of color. Read those and internalize that Goofy being subjectively Black makes many people happy and hurts literally no one. That’s all the hand-holding I’m going to do. Goofy and Max are Black; let’s move on.

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Though there have been articles about the Blackness of A Goofy Movie , it’s still a subject that mostly lives within Black online circles. Instead of just including it as a joke and a nod, or even a catalyst for a character’s episode arc, like the “Crank Dat Killer,” Glover, who directs this faux-doc, and writers Francesca Sloane and Karen Joseph Adcock use expert storytelling to make this behind-the-scenes look at how Disney produced something so Black at a time where all-white animation teams were first awkwardly trying to introduce diversity into their films.

If it wasn’t for the return of the Black American Network, I would’ve thought that I’d somehow turned on the wrong show. There have now been several episodes of Atlanta that haven’t featured a single member of the main cast, but “Goof” sticks with an extremely Black subject that calls back to the show’s first standalone episode, season two’s coming-of-age piece “ FUBU .” The faux-doc is a brilliant homage to the format, with Glover building a very serious piece of work about an alternate reality where Disney had its first Black CEO. The only connection to Atlanta is the literal city as Thomas “Tom” Washington’s (Eric Berryman) hometown, and it’s not outwardly trying for laughs, with the humor coming through within the details. “Goof” is such a huge leap, but it works so well within the show as a whole and season 4’s theme of reckoning with legacy and power once an artist gets a taste of success.

Tom Washington’s story is heartbreaking in a very familiar way, and it reminded me of other docs about Black luminaries who dealt with mental-health struggles and substance abuse issues. It’s also just a classic nerd story, starting with Washington being bullied by his peers and struggling with not fitting in (that too-common moniker of “acting white”). He finds his joy in cartoons, and eventually goes to art school to become an animator. No one really understands him but his professors, who see his potential in his student projects like The Lil’ Prince (actually featuring Prince) and a series of Goofy portraits in the same vein of the “ Damn, you live like this ” meme (which later gets a shoutout). Eventually, he gets a job at Disney, where he probably would’ve had a career similar to Floyd Norman if a bunch of white men paid more attention to Thomas vs. Thompson.

The arc of Washington’s life plays out very realistically, except for Washington getting into the CEO seat in the first place. Once he does, his office at the Disney lot becomes the Black gathering ground of Hollywood, as he begins his journey to turn A Goofy Movie into a tale of Black acceptance and liberation told through a bond between a father and son. The explanations of Washington’s vision for the film are wild (the heart of what Black people love about the film is there, but the map as the Green Book is a bit of a stretch), and eventually he becomes obsessed, making illustrators redraw daps until their fingers bleed and sending white animators to cookouts where they’d get their asses beat. And he still had to deal with the Disney machine, who wanted to put “that white boy” Mickey in the film.

This faux-documentary about a man who never existed also builds a lot of empathy for the subject by bringing in Washington’s family to round out his character. They’re able to speak to the sides of the man who the white Disney employees didn’t know, and the differences in the ways they respond to his jokes and the cultural details bring half the episode’s comedy. It’s also lovely how the relationship between he and his son mirrors Goofy and Max, solidifying the thought that the movie is a love letter from father to son. This also makes his slow unraveling from corporate and community pressure even sadder, especially once we get to his filmed breakdown and the recounting of his broken Goofy laugh.

In the end, Washington was pushed out of his role, and The Goofy Movie of Atlanta lore matches the real-life version, Bigfoot scene and all. To be fair, ending the animated kids film with the Get Out alternate ending would have been a bad call, but I really wonder how much his version would have been different, or what other projects he would have worked on if his car didn’t end up at the bottom of a Burbank lake. “Goof” and last week’s installment, “ The Snipe Hunt ,” are the types of episodes that leave you sitting quietly in thought instead of choking on laughter, and Atlanta will go down as one of the best shows of the early twenty-first century because it can deftly deliver on both comedy and drama. I’m excited to rewatch and sit with this episode for a long time, enjoying the Blackest documentary about the Blackest movie of all time.

Stray observations

• I did a quick dive into the history of Goofy for this (as well as watching A Goofy Movie , cause I hadn’t seen more than the “I.2.I” scene in at least nine years), and for anyone who still wants to say Goofy wasn’t designed after Black stereotypes: For his first appearance in 1932’s “Mickey’s Revue,” dude was an audience member named Dippy Dawg who annoyed everyone by laughing loudly and crunching on peanuts.
• Also, Powerline was supposed to be voiced by Bobby Brown! He was reportedly replaced by Campbell near the end of production, but the character was already designed to look like the “bad boy of R&B.”
• Sloane and Adcock’s integration of fictional details into the events of the time is so seamless at points that most of my notes were just reminders to look up what was real and what was imagined. (“Analysis of the Goof”? Real . Michael Eisner taking a break during his 21-year stint as CEO? Not real, from what I could find.)
• Either “ I.2.I. ” or “ Can We Talk ” is gonna be stuck in your head for the next week. You’re welcome. (Also, how cool would it have been if they actually got Tevin Campbell.)
• Kids will make fun of you for anything (and Tom’s mom was wise).
• Mickey does show up during the “ On The Open Road ” scene.
• This screener came out late, so I wasn’t able to sit with the episode for a day or get into as much research as usual. I’m excited to hear from anyone who’s more familiar with the history of Disney animation and its history in the comments!
• Who will and should win at the 2024 Emmys?
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• Kathy Bates says after Matlock reboot, she’ll join Matlock viewers in retirement

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Rich Homie Quan, the Atlanta rapper known for trap jams like ‘Type of Way,’ dies at 33

FILE - Rich Homie Quan attends the arrivals at VH1’s Hip Hop Honors at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center on Monday, July 11, 2016, in New York. (Photo by Brad Barket/Invision/AP, File)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rich Homie Quan, the Atlanta rapper who gained mainstream fame through the trap singles “Type of Way” and “Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh),” has died. He was 33.

Quan, whose legal name is Dequantes Devontay Lamar, died at an Atlanta hospital, the Fulton County Medical Examiner confirmed to The Associated Press. The medical examiner was informed of his death Thursday, said Jimmy Sadler, senior medical examiner investigator. The cause of death was not immediately available, with an autopsy scheduled for Friday.

Quan was one of the biggest names in hip-hop in the mid-2010s. He released a slew of mixtapes before he broke through in 2013 with the infectious “Type of Way.” The song became such a success that several other rappers jumped on the remix, including Jeezy and Meek Mill. He maintained his momentum, appearing on a YG track with Jeezy and releasing the London on da Track-produced song “Lifestyle” through his Rich Gang rap collective that included Young Thug and Birdman.

From AP’s archives: Rich Homie Quan spoke with AP in 2022 about his 2013-2016 run of hip-hop hitmaking that included “Type of Way,” “Flex (Ohh, Ohh, Ohh),” “Walk Thru” and “Lifestyle.” The Atlanta rapper has died at 33.

Quan followed up with “Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh),” a song produced by DJ Spinz and Nitti Beatz. It became his highest charting solo single at No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He also featured on Lil Dicky’s viral “$ave Dat Money.”

In 2018, Quan debuted his first and only studio album “Rich as in Spirit,” which mostly went without any features — except for “Think About It,” a single with Rick Ross.

Quavo, Lil Boosie and Playboi Carti are some of the music artists who paid tribute to Quan on social media.

“Rest in Peace my brother Rich Homie Quan,” said singer Jacquees, who also called him a “legend” on X. “I love you for Life.”

Quan spoke with The Associated Press in 2022 about returning to music after an abrupt hiatus. At the time, the rapper said he was going through litigation with independent label T.I.G. (Think It’s a Game Record), but was prepared to make a comeback.

During that time, Quan ended up in a feud with his old collaborator Young Thug — who along with rapper Gunna — were among a group indicted on charges of conspiracy to violate Georgia’s RICO Act and also accused of participation in a criminal street gang.

Quan said there was no beef between him Young Thug and was open to having a conversation with him if the opportunity presented itself. He said he hated to see Young Thug locked up, adding that rappers were being targeted by law enforcement.

“I wouldn’t say unfairly targeted because at the same time, some of these rappers are putting guns in videos and, you know, it’s like social media — it goes back to the social media thing,” he said.

“I think we showing too much, I think they’re showing too much, you know what I mean. Like that’s the difference in my music, I’ma tell a story but I ain’t going to tell you how I did it,” he added. “It’s still Black art, but we’re definitely being targeted. So that’s why I’m mindful of what I say in my music.”

Landrum and Dalton reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Gary Gerard Hamilton contributed to this report from New York. ___

This story has been updated to correct Quan’s age to 33 based on information from the medical examiner.

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Why was Atlanta's finale so disappointing?

Donald Glover’s series couldn’t rediscover its old magic, even if it stayed pretty funny (and pretty) till the end.

There's nothing worse than explaining comedy, but the funniest moment in Atlanta 's last season requires investigation. Darius ( LaKeith Stanfield ) visits a sensory deprivation tank and loses track of what's real. Think Inception , except his spinning top is Judge Judy's butt. We follow Darius out of the tank through incidents that are strange, but not unusual, just regular Atlanta -strange. Then he wakes up, still in the pool. How long he was asleep? "About 30 minoots," says a worried assistant (Daniel Chung). What? "30 min- ooooooooooots ," the guy repeats, floating backward.

Creator-star Donald Glover wrote on 30 Rock before starring in Community . That might be why Atlanta was a uniquely controlled mindbender, with a pinpoint craft that made other arty sitcoms look like never-ending bad indie movies. See how the light shifts around the assistant as he shrieks; marvel at the sea foam shades dappling Darius in the tank. This was a very funny, very beautiful TV series, and one of the greatest shows of the last decade. By comparison, its last two seasons were collectively just fine — which can only count as a major disappointment.

Season 2 was always going to be a tough act to follow, and "just fine" counts as a letdown from those heights. Mission drift is a problem for any TV enterprise, especially one full of young talents with multiple offers. In the hiatus, two Atlanta leads joined Bullet Train to play Smaller Face Than Brad Pitt On the Poster, while Glover signed on to remake Brad Pitt in Mr. and Mrs. Smith . Season 4 gave Earn two monologues, one sorrowful, another romantic. Glover didn't cut himself slack, even if Earn was always the fourth most interesting lead. But how did Atlanta squander Van? Zazie Beetz turned her early focal episodes into arguments for superstardom. The finale, "It Was All a Dream," made her a furrowed brow.

There were complaints about Beetz' ethereal presence in season 3, but I thought the character suffered more in this final run. Beware main characters who suddenly have acting aspirations; that's what happens when showbiz people run out of any ideas besides showbiz. Elsewhere, Van and Earn kept running into their exes, a subplot that would seem obvious on How I Met Your Father. You have to remember how crucial and refocusing Van once was. Here was a young mom with rough career prospects, punished for any delight she allowed herself. Everyone's crazy for "Teddy Perkins," but I'd put forward the Van-centric "Value" and "Champagne Papi" as defining Atlanta statements. She tries and fails to stay employed, then tries and fails to have a fun night.

Atlanta was always brilliant about money, and could make poverty look unaspirationally stylish. In hindsight, the last two seasons had less room for material like that. Alfred ( Brian Tyree Henry ) and Earn were now big deals. (The show is their rise with no fall.) You could sort of buy Darius as a tag-along whoever. But Van became a floating appendage. In season 4, we glimpsed no job, no friend group. Did the writers just not care anymore? Her closing season 3 monologue — "Who the f--- am I?" — sounded less like a confession than a defense of creative indecision.

Atlanta never really made a terrible episode, besides the Amelie one and maybe the D'Angelo one (which at least introduced "Young White Avatar" to the lexicon). Written by Glover and directed by defining collaborator Hiro Murai, the finale was a last demonstration of the hard things Atlanta did well. Out of thin air came new outrageous personalities: London (Naté Jones), macrodosing while chugging vodka out of plastic; and Demarcus (Calvin Dutton), a sushi dreamer with 10 thousand thoughts about Black communal self-loathing.

Season 4 repeated notes, though, with phantom-D'Angelo and a Tyler Perry-ish tycoon playing same-y mystery hermits. Atlanta 's whole thing was skipping obvious plot points, but I never believed that the show entirely had a handle on Alfred's new life as a star. Earn's promotion up the management track felt more accurate, but a Los Angeles job offer was an obvious final-act decision point. This was suddenly a series that couldn't do easy things well, so the cousin dynamic — loving, suspicious, using each other while only really trusting each other — evaporated. The ambiguous closing scene just seemed silly, not really about anything beyond an obvious urge to seem ambiguous. Because I am a coldhearted cyborg, I did not enjoy "Snipe Hunt," the one where Earn and Van become Ross and Rachel. Like 30 Rock and Community before it, Atlanta always cleverly zigzagged expectations. So it will always be disappointing that this is the sitcom where the will-they-or-won't-they got together.

Conversely, Henry was always locked into Alfred's weariness. A typical rise-to-fame story finds a musician struggling with celebrity while yearning for the life left behind. Alfred was always suspicious of everything. He didn't like how local kids thought he was cool, and he didn't like how rich people treated him like a prize. (He may have hated his fans.) Henry by himself was an amazing ensemble, so the only season 4 episode I loved was his solo farm outing, also an ultimate showcase for Murai as a mood maestro. I really thought they were going to kill Alfred with a tractor, and I really thought they were going to kill Alfred with a wild hog.

One Atlanta critique argued the show was somehow traitorous, creating Black stories for a non-Black audience. Glover discussed this directly and approached it artistically; not for nothing did young Earn wear fake FUBU to school. My thoughts on this profound matter are wanted by nobody, since my choices for Atlanta cosplay are Justin Bartha and Socks. The show was certainly skeptical about the hashtaggiest version of Black Excellence, and had parodic fun with diversity as an empty corporate strategy. But at its best, Atlanta was skeptical of everything : billionaires, old friends, barbers, fraternities, lawyers, Tyler Perry, people who complain about Tyler Perry, Liam Neeson, people who complain about Liam Neeson.

This made the show vastly more interesting than any let's-pin-the-argument-down analysis. It's also why, beyond obvious sense, I way prefer season 3 to season 4. The European vacation promoted the gang to globe-trotting sensations, with tour clout ensuring zero consequences. Relatability went out the window. Everyone knows what it's like to struggle, but not everyone knows what it's like to be sad about success. Even less people understand the paradoxes of Black success, with the peculiar predatory-adoration feeling that so many white people love you for the wrong reasons.

So there was an edge of honesty in the champagne silliness — an admission that, yes, this was a show made by the guys who flew to Cuba on Bezos' dime to make a gaseously pointless musical whatever . Season 3 crosscut with homefront stories that mishmashed identity politics: a white kid raised Trini, a lightskinned bro desperate for Black scholarship funds. Complaints poured in about the anthologizing, but I think those structural shifts obscured the deeper issue that key characters were turning vague. Season 3 tried to be a concept album. With a return home and a renewed personal focus, season 4 aimed for back-to-basics. The result was, well, basic.

So what happened? Was Atlanta the Black-owned sushi restaurant, serving up delicious poison fish to no one while customers went to the Popeye's across the street? Or was the series more like Alfred on his European tour, searching for lost inspiration, worrying about selling out? In his lowest Amsterdam moment in season 3, Paper Boi passed out in a Goofy hat — and then season 4 revealed A Goofy Movie was a suicidal passion project for Disney's first/last Black CEO. Must mean something, since Atlanta returned this year as a tendril of the Disney behemoth.

You have to remember, this show debuted in a remarkable TV period. Its second season was one astoundment after another, funny-scary adventures that combined brazen absurdity with rap-Gothic thrills. That same year saw debuts for Killing Eve, Homecoming, Pose, Barry, You, Lodge 49, and Corporate , alongside standout seasons of The Good Place , The Good Fight , Dear White People , and Bojack Horseman . A lot of bold, paranoid, way-out-there wonders, defying normal rules of storytelling, challenging society's expectations. I'm not sure any of those shows were ever as good as they were in 2018. It's a different era now, and even Glover's off to reboot some IP. I pray all the creative minds who crafted Atlanta find a home for their talents in franchise-crazy, nostalgia-mad Hollywood. Without inspiration, it's just all about that paper, boy.

Seasons 1-2: A+

Season 3: B+

Season 4: B-

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• Donald Glover on criticisms Atlanta isn't for Black people: "It's just kind of whack to me"
• Every Atlanta episode from seasons 1 and 2 ranked
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‘fight night: the million dollar heist’ review: kevin hart, samuel l. jackson and don cheadle have a blast in peacock’s inconsistent comic thriller.

A top-notch ensemble leads this eight-episode look at the bloody aftermath of a scheme tied to a 1970 Muhammad Ali comeback fight in Atlanta.

By Daniel Fienberg

Daniel Fienberg

Chief Television Critic

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It takes a while to realize that the hero of Peacock ‘s new crime dramedy Fight Night : The Million Dollar Heist isn’t, in fact, any of the series’ convoy of flamboyant gangsters, hoodlums and petty criminals but, rather, the city of Atlanta. And that the titular heist, despite the stated financial value, is really one of prestige and global recognition

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Peacock's 'office' follow-up adds trio to cast, 'bel-air' star on his version of carlton finally growing on viewers, fight night: the million dollar heist.

Full credit to Shaye Ogbonna, adapting the podcast of the same title, for making a comic thriller with the heart of an American Studies graduate thesis. I’m not being sarcastic! Fight Night has some actual things on its mind, plus a ridiculously deep and generally well-deployed ensemble cast. These elements generally make up for the myriad structural and tonal problems in an eight-hour run time that’s padded by at least two hours and struggles to maintain any momentum.

It’s 1970 and Atlanta is a small-time city, still pulling itself out of the ignominy of its Dixie roots. Chicken Man is an ex-con running the numbers game, with the help of his mistress and Girl Friday Vivian ( Taraji P. Henson ), very much aware that his racket is about to get usurped by a statewide lottery. (Oddly, the same subplot plays out in Apple TV+’s Baltimore-set Lady in the Lake .)

Opportunity for Chicken Man and his hometown arrive simultaneously in a show that is, to quote, “based on some shit that really happened.”

The heist and its mounting body count complicate life for Detective J.D. Hudson ( Don Cheadle ), recruited as one of the city’s first Black police officers to provide protection for Ali, despite his own ambivalent feelings about the boxer.

Soon, Chicken Man is on the front page of local papers as the organizer of a crime he didn’t orchestrate and godfathers from around the country — including Terrence Howard’s Jersey-based Cadillac — are trying to kill him. The actual robbers are realizing that what seemed like a low-stakes smash-and-grab has put a bounty on their heads as well. Who will still be alive when the dust settles and who will win the battle for Atlanta’s future?

One of the keys of both a good heist and a good heist story is precision, and Fight Night is a determinedly unwieldy thing. It only has enough story for a two-hour movie, but enough characters for a five-season cable drama, and the effort to reconcile that gap never becomes fluid. On top of the genre-standard and repetitive tweaking of structure — starting with a pointless in medias res opening and including multiple “It was a plan all along!” flashback revelations — it’s a show that’s constantly introducing new people and then often having to reintroduce them.

This is probably Hart’s best semi-dramatic work to date, a mixture of fast-talking humor and increasingly serious reflection wrapped in wide-collared suits and a perpetually impeccable Afro. Though there are points at which Jackson feels like he’s leaning heavily on his old Tarantino playbook, only with far less florid dialogue, he tears into his silver-tongued tough-guy attitude with menacing ease. When it’s time for Jackson and Cheadle, with surely the story’s most complex figure, to share the screen, it’s a total, if too-rare, pleasure. Henson maintains Vivian’s dignity even when the scripts fall back on stale threats of sexual violence, and she finds a sassiness that’s more fragile and less overtly comic than in her Emmy-nominated Empire turn.

But the participants in the actual job are played largely by relative unknowns, so the series tells us who they all are. Then there’s the heist in which the characters are all wearing masks so it’s impossible to know which people we half-met in the previous episode. Then we’re told who they are again in the next episode, and then they all spend time in an abandoned nightclub in a later episode and get introduced again. While I grew to recognize them and have interest in one or two of their fates — there are seven or eight robbers before bad things start happening — by the finale, every wave of new exposition resets the accumulated suspense and emotional investment back to zero.

But just as you can sense the writers wanting to flesh out what might otherwise be background figures — see also Artrece Johnson, excellent as Chicken Man’s wife Faye, and Teresa Celeste, feisty as the generally undefined Maxine — it’s just as easy to imagine editors and audiences itching to get back to Samuel L. Jackson waving his gun and swearing or Don Cheadle hobnobbing with Muhammad Ali.

Stars: They’re a blessing and a curse.

It’s a lack of focus that causes the tone to waffle as well. Wanting violence to vacillate between frivolous and significant requires a delicacy that Fight Night rarely possesses. A performer like Jackson can still make hollow profanity hum, but empty violence and cheap tension built on the possibility of rape is exploitative in a story that can’t decide if that’s the direction it wants to go.

Craig Brewer, who directed the first two and last two chapters, knows how to tap into a grindhouse aesthetic. The opening credits go full B-movie, complete with weathered film stock and the vintage NBC peacock logo. Brewer’s early episodes employ split screens and zooms to catch that late-’60s, early-’70s flavor, but much of the middle of the season is more visually nondescript. It’s a reminder of how much easier it would have been for Fight Night to sustain levels of consistency as a feature film or maybe a six-part series. There were multiple places in the middle of the season when my attention waned.

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Common Sense Media Review

Smart dramedy makes "star is born" premise fresh.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Atlanta is a drama about a young man trying to make it as a music promoter in Atlanta, Georgia. The show is set in a gritty milieu in which men threaten each other with guns and shoot each other at point-blank range over perceived insults, women are ogled and their body parts rated,…

Why Age 15+?

Characters frequently roll and then smoke (marijuana-filled) blunts and drink on

Frequent cursing: "s--t," "ass," "goddammit," &quo

Men brandish guns over perceived insults; one shoots another point-blank; a man

A couple kisses in bed; scantily clad women gyrate in hip-hop videos as men disc

Real celebrities and historical personages are mentioned: Malcolm X, Martin Luth

Any Positive Content?

The seedy side of the music business is exposed: Earn pays $500 to get his cousi

Earn is a striver who's made mistakes; even his own parents won't let hi

Characters show impressive problem-solving skills, figuring out ways to get arou

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters frequently roll and then smoke (marijuana-filled) blunts and drink on-screen; mentions of getting or being high. No negative consequences shown.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent cursing: "s--t," "ass," "goddammit," "bitch" (aimed at a female character); racial language used as a term of endearment and in anger (the "N" word); vulgar language about what a character left in a toilet.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Men brandish guns over perceived insults; one shoots another point-blank; a man who answers a door points a gun at the stranger he finds there.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A couple kisses in bed; scantily clad women gyrate in hip-hop videos as men discuss and rate their body parts; women are ogled; discussion of "smashing" and other sexual references.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Real celebrities and historical personages are mentioned: Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Flo Rida.

Positive Messages

The seedy side of the music business is exposed: Earn pays $500 to get his cousin's record played on a radio show. But family bonds are strong and parents are present, supportive, and responsible.

Positive Role Models

Earn is a striver who's made mistakes; even his own parents won't let him live with them. But he hustles diligently in hopes of gaining success and getting his wife and daughter back.

Educational Value

Characters show impressive problem-solving skills, figuring out ways to get around unfair systems and become a success. However, their moves are not always ethical.

Parents need to know that Atlanta is a drama about a young man trying to make it as a music promoter in Atlanta, Georgia. The show is set in a gritty milieu in which men threaten each other with guns and shoot each other at point-blank range over perceived insults, women are ogled and their body parts rated, and characters roll and smoke marijuana-filled blunts. Cursing includes "s--t," "ass," and "bitch," aimed at female characters. Frequent use of the "N" word as an insult or affectionately; the use of the word by white characters is questioned. Parents are present and responsible, and characters are flawed but realistic and seeking redemption.

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (6)
• Kids say (12)

Based on 6 parent reviews

Inapropriate for kids, possibly adults - graphic sex act scene.

Smart & subtle. hard-hitting., what's the story.

Everyone had high hopes for Earnest "Earn" Marks ( Donald Glover ) when he got into Princeton. But he wound up dropping out and moving back to ATLANTA to live with his family. Several years of screwups later, Earn is estranged from his wife and young baby and on the outs with his mom and dad when his cousin Alfred "Paper Boi" Miles (Brian Tyree Henry) has a local hit song. Seeing his chance, Earn becomes Paper Boi's manager and starts trying to work his music-industry connections to move his cousin up the ladder. No one ever said trying to break into music would be easy. And it isn't.

Is It Any Good?

You've seen this "a star is born" setup before, but this drama makes it fresh with terrific, appealing actors and smart, funny dialogue that makes even hackneyed scenes seem new. When Earn offers to manage Paper Boi, his cousin chides him for excessive ambition: "Ain't you homeless?" "Not real homeless," Earn snaps back. "I'm not using a rat as a phone or anything." "That makes you schizophrenic, not homeless," Paper Boi points out. The whole show is full of lines like that -- sharp enough to make you smile, realistic enough that it sounds like real people talking to each other.

Glover, as Community watchers already know, is a tremendously magnetic actor, though even his fans may be surprised by how deftly he moves from humor to pathos, particularly in scenes with his ex, Van (Zazie Beetz), whom he watches longingly as she moves on with her life, aware that she had good reasons to leave him and that he hasn't always been a great guy. He has disappointed those who love him. This time, though, it's going to be different -- he hopes. And we hope, too, even though it's unclear if Paper Boi is a solid foundation on which to build his house. It doesn't take more than one episode to get sucked into Earn's quest -- even if the premise isn't new.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about why the music and movie industries are such frequent settings for comedies and dramas. What dramatic possibilities do they offer? Why might stories in these settings be appealing for viewers? What types of dramatic arcs do characters in these types of stories go through?

Donald Glover, who plays Earn, also created Atlanta and wrote many of its episodes. Does it surprise you that his character is the main one? Why would a show creator cast himself as the main character of a show?

If this show waeren't called Atlanta , would you know where it was set? How do movies and TV shows telegraph their settings? How can you tell if the show is actually filmed in the place it's set?

• Premiere date : September 6, 2016
• Cast : Donald Glover , Brian Tyree Henry , LaKeith Stanfield
• Network : FX
• Genre : Drama
• Character Strengths : Perseverance
• TV rating : TV-MA
• Awards : Emmy - Emmy Award Winner , Golden Globe - Golden Globe Award Winner
• Last updated : June 20, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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• Cast & crew

Atlanta 10.0

Ryan Givins's thriller Atlanta 10.0 depicts tragic real events. The wicked side that exposes Atlanta's facade of prosperity. Ryan Givins's thriller Atlanta 10.0 depicts tragic real events. The wicked side that exposes Atlanta's facade of prosperity. Ryan Givins's thriller Atlanta 10.0 depicts tragic real events. The wicked side that exposes Atlanta's facade of prosperity.

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• Jaan Marion
• Earl Barlow

• Detective Sams

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• September 9, 2023 (United States)
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• Runtime 49 minutes

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“Fight Night” exists at the intersection of several TV trends with diminishing returns, from the mad scramble for true crime-adjacent IP to an escalating arms race for star power. But Ogbonna and co-showrunner Jason Horwitch have delivered an engaging, briskly paced series that uses a stacked roster to its full potential. “Fight Night” lacks the granular detail of more immersive Nixon-era period pieces like “The Deuce”; its soundtrack of shallow cuts, from The Temptations’ “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” to Darondo’s “Didn’t I,” reflects the broad approach to world-building. Yet “Fight Night” compensates for its workmanlike blueprint (true story + big names = profit) with nuanced ideas and engaging performances.

As Williams, Hart — also an executive producer — walks a fine line. The comedian is neither recycling his standard, silly persona nor is he overcompensating with a full dramatic turn. As a role, Chicken Man is well chosen for being an inherently ridiculous figure, scrambling for Frank’s approval while running innumerable schemes in the hopes of leveling up. But with his life, and his family’s, on the line, Chicken’s desperation takes on a more existential tone. It’s a subtle expansion of Hart’s range, not a forced one.

Virtually every other actor acquits themselves just as well. Henson, reunited with her “Hustle & Flow” and “Empire” collaborators Craig Brewer (who directs half the season) and Terence Howard (who portrays Frank’s ally, Jersey boss Cadillac Richie), gets a full box of toys to play with, from a riveting dance sequence to a mid-season makeover to some Cookie Lyon-esque animal prints. Jackson’s Frank is calmer and wilier than some of his other roles, though that trademark explosive rage lurks just beneath the surface. Cheadle lets Hudson loosen up gradually, from learning to respect and root for a “loudmouth” Ali to partnering with Chicken in an off-the-books mission to track down the robbery’s mastermind.

Our window into the stick-up operation is McKinley “Mac” Rogers (Sinqua Walls), a shell-shocked Vietnam veteran who signs on to afford a better place so he can share custody of his nine-year-old daughter. (Walls isn’t as famous as some of his co-stars, but his work helps imbue the series with a sense of tragedy.) The third episode of “Fight Night,” directed by Tanya Hamilton, plays out almost in real time as Mac’s crew seizes, then gradually loses control of a house party’s worth of high-profile marks. Such tense, riveting work makes up for the over-reliance on obvious vintage-coded devices like splitscreen elsewhere. 

The first three episodes of “Fight Night” are now available to stream on Peacock, with remaining episodes airing weekly on Thursdays.

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What’s filming in Georgia in September 2024?

Credit: Disney

The summer doldrums are continuing for Georgia film and TV production.

The Georgia film office, which tracks TV shows and movie shooting in Georgia, said there are just 25 active productions happening in the state, the slowest pace since last November, when the state was still struggling from the writers and actors strikes. In fact, the number of active productions fell from 30 in early August to a nadir of 21 by mid August.

Currently, there are just 10 scripted series shooting in the state with the other 15 a blend of reality shows and documentaries. Just two scripted projects even got off the ground in August: “Da ‘Partments 2,” a sequel to a movie T.I. directed last year , and ABC’s popular crime drama “Will Trent” for a third season.

A few new reality shows have started shooting though there is no public information about TLC’s “Jay and Pamela” or Bravo’s “King’s Court.”

Credit: Brian Douglas/Paramount+

Two longtime Bravo reality shows “Married to Medicine” and “Real Housewives of Atlanta” wrapped for the season, along with season two of Sylvester Stallone’s “Tulsa King” and the fifth season of “Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan.” ( Perry told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in July while promoting his Amazon film “Divorce in the Black” that he is taking a short hiatus after working so much this year .)

For the past decade, Georgia has been able to pick up big-budget movies without much strain courtesy of the state’s generous film and TV tax credit passed in 2008. But the United Kingdom, which boosted the generosity of its tax credits this past spring , is scooping up more productions and stealing business away from the United States and Canada.

Productionlist.com, which tracks scripted programs and where they shoot, went three consecutive weeks last month without a single new production in Georgia. In comparison, the U.K. picked up 14 new films or TV shows during that same time period. For the week of Aug. 26, Georgia finally showed up on the list with a single movie c alled “Driver’s Ed” with an anticipated start date in Atlanta on Oct. 7.

The Georgia film office provides an ever-changing list of active productions , but it is not necessarily complete because production companies are not obligated to update the Georgia film office. And if a company requests the production stay off the list or asks to use a pseudonym, the film office will oblige.

“Stranger Things” is under the pseudonym “Cedar Lodge.” “Moana” is using the fake name “Canon.”

WHAT STARTED PRODUCTION BETWEEN AUG. 2 and SEPT. 3

“Da ‘Partments 2,” TV movie

“Jay and Pamela,” TLC

“King’s Court,” season 1, Bravo

“Tee Up ATL,” PBS documentary

“The Prototype,” season 1, reality, Amazon Prime

“WWE Bad Blood 4,” reality, Peacock

“Will Trent,” season 3, ABC

WHAT WRAPPED BETWEEN AUG. 2 and SEPT. 3

“ Celebrity Crime Files,” season 4, TV One

“G.R.I.T.S.” season 1, ALLBLK

“Lick,” Passionflix

“Married to Medicine,” season 11, Bravo

“My Sister’s Secrets,” TV movie

“Pictionary,” season 3, syndicated game show

“Real Housewives of Atlanta,” season 16, Bravo

“Shiny Happy People,” season 2, Amazon reality

“The Impact,” TV reality, BET+

“Thieves Highway,” indie film

“Tulsa King,” season 2, Paramount+

“Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan,” season 5, Nickelodeon

Credit: GEORGIA

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About the Author

Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.

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Credit: Jason Getz / [email protected]

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Atlanta: Season 1 Reviews

The surrealist dramedy guides viewers on a hypnotic journey.

Full Review | May 24, 2023

Atlanta's kick-back tone belies a throbbing political heart. You've got to watch this series.

Full Review | Jan 8, 2020

The creators, writers, and directors involved in Atlanta are all people of color, and damn, but it shows in the sheer complexity of their characters.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Aug 9, 2019

It's even better than you've heard.

Full Review | Jul 31, 2019

Atlanta is a beautiful and essential show in 2016, one that blends genuine humor with the stark realities its characters face.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 10, 2018

Atlanta masterfully blends humor, irony and art to capture the desire for something better as well as the sense of defeat and complacency that racism and classism create.

Full Review | Aug 8, 2018

Atlanta, is everything you would expect from Donald Glover if you've been paying attention as an actor, a comedian and a rapper.

Full Review | Jun 27, 2018

Atlanta is a big city and contains multitudes. Overall, somehow this is on a must watch list for me so far. We'll see what happens.

Full Review | Jun 12, 2018

For anyone who wishes for a down home show about contemporary black life, Atlanta is something reliably special.

It's eerie and cool, and easily the best comedy (ish) this year.

Full Review | May 21, 2018

Glover is not overly interested in explaining himself, which is probably as it should be... Nothing is lost in translation, because nothing is translated.

Full Review | May 15, 2018

... a sometimes-quiet, contemplative series, never manufacturing spectacle or over-the-top drama in order to propel its narrative.

Full Review | Mar 9, 2018

Atlanta cycles through so many genres per episodes that it ends up transcending them all until it resembles something life-like. Or at the very least a lovingly crafted picture book. That's a genre too.

In a season of sometimes uproariously surreal comedy leavened by an equally steady stream of reality checks, the 10 episodes encourage the kind of rumination only possible when characters come with well-formulated inner lives.

Full Review | Mar 7, 2018

Atlanta feels like a protest more than a cable sitcom. To depict such realistic black lives on television is like taking a knee during the national anthem.

Full Review | Nov 8, 2017

It's a pleasure to see [Donald] Glover's brash, off-kilter genius is on full display.

Full Review | Aug 28, 2017

Atlanta is a new frontier in music-genre TV drama.

Full Review | Aug 14, 2017

It's hard to overstate how good Atlanta is. (Indeed, it's also hard to merely state how good it is - it's such a subtle and complete show that saying more feels inept and superfluous, like tacking on post-its to a framed painting.)

Full Review | Nov 7, 2016

It's an essential portrait of ordinary black life, a grounded account of underground hip-hop fame, a no-nonsense love letter to Glover's hometown, a thorny relationship drama, and a fantastically funny comedy.

Each of Atlanta's 10 episodes found new and profound ways to show how everyday life can be messy, and mean, and, yes, incredibly strange.

Full Review | Nov 2, 2016

• Movie Times

Atlanta, GA Movie Theaters

Atlanta, ga showtimes.

Cinefest Theatre

66 Courtland Ave, Atlanta, Georgia 30303, 404-656-2000

AMC Madison Yards

905 Memorial Dr SE, Atlanta, Georgia 30316, 470-237-2854

Midtown Art Cinema

931 Monroe Drive, Atlanta, Georgia 30308, 678-495-1424

Plaza Theatre

1049 Ponce De Leon Aveue N.E., Atlanta, Georgia 30306, 404-873-1939

iPic Atlanta

1197 Peachtree Street Northeast, Atlanta, Georgia 30361,

Regal Atlantic Station ScreenX, IMAX, RPX & VIP

261 19th Street NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30363, 844-462-7342

Fernbank Museum's IMAX Theatre

767 Clifton Road N.E., Atlanta, Georgia 30307, 404-370-0019

Starlight Drive-In Theatre

2000 Moreland Ave. S.E., Atlanta, Georgia 30376, 404-627-5786

The Tara Theatre

2345 Cheshire Bridge Rd NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30324, 470-567-1968

AMC Phipps Plaza 14

3500 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30326,

NCG Brookhaven

3365 Buford Highway Unit 920, Atlanta, Georgia 30329, 470-571-3773

LOOK Dine-In Cinemas Brookhaven

1004 Town Blvd., Atlanta, Georgia 30319, 470-805-3962

AMC Camp Creek 14

3760 Princeton Lakes Pkwy, Atlanta, Georgia 30331, 404-629-2524

AMC Parkway Pointe 15

3101 Cobb Pkwy. Ste 201 Suite 201, Atlanta, Georgia 30339,

Silverspot Cinema at the Battery

960 Battery Ave SE Suite 5000, Atlanta, Georgia 30339, 305-260-3519

The Springs Cinema & Taphouse

5920 Roswell Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30328, 404-255-0100

Regal Perimeter Pointe

1155 Mount Vernon Highway, Atlanta, Georgia 30338, 844-462-7342

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Critic’s Pick

‘The Goldman Case’ Review: Sticking to the Facts

An electrifying courtroom drama based on a real 1976 case calls the very nature of equality and justice into question.

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By Alissa Wilkinson

Few settings are as omnipresent in screen entertainment as the courtroom. The halls of justice, the argumentation of lawyers, dramatic backroom dealings, the telling facial expressions of the jury — all of it makes for very good drama. (And sometimes comedy, too.)

Why? There are obvious hooks: salacious crimes, shocking lies, sudden gasps when a hidden revelation turns the case on its head. But there’s also something epic, almost mythic, about what goes on in a courtroom. Questions as old as Hammurabi or Moses, as ancient as civilization itself, are hashed out: good and evil, guilt and innocence, justice and fairness. Furthermore, modern presumptions of equality, democracy and objectivity face challenges. And that space, increasingly, is where the modern courtroom drama lives.

American courtrooms are so familiar, thanks to Hollywood’s ubiquity, that it’s bracing to get plunked down into the minutiae of another legal system. The last few years have given moviegoers an unusually heady dose of French courtrooms. In 2022, Alice Diop’s searing “Saint Omer,” based on the real case of a woman accused of killing her infant, confronted the ways race, class and gender skew and degrade justice. Last year, Justine Triet’s “ Anatomy of a Fall ” electrified audiences with its courtroom scenes, which probed the knowability of the inner workings of a marriage.

Now there’s Cédric Kahn’s “The Goldman Case,” nearly all of which takes place during the second trial of Pierre Goldman in 1976. It’s a true story: Goldman (played by an electrifying Arieh Worthalter) had been charged with four armed robberies years earlier, one of which resulted in the death of two pharmacists. Sentenced to life imprisonment, Goldman and his legal team appealed his case — some of it, anyhow. While he freely admitted to the robberies, he maintained that he was not involved in the killings. In 1975, he wrote a memoir entitled “Obscure Memories of a Polish Jew Born in France,” making him an icon among French leftists, and a month later the appeals court canceled the initial ruling.

Set almost entirely within the courtroom, “The Goldman Case” is not a Hollywood-style heart-pumping work. But it’s plenty thrilling. Kahn, whose previous films include the 2004 thriller “ Red Lights ,” wrote the “Goldman” screenplay with Nathalie Hertzberg, who used newspaper articles and meticulous research to reconstruct what happened in the courtroom. The pair imbues the result with urgent, stirring drama even though it is, for the most part, just people standing at microphones, talking. And shouting. And looking outraged. Because of Goldman’s celebrity, his supporters crowd the room and punctuate proceedings with yelps of derision or support, whatever feels called for.

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Peter renaday dies: prolific voice actor behind ‘teenage mutant ninja turtles’ master splinter was 89, breaking news.

‘The End’ Review: Tilda Swinton And Michael Shannon Sing Away The Apocalypse And The Songs Are Pretty Good – Telluride Film Festival

By Pete Hammond

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Awards Columnist/Chief Film Critic

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In The End, Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon are the extremely wealthy mother and father (no one has formal names that we know of) of a family who have been living in this extravagant underground ice palace of a bunker for 25 years after our failure to do something about Earth’s climate change and environment finally did in all of humanity.

Well, everyone gets songs, and I have to confess the score is quite melodic, if sometimes veering too close to Joshua Hurwitz’s La La Land themes. Credit Joshua Schmidt with the music and the film’s director Joshua Oppenheimer with the lyrics. Oppenheimer (who wrote the screenplay with Rasmus Heisterberg) dreamed up this inventive concept, partially inspired by his love for the 1964 all-sung French classic The Umbrellas of Cherbourgh (also “coincidentally”? an inspiration for Damien Chazelle and La La Land ) . But he had serious issues on his mind including the way humans seem to be destroying themselves inch by inch with careless care of the world. So what could be the perfect counterpoint to demonstrate these last remaining survivors are in complete denial? They sing about it.

Oppenheimer is a documentarian of such heavy deadly serious movies as Act of Killing and Look of Silence but is also an admirer of Hollywood’s golden musical age and directors like Vincente Minnelli and Gene Kelly. Though this musical is an homage in weird ways, the fates of this group are getting increasingly darker. Shannon sings of regret for his contributions to the world’s end as a corporate executive who simply ignored the warnings out of pure greed. Swinton’s mother is finally coming out of her daze and love for material things and great art to realize they are living a lie. Son is finding independence, but it is the Girl who is proving the impetus for change, even at this point in these lives. Ingram ( The Queen’s Gambit) clearly has the singing chops and is the best vocalist in the cast, but all of them get through their big numbers with some style, especially as conflicts with the Friend and warnings from the Doctor begin to take hold.

Acting-wise you can’t beat Swinton who is among the most adventurous of stars, as is Shannon and they are well matched. MacKay has the perfect blend of naivete and curiosity, and all the others, particularly Gallagher as the longtime Friend deliver. Ingram steals the show and I would hope she gets future musical opportunities. The talent is there.

There are 13 original songs like “Big Blue Sky” and “The Mirror,” and it is probably no accident that La La Land’s Marius De Vries is the executive producer for music here, as well as credited with scoring with Schmidt. Jette Lehmann’s production design is a key player here, existing in a world all its own.

In some ways Oppenheimer’s seemingly bonkers idea of putting the plight of a family at the end of the world spilling their guts in increasingly depressing song makes creative sense. And yet still there is hope in this dire concept of a musical, and that is what we end up hanging on to, hope for humanity. And of course some pretty good songs still to be written.

Producers are Signe Borge Sorensen, Oppenheimer and Swinton.

Title: The End Festival: Telluride Distributor: Neon Director: Joshua Oppenheimer Screenwriters: Joshua Oppenheimer and Rasmus Heisterberg Cast: Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, George MacKay, Moses Ingram, Bronagh Gallagher, Tim McInnerny, Lennie James Running time: 2 hr 36 mins

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