Donald Glover's surreal dramatic comedy 'Atlanta' returns to FX

Donald Glover's surreal dramatic comedy 'Atlanta' returns to FX

　　Transcript¹

　　The third season of Atlanta kicks off in a different place from where it ended. Despite the four-year hiatus between seasons, the break has done nothing to curb² the show's penchant³ for risk-taking.

　　STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

　　Donald Glover's surreal, dramatic comedy "Atlanta" returns to the FX cable channel tonight after a hiatus of several years. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans says the break has done nothing to curb the show's risk-taking.

　　ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE⁴: When a TV series comes back to new episodes after a four-year pandemic-caused delay, you might expect that show to return with an episode reminding the audience who the key characters are and where the show left them when the last season ended. Not so with FX's "Atlanta," which kicks off its third season, focused on a new character - troubled tween Loquareeous. He can't stop acting⁵ up in class and winds up at a school conference with his mother and his guidance counselor⁶.

　　(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ATLANTA")

　　UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Maybe the reason that he's being disruptive in class is because the material's too challenging. If we put him in remedial math and language arts, he could have...

　　NICOLE LOCKLEY: (As character) Wait, wait. My son is not dumb.

　　UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Oh, no. No, I...

　　LOCKLEY: (As character) He's an idiot. Y'all ridiculous. He is not the first kid to act up in class, and you want to push him back some grades?

　　UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) No, I just thought it could be...

　　LOCKLEY: (As character) Don't you move my son.

　　DEGGANS: His mother takes him outside the office and makes her point even clearer, while the counselor tries to intervene.

　　(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ATLANTA")

　　LOCKLEY: (As character) If you don't start using your common sense and acting right, these white people, they going to kill you.

　　UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Ms. Reid (ph), don't...

　　LOCKLEY: (As character) Kill you. You up here showing out for your white classmates? Yeah, you laughing with them now, but they going to be the only ones laughing when you dead or in jail.

　　DEGGANS: Before long, Loquareeous winds up in a foster home led by two gay women written like a broad parody⁷ of wrong-headed, well-meaning white liberals. They don't learn his actual name or what he likes to eat, forcing their Black foster kids to sell goods at a nearby farmer's market like modern-day enslaved people.

　　(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ATLANTA")

　　UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) We make our own kombucha. Yummy, huh? And we pickle⁸ our own veggies using our organic garden. We're selling it at the farmer's market tomorrow. You're going to love it. Oh, and that is your other mom, and that little guy is Corn Pop.

　　UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) Welcome to the family.

　　DEGGANS: Donald Glover, "Atlanta's" star, executive producer and creator, has said this season will often deal with the curse of whiteness. In this first episode, that seems to surface as the foster parents' nagging⁹ sense that their white privilege allowed them to get in too deep, taking in kids they don't understand and taking on debt they can't pay back. One of the foster moms, named Amber¹⁰, admits as much in a tearful exchange with her partner.

　　(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ATLANTA")

　　LAURA DREYFUSS: (As Amber) When we adopted Fatim (ph), I knew we were doing the right thing. The agency even said so. I mean, we got that big loan from the bank. I thought that meant we were solid. Everyone was so supportive, every single person. And I just kept thinking, why isn't anyone stopping us?

　　DEGGANS: I won't blow the surprise ending, but it is jarring enough to make you wonder why Glover and his crew chose this startling tale, based on a real story, to kick off a season featuring the show's cast in an entirely¹¹ different setting - Europe. That's where Glover's character, Earn Marks, is managing his cousin, Brian Tyree Henry's up-and-coming rapper Paper Boi during an overseas tour. In the show's second episode, the two are in Amsterdam, where the locals have a jarring custom of their own - dressing¹² up in blackface to resemble a character who helps their version of Santa Claus. After seeing a baby in blackface, Earn asks a local, what's going on?

　　(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ATLANTA")

　　DONALD GLOVER: (As Earn Marks) What's with all the blackface?

　　UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) Ah, that's for the children. It's a long tradition passed on for many generations, so - actually, he's black because he fell down a chimney helping¹³ Saint Nicholas.

　　GLOVER: (As Earn Marks) OK, well, it feels like Santa's slave, but I respect a rebrand.

　　UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) Yeah.

　　DEGGANS: It's yet another example of clueless behavior by white folks that draws both annoyance¹⁴ and a resigned ruefulness from Earn and his friends, forced to deal with another not-so-microaggression in an often confusing world.

　　I'm Eric Deggans.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。

3 penchant   

n.爱好，嗜好；（强烈的）倾向

参考例句：

• She has a penchant for Indian food.她爱吃印度食物。
• He had a penchant for playing jokes on people.他喜欢拿人开玩笑。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

6 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

7 parody   

n.打油诗文，诙谐的改编诗文，拙劣的模仿；v.拙劣模仿，作模仿诗文

参考例句：

• The parody was just a form of teasing.那个拙劣的模仿只是一种揶揄。
• North Korea looks like a grotesque parody of Mao's centrally controlled China,precisely the sort of system that Beijing has left behind.朝鲜看上去像是毛时代中央集权的中国的怪诞模仿，其体制恰恰是北京方面已经抛弃的。

8 pickle   

n.腌汁，泡菜；v.腌，泡

参考例句：

• Mother used to pickle onions.妈妈过去常腌制洋葱。
• Meat can be preserved in pickle.肉可以保存在卤水里。

9 nagging   

adj.唠叨的，挑剔的；使人不得安宁的v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的现在分词 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责

参考例句：

• Stop nagging—I'll do it as soon as I can. 别唠叨了—我会尽快做的。
• I've got a nagging pain in my lower back. 我后背下方老是疼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 amber   

n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的

参考例句：

• Would you like an amber necklace for your birthday?你过生日想要一条琥珀项链吗？
• This is a piece of little amber stones.这是一块小小的琥珀化石。

11 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

12 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

13 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

14 annoyance   

n.恼怒，生气，烦恼

参考例句：

• Why do you always take your annoyance out on me?为什么你不高兴时总是对我出气？
• I felt annoyance at being teased.我恼恨别人取笑我。