Three SlapsAtlanta : Season 3 Episode 1
"Three Slaps" is the first episode of the third season of the American comedy-drama television series Atlanta. It is the 22nd overall episode of the series and was written by executive producer Stephen Glover, and directed by executive producer Hiro Murai. It was first broadcast on FX in the United States on March 24, 2022, airing back-to-back with the follow-up episode, "Sinterklaas is Coming to Town".
Three SlapsAtlanta : Season 3 Episode 1
In February 2022, FX announced that the first episode of the season would be titled "Three Slaps" and that it would be written by executive producer Stephen Glover, and directed by executive producer Hiro Murai. This was Stephen Glover's ninth writing credit, and Murai's fifteenth directing credit.[1]
Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone wrote, "Together, 'Three Slaps' and 'Sinterklaas is Coming to Town' are a reminder of everything Atlanta can be and do, whether it's the stark nightmare of the former or the back-to-basics ensemble shenanigans of the latter."[12] Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly gave the episode an A- and wrote, "The show's early years look prophetic now in many ways. It tapped a deep vein of racial disparity and capitalist brutality, all while nailing the complete existential ruin of social media right before hating Silicon Valley went mainstream. The first two episodes of season 3 find the show pushing its boundaries even as it rebuilds its core foundation."[13]
Three SlapsSeason 3Episode 1DirectorHiro MuraiWriterStephen GloverLength37 minutesRelease dateMarch 24, 2022PreviousNext"Crabs in a Barrel""Sinterklaas Is Coming to Town""Three Slaps" is the first episode of the third season of Atlanta. It is the twenty-second episode of the series overall. It was released on March 24, 2022 on FX.[1]
Two out of the 10 episodes are now in the books and the outlook on the rest of the auspicious season is definitely promising as fans were treated to the full thrilling yet mind-boggling Atlanta experience this week.
Every season of "Atlanta" opens with a scene from everyday life that transforms, in the space of a breath, into a life-or-death struggle. The latest season launches with a horror movie presented in three parts (hinted at in its title, "Three Slaps"), beginning with two men night fishing, ending in a luxurious Copenhagen hotel room and tagging along with Laquarius' misadventures in between.
The show traveled past the point of cementing its assured artistry in its second season. When it announces it is upping the ante, we can trust it knows what it's doing. These two episodes back up this assumption, both through the premiere's side trip from the main storyline and the gang's travels into an unknown place where they're considered as both foreign and other.
This broadening has the obvious effect of sidelining some major characters. Darius's ego died a long time ago, so his need to find deeper truths is less pressing. Earn, who started off the show as the focal point, is dealing with his typical stress as an overworked manager, but he is largely in the background. Other than Paper Boi, it is Van who is arguably the season's most important character, and exemplifies its themes more than anybody else. She leaves her baby behind and tags along with the crew for unknown reasons. Earn tries to get her to open up, but she is aloof, not her usual stable self. Just like most of the main crew does in the season as a whole, she disappears from the central storyline for episodes at a time. We are worried about her, and we are worried about where the show as a whole is heading; it sometimes feels as though she, and our main cast, will never return to the screen. When we finally do get back to her in the Season 3 finale, she is unrecognizable.
A lot has happened since "Atlanta" was last on-air, giving Glover and his writing staff plenty of rich material to explore. The third season is the series' most bold and experimental, removing Glover's Earn and the cast from Atlanta and placing them abroad, away from the immediate political concerns at home and instead using standalone episodes to explore ideas and themes relevant to the show's concerns. All of these choices made for a captivating and engrossing season. Here, we've ranked every "Atlanta" Season 3 episode from worst to best.
The third season of "Atlanta" follows Al and the crew on the splashy international Paper Boi tour through Europe with Amsterdam as a focal point. While Al and Earn prepare for a Christmas show, they're confronted by Holland's unique racist holiday tradition of Zwarte Piet, or Black Pete, throughout the city. "Atlanta" uses Black Pete as a comedic and thematic backdrop for the episode to illustrate the ways in which Black Americans face racism abroad. Meanwhile, as Al and Earn deal with the chaos of last-minute show prep, Darius picks up Van (Zazie Beetz) from the airport who makes a surprise appearance.
Though Bronwyn wants to move on to a more "metropolitan" nanny and leave the past behind, Miles insists they give their son, Sebastian (Indy Sullivan Groudis), an opportunity for closure and attend the funeral as a family. The result is a cultural clash with Sebastian showing a cultural competency and comfort around the late nanny's family that his parents lack, with Bronwyn in particular feeling deeply uncomfortable. The episode is set entirely in New York, yet connected thematically to the rest of the season as it raises questions about the impact of multiracial nannies on the children they raise and their own children they are sometimes forced to neglect.
One of the more genre-bending standalone episodes of the season imagines what the rollout of reparations might look like according to the sensibility and worldview of "Atlanta." The episode opens after a fictional class action lawsuit at Tesla gives legal precedent that allows Black people to sue other individuals for reparations based on a legacy or history of slave ownership in their families. "The Big Payback" primarily follows this social experiment through the lens of Marshall Johnson (Justin Bartha), a recently separated single dad who is focused on trying to put his family back together.
Over the course of three seasons, Alfred has gone from drug dealer with an underground mixtape to international touring superstar rapper. "Atlanta" has always made the grind of the business feel real, which makes the behind-the-scenes of one of Al's shows come off all the more fascinating and earned. Equally compelling is Earn's journey, who has gone leaps and bounds from his rock bottom near-firing at the end of the second season to being an integral and essential part of Al's life as his manager. Like many "Atlanta" episodes, "Cancer Attack" has a straightforward premise, following the Paper Boi team trying to track down Al's phone after a big successful show.
While "Atlanta" has momentarily veered outside the perspective of its four main characters like with the Season 2 Robbin' Season opening sequence, the third season premiered with an entire standalone episode focused on characters and settings outside of Earn, Al, Darius, and Van to explore larger themes within the "Atlanta" narrative. "Three Slaps" follows Loquareeous (Christopher Farrar), a young boy who gets sent to the office for disrupting his class after dancing excitedly. When his mom and grandpa get called in to meet with the principal and guidance counselor, they scold him privately, his grandpa gently slapping him, before he heads back to class. Without any further evidence of abuse, the school's guidance counselor sends DHS to Loquareeous's home for a welfare check.
On Thursday (March 24) FX series Atlanta finally kicked off its highly-anticipated third season. But if you were waiting for the adventures of Ern, Paper Boi and crew in Europe you had to practice a bit more patience (the 2nd episode followed) as it was a bugged-out quasi-kidnapping story based on the real-life tragic case of Devonte Hart. 041b061a72