The cast of FX's "Atlanta."Kevin Winter/Getty Images
- "Atlanta" pulls inspiration from all sections of popular culture, weaveing clever references and callbacks into many of its episodes.
- The album artwork for Childish Gambino's third studio album "Awaken, My Love!" is hidden within a season one episode.
- The show also references Jordan Peele's horror classic "Get Out" during its infamous "Teddy Perkins" episode in season two.
- Here are 7 details and references you might have missed from the first two seasons of "Atlanta."
Speaking at the Television Critics Association right before the premiere of "Atlanta" on FX, Donald Glover said that he wanted his first attempt at helming a television show to be like "'Twin Peaks' with rappers."
And just like David Lynch's legendary crime drama, "Atlanta" is a surrealist beauty that is enriched by innovative direction and clever writing. The show is a hybrid comedy-drama and sometimes horror series that follows the life of Earnest Marks (Donald Glover), a college dropout who starts to manage his cousin Alfred's (Brian Tyree Henry) rap career, in which he is known as "Paper Boi." The duo attempt to navigate the pitfalls of the Atlanta rap scene with their eccentric friend Darius (Lakeith Stanfield).
"Atlanta" has received widespread critical acclaim, winning multiple Golden Globe and Emmys Awards; however, much of the show's narrative power lies within its refusal to explain its cultural references and hidden jokes, all of which unravel at an unforgiving pace.
"Atlanta" pulls inspiration from all sections of popular culture. Here are some of the hidden details and cultural references that you might have missed during the first two seasons.
The show's satirical talk-show "Montague" plays in the background of the second episode.
Brian Tyree Henry and Lakeith Stanfield in season one, episode 2 of "Atlanta."
FX
FX introduced audiences to the weird world of Donald Glover's "Atlanta" in a special one-hour presentation with the first two episodes running back-to-back. And the show wasted very little time in cementing how dedicated it was to its own brand of wacky hip-hop surrealism.
After rising rap star Paper Boi shoots someone in a parking lot during episode one, he is bailed out by Darius, and the pair head to a restaurant where the head chef cooks up his secret (and now infamous) lemon pepper wings. On a TV screen in the background of the restaurant, we can see an episode of "Montague" playing.
"Montague"— a satirical take on popular political talk-shows like Larry King and The Daily Show — later becomes the big punchline in an episode within an episode which airs later on in season one.
There's a reference to the viral Chris Brown club shooting video.
There's a nod to Chris Brown's club shooting video in "Atlanta" season one, episode 8.
FX
In episode eight, after a labyrinthian night of both moral and legal lows at a club appearance in Atlanta, Earn and Paper Boi retreat outside with fellow party-goers who watch on as two people start to fight each other. Soon after, we hear gunshots.
Some may remember this as the first appearance of "Atlanta"'s famous invisible car, but if you pay close attention to Earn and Paper Boi's dialogue, you will notice that this scene is lifted directly from the widely-circulated vine of Chris Brown witnessing a shooting during one of his concerts.
The album cover for Childish Gambino's "Awaken, My Love!" is on display in season one, episode nine, two months before it was released.
From Atlanta season one, episode nine titled "Juneteenth."
FX
By the tail end of season one, "Atlanta" had already taken audiences through an ill-fated drug deal with Migos, and showed them a Black Justin Bieber; so when Earn and Van turn up to a mansion for a Juneteenth party in episode nine, hosted by a creepy but wealthy suburban couple, there wasn't much left that could shock viewers.
One of the hosts ends up taking an unnatural interest in Earn, and when the pair sit down for a chat in his home office, viewers with a keen eye would have noticed the cover for Childish Gambino's third studio album "Awaken, My Love!" hanging in the background.
Childish Gambino is, of course, Donald Glover's musical alias.
Glover released the genre-bending album two months later with career-altering songs like the Funkadelic inspired "Me and Your Mama," the Jimi Hendrix heavy "Riot," and, of course, the huge hit "Redbone" which owes as much to the Bootsy Collins classic "I'd Rather Be With You" as Prince Roger Nelson's entire musical catalog.
There's a reference to Childish Gambino's debut album "Camp" in the opening episode of season two.
The first scene from episode one of "Atlanta" season two.
FX
Season two of "Atlanta," titled "Robbin' Season," opens with a Childish Gambino reference that would challenge even the most dedicated subreddits.
The show opens with a seemingly ridiculous and almost stand-alone sequence in which two characters who do not feature at all throughout the rest of the season decide to rob a Mrs Winners fast food restaurant.
This sequence, as crazy and random as it seems, pulls directly from a lyric found in Childish Gambino's first studio album "Camp," where he details an incident from his childhood where his mother was working at a Mrs Winners location in Atlanta and was similarly confronted by masked gunmen, but remained stoically defiant like the character in the show.
The lyric goes: "Dad lost his job; momma work at Mrs Winners; gun pulled in her face she still made dinner."
The show nods to the real-life "Florida Man" meme.
Donald Glover in "Atlanta" alongside Lakeith Stanfield in episode one of season two.
FX
Early on in season two Darius introduces Earn to the mystery of "Florida Man," an enigmatic character who he describes as an "alt-right Johnny Appleseed" who commits crimes in collaboration with the US government in order to "prevent black people from coming to and or registering to vote in Florida."
Earn pays little attention and chalks this story up as another ridiculous Darius fable, but in real life, Florida Man does sort of exist.
"Florida Man" is a popular meme inspired by countless newspaper headlines that use the moniker to describe the perpetrator of incomprehensible and often criminal events that only ever seem to happen in the Sunshine State. For example, "Florida Man Gets Tired of Waiting at Hospital, Steals Ambulance, Drives Home."
The meme has spawned popular Twitter and subreddit accounts, a birthday month challenge, and a website dedicated to an unnamed Floridian man's criminal exploits.
Season two's sixth episode has a big reference to Lakeith Stanfield's character in "Get Out."
Lakeith Stanfield in the infamous "Teddy Perkins" episode of "Atlanta" season two.
FX
The crown jewel of "Atlanta" season two was arguably the bone-chilling episode titled "Teddy Perkins," which sees Darius encounter an eccentric and slightly murderous retired musician called Teddy Perkins at a secluded mansion.
The episode aired uninterrupted by commercials on FX and was chock-full of callbacks to horror film classics such as "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?," "The Invisible Man," "Psycho," and most notably, "Get Out."
In one clever scene, Darius enters one of the rooms in Perkins' sprawling estate. Perkins takes a picture of him, to which Darius replies: "I'm not a big photo person."
Lakeith Stanfield, who plays Darius, also plays the role of Logan King in Jordan Peele's Academy Award-winning and game-changing horror classic "Get Out," and he doesn't like photographs in that film, either — a photograph is what wakes Logan King from the temporal charm he has been put under.
"Teddy Perkins" was hailed by critics for its disregard of network TV conventions with the acclaimed film director Steven Soderbergh ("Sex, Lies and Videotape," "Contagion") hailing the episode's aesthetics.
Earn, Darius, and Paper Boi wear TLC's "Creep" pajamas.
Lakeith Stanfield, Donald Glover, and Brian Tyree Henry in season two of "Atlanta."
FX