Donald Glover Reflects on Atlanta’s Controversial Season 3, “My Favorite”

There was a four year gap between the second and third seasons of Donald Glover’s hit series Atlanta on FX. Then there was only a four month gap between the third season and the fourth season, its final one. The long wait for new episodes may have lead to some backlash to the show, which largely wasn’t set in Atlanta and in fact featured a lot of episodes that didn’t even include the main cast. Though the critical response to all four seasons mostly stayed the same, you can see the audience reaction clearly not vibing with it. Across the four seasons, the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes for Atlanta went from 91% to 88% all the way down to 70% for season three and then back up to 86% for season four.

Speaking in one of GQ’s patented “Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters” videos, Glover opened up about Atlanta as an entire experience but also spoke about the reaction that season three got from some audiences.  “People are gonna hate this. That’s what we thought,” Glover said when reflecting on the season. “We have a big whiteboard in the writer’s room and like the beginning of season three, when we all came back, I remember writing down in front of everybody, so we remembered. I was like, ‘Do what others cannot…We’re the only show that can do this. That’s what’s gonna make us special.’”

Four of Atlanta season 3’s ten episodes didn’t include the four leads at all, and frequently tackled controversial topics. Despite the series losing steam with some audience members with these episodes, it still managed to get nominated for two Primetime Emmy awards.

“I just wanted to tell stories,” Glover added. “At the end of the day, like all of this really is about like, you know, stories. Like I’m like, who can tell the best story? Who has the best ideas? It’s not like the show Atlanta that people wanted but it’s the point of view of Atlanta and I stand by (it)…Even after season four, which people are like, this is like a perfect, but I’m like season three is, I still think my favorite. Like, I love the black and white episode. I love so much about that season because like it’s not a warm hug. It’s the feeling of your friend, who’s never left Atlanta, going to like San Francisco or Paris and being like, I like it back in Atlanta. Like, it’s like I want to go back home. Like, that is the feeling. And I think a lot of people reacted that way. They were like, where’s Atlanta? I want to go back home….That’s probably why people like season four a lot more. Because it’s like, yeah you’re back home but you’ve kind of outgrown it.”

All four seasons of Atlanta are streaming now on Hulu.