“This is not a work of art. Any resemblance to real people, living or dead, or to real events, prior to six of the seven episodes of Atlanta writer Donald Glover’s (aka Childish Gambino) new series The Swarm, is intentional,” says disclaimer. This, of course, is deception. “Roy” is pretty much fiction, but there really is enough resemblance to real people and events, and the audacity with which the show pretends to be a true story is so convincing that after the sixth episode – the only one with another disclaimer – you can’t help but google it for real. you get what it is (is it possible to overlook that?!). Spoiler: almost everything. But there is a nuance.
The nuance is that the creators of “Roy” Glover and Janine Nabers, who worked on the drama “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce” and joined the Atlanta crew from season three, really got very little out of their heads. Instead, they reviewed a number of articles on the Internet and selected interesting theories and events from the dataset for 2016-2018. And then they put them on a crazy road trip from Texas to Atlanta on a road trip that Dre’s girlfriend was sent on. (Dominic Fishback from “Judas and the Black Messiah” and TV series “The Deuce” and “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey”)), an extremely devoted fan of pop star Ny’Jee.
Neither Dre nor Nai’Ji actually exist, but the latter can be easily guessed by singer Beyoncé – in general, one has to consider that the fanbase is the starting point for the entire show. The community of Beyoncé’s most devoted fans is called “beyhive” (“Beyhive”) or simply “hive” (“Hive”). The logic is this: the singer herself is “Queen Bey”, in English “queen bee” is literally compatible with “queen bee”, so subjects-fans are formed around the artist’s hive of admiration. As it turned out a few years ago, Beyonce really enjoys beekeeping and keeps two real beehives for 80,000 people (probably so that life doesn’t look like honey).
Fortunately, Beyonce doesn’t seem to have as active fans as Dre. After she lost him (neighbor? friend? sister? will be told near the final) Marissa (Grown Up sitcom star Chloe Bailey also records music under Chlöe’s moniker and is starring in what you might think is a visual version of Beyoncé’s Lemonade album.), with nothing left in his life but the idolization of Nai’Ji. That’s why she goes to travel around the country and kill people who criticize the singer on the Internet. Along the way, he meets various characters: from the funny stripper Hayley, who performs under the pseudonym Halsey. (Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe’s daughter, of course, singer Paris Jackson)head of the female empowerment cult (see NXIVM) Eva (here acting by debut superstar Billie Eilish, which is as creepy as her songs).
The output is something like a horror version of Rian Johnson’s “Pokerface” (here instead of a comedic detective story – a psychological thriller that goes into slasher territory), a great series that exists in the coordinate system of “Atlanta”. The everyday life of any black person in America (not only) is associated with a certain amount of absurdity and surrealism. “Roy”, if you will, is the “Atlantean” bad sister.
It seems like something unique, but it also has an instantly recognizable style that is the visual language of Glover’s previous show, which he created in partnership with director Hiro Murai, cinematographer Christian Sprenger, and colorist Ricky Gausis. season two: supposed film grain, underexposure, and other spectacular glitz, so Sprenger was later approached with requests to remove ads to make it “like in Atlanta.” “Roy” goes even further: it was shot in real film, and the aspect ratio of the frame is oddly cropped while the neo-noir cylinder is bent to the limit (Neibers calls it a “black Criterion Collection” vibe).
Overall, perhaps too much of the old has been moved to the new series – fuck the visual style, but even some of the jokes here seem like an echo of Atlanta. So, white stripper Halsey pretends to be black, pretending to be a true crime documentary about a “Atlanta” black teenager who feels like a “35-year-old white male from Colorado” and, in episode six, a detective. Dre, evokes the great series about a fictional Disney studio boss trying to make Goofy Vacation “the blackest movie of all time.”
That’s not all that important, however: while some of the jokes aren’t technically the first freshness, the overall Glover toning (which turns out to be perfectly combined with the horror; Jordan Peele should act) and the outstanding work of Dominique Fishback (I swear, from her looks really alone) will certainly outweigh any claim. Ultimately, the only thing unsatisfied is the hope that has persisted through all seven episodes when Earl, Paper-Boy and Darren are about to turn the corner and the David Lynch movie reopens instead of Tuesday. But that would perhaps not work here: if “Atlanta” speaks of life in spite of the time, then “Roy” rather denotes life dissolving in surrealism without a trace. Do not create an idol for yourself: pros, cons, pitfalls.