Part of the charm of Donald Glover’s Atlanta is how uninterested it is in being a traditional comedy. Throughout the Emmy-winning show’s first three seasons, its sense of humor has been both nimble and nebulous; what it finds funny isn’t always bound to something solvable, which results in a comedy that’s more existential than situational. Unlike the work of other black writer-actors on television — Issa Rae’s Insecure, Quinta Brunson’s Abbott Elementary, etc. — the stories Glover and company tell on Atlanta rarely have neat conclusions at the end of each half hour. This leaves viewers with plenty of questions that have yet to be answered heading into the show’s fourth and final season, which premieres on Thursday, September 15.
Given Atlanta’s proven willingness to leave mysteries uninterrogated, answers to some questions are less likely to come than others. For example, it won’t ever be explained how Wiley knew everything that was on Al/Paper Boi’s phone in the “Cancer Attack” episode if Socks was the one who stole it in the first place. But with the series returning to its titular city, some old story beats might finally be resolved.
