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11.09.22 Every Episode of Atlanta Ranked11.03.22 Andor
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Every Episode of Atlanta Ranked

feels right to do something to mark the ending of one of the best shows in TV history. if y'all skipped this for whatever reason - you're missing out, unskip it.
40Trinidad James
Trips To Trinidad EP

3x7 - Trini 2 de Bone. The worst episode of Atlanta is still pretty decent, touching on some solid ideas about absent parenthood and cultural clashes that could be the seed of a genuinely great episode. In practice though, it's just too oddly paced and weirdly unfunny to make much of an impact; some bland casting (outright distracting in the case of a scene-sinking Chet Hanks) is really what sinks it down to the bottom of the list, though it says a lot that the worst episode of this show still demonstrates more potential than some others' entire runs. Best line: "this is how we sad."
39Animal Collective
Time Skiffs

3x10 - Tarrare. It's frustrating that I spent most of Atlanta's last two seasons waiting for a single Van episode only to be underwhelmed by two. 'Tarrare' is the worse of the two because it comes closer to giving us the insight on Van's strange behaviour that we'd been waiting for, but squanders the chance on some fitfully funny but inconsistent black comedy and Alexander Skarsgard cameos. It's still entertaining enough, and Zazie gives a hell of a performance, but when her climactic, beautifully acted monologue is sandwiched between some weak Armie Hammer jokes and a piss = mouth scene it's hard not to feel like her talents are being wasted. Best line: "I kinda fuck with it now!"
38Sault (UK)
Untitled (Black Is)

3x9 - Rich Wigga, Poor Wigga. I enjoyed s3's last anthology episode a lot at the time, but it's not an episode that really encourages rewatching. Despite a great lead performance and an all-timer line about Clarence Thomas, the episode is a little too saggy and loses its way too much in a messy third act to really make much of an impact. That final frame, tho, wew.
37Little Simz
Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

4x5 - Work Ethic! Faring slightly better than 'Tarrare' is an episode which sees Van get her very own surreal Teddy Perkins-esque experience, complete with a confrontation with a final boss who's just Donald Glover in some (very distracting this time) makeup. Despite some stronger jokes and a great escalating sense of urgency, the episode still positions Van too much as just 'Lottie's mom' - a confusing mistake the show itself will call out only 2 episodes later - and spends too much time on a Tyler Perry parody that's somehow too specific and too broad to really hit. This might be the most mid episode in all of Atlanta, which makes it landing at #37 not a bad outcome all in all. Best line: "I'm fine. Grits don't work on me."
362Pac
All Eyez on Me

3x2 - Sinterklaas is Coming to Town. The other most mid episode of Atlanta follows up its most daring premiere with a pleasant back-to-basics story. It's hard not to feel like we're slightly retreading ground, especially with the blackface joke that was done infinitely better in 'Helen', but the wild payoff to Darius and Van's b-plot bumps this one up a little bit higher.
35Run The Jewels
Run the Jewels 2

4x8 - The Goof Who Sat By the Door. My placement of this episode almost feels random; it's so far afield of anything Atlanta it could easily have just been dropped as a short film on Disney+ and not changed a second of its contents. It's a fun, cleverly-made fake documentary with some interesting parallels to Glover's real career if you dig deep, but its questionable presence between two of s4's best episodes makes you wonder how much we really needed an episode like this in the final stretch. Still, if I'm ranking something this bold and unexpected in the bottom 5, you know you're dealing with one hell of a unique and visionary show, right? Best line: "Who ordered the white rice?"
34Migos
Culture

1x3 - Go for Broke. s1's worst episode is still pretty great, but there's a slight sense of deflation after 1x2 immediately levelled up the show to one of its early peaks. Earn and Van's story earns (hah) some laughs, but it feels too reserved, almost like something that could fit in Community with a few alterations - which is fine but not necessarily what you want from a show like Atlanta. Al and Darius steal the show with an iconic argument about naming guns, and a cameo from Migos that hits a little harder now (RIP Takeoff).
33JID
The Forever Story

4x1 - The Most Atlanta. The season four premiere was a return to form for a lot of folks, but for me a return to a kind of normalcy that feels a bit like a regression. The episode is still whipsmart and hilarious, full of the kind of insights and horror-adjacent comedy you could possibly want from Atlanta - but it could also occur at any point in s1, which to me is a little more back-to-basics than I hoped the show would go for in its final run of episodes.
32The Butterfly Effect
Begins Here

1x1 - The Big Bang. The first episode of Atlanta has plenty to hook you with, from the attention-grabbing circular beginning and ending to the light surrealistic touches that hint at how wild the show would get in the future. The fact that it's relatively low on the list just tells you how far the creative team would improve on the blueprints laid down here: by the standards of comedy pilot episodes, though, 'The Big Bang' is a goddamn masterpiece. Best line: "Can I measure your tree?"
31Chance the Rapper
Acid Rap

2x3 - Money Bag Shawty. The weakest episode of Robbin Season is still fantastic by most standards, which is all you really need to say about the quality of the season as a whole. Earn and Van's story is a touch predictable, until the payoff with Michael Vick which gives us an all-time line delivery by Zazie. But it's Al and Darius' run-in with Chance the Rap-uhhh Clark County which really gives the episode its most memorable and quotable moments. Best line: "It's Michael fucking Vick."
30Lupe Fiasco
DROGAS Wave

4x3 - Born 2 Die. Similar to 'The Most Atlanta', Born 2 Die is largely funny and perceptive in its skewering of certain aspects of fame and celebrity, but feels reserved in relation to the heights we know Atlanta can hit. The payoff to Earn's D'Angelo storyline, while funny, especially feels like a lesser version of some of the insane punchlines the show has hit before; Alfred's story hits harder and funnier as his brush with a YWA comes to its inevitable conclusion. Best line: "RIP Yodel Kid!"
29Kanye West
Yeezus

3x4 - The Big Payback. This is the episode that drew a line down the middle of the fans who love and hate s3's semi-anthology format. I find myself toeing both lines of the line; the episode is funny and horrific in equal measure, but never strikes that perfect balance that made 'Three Slaps' so haunting, and is a little heavy-handed in its treatment of the subject matter. Still, though, there's plenty of great individual moments, including a chilling monologue that sticks up there with the show's best. Best line: "It is a cruel, unavoidable ghost that haunts in a way we can't see."
28Vince Staples
Big Fish Theory

2x11 - Crabs in a Barrel. The second season finale is reserved even by Atlanta finale standards, mostly opting for a slow crawl towards anxiety-inducing uncertainty than anything resembling a big blowout, until the climactic airport scene which is over almost before it begins. But 'Crabs in a Barrel' is excellent as a capper to Robbin Season as a whole, a perfect showcase of what people will do to get by when they have no other choice and the most incisive demonstration of Earn and Alfred's brotherhood in the show to date.
27Soundtrack (Television)
BoJack Horseman

4x2 - The Homeliest Little Horse. Hats off to anyone who predicted we'd ever get the answer to what happened to Earn at Princeton inside of a brutal, heartwrenching therapy scene; double props to anyone who then predicted where the episode would go from there or the truly wild twist that provides its ending. It's hard to anything about this episode that wouldn't be better said by just watching the damn thing, but it's an admirable and hilarious second entry in the final season. Best line: "I can't tell if this is extreme pettiness... or terrorism."
26Barbra Streisand
The Barbra Streisand Album

1x4 - The Streisand Effect. This is another funny early entry which focuses more on fleshing out the characters than providing a real heater of an episode. Darius and Earn finally get to bond, and Al learns a memorable (and hilarious) lesson about hustle; not much else happens, but really, does it need to? Best line: "Did he just get robbed?"
25Blink-182
Neighborhoods

2x10 - FUBU. I was initially underwhelemed with this low-key flashback which served as a penultimate entry for Atlanta s2. Time and context have been kind to the episode, which now seems like an essential part in the overall season's story of Earn and Al, and a heartwrenchingly sincere look into the darker side of childhood life.
24Bobby Shmurda
Bodboy

4x4 - Light-Skinned-ed. Maybe s4's funniest entry, 'Light-Skinned-ed' still feels heavily indebted to the first two seasons - to the extent of bringing back extended family not seen since the s2 premiere, 5 years ago - but works them in with an effortlessness that is testament to the excellent script. Beat-for-beat one of the show's most quotable and entertaining episodes, this only isn't higher because of the sheer quality Atlanta can reach at its peaks. Best line: "You can't kidnap your own dad. I ain't got time to explain it to you right now, but the word 'kid' is in it."
23Drake
Views

2x7 - Champagne Papi. Van's second showcase episode in Robbin Season had a lot to live up to, not only following 'Helen' but sequenced between some pretty big hitters in 'Teddy Perkins' and 'Woods'. It doesn't really top any of that, which would be pretty impossible, but watched in a vacuum this is a funny and thoughtful episode, which is just slightly short of fleshing out Van to the extent it should at such a transformative time in her life. Best line: "Drake is Mexican!"
22OutKast
ATLiens

1x10 - The Jacket. For the most part, s1's finale is lowkey almost to a fault; Earn's search for a MacGuffin is paperthin plotting even for this, uh, not most narratively focused of shows, just an excuse to shuffle around setpieces and revisit some favourite characters from the season. But 'The Jacket' excels at two moments, one when the vibe switches from lowkey comedic to real-world horrifying within the span of a few seconds; the other in its final moments, as Earn walks down the street towards his future, "Elevators" by OutKast bumping in his headphones, one of the effortlessly finest and most moving collisions of music and visual in the history of the show. That's how you end a season, goddamn.
21BADBADNOTGOOD
IV

3x6 - White Fashion. This s3 cut is almost predictable - beginning with Al, Earn and Darius in a sharply observed comedic situation, splitting them up with seemingly random developments, all in service of the larger message etc. It's the finer details that really make this, from Brian Tyree Henry's ever-excellent work as a man silently fuming at the world around him, to the unexpected turn towards emotion when Earn and Van reunite. Best line: "Racism will be over by 2024!"
20 Jeezy
Streets on Lock

1x2 - Streets on Lock. I can think of few better show beginnings than the one Atlanta had, premiering with its first two episodes back-to-back on the same night. 'The Big Bang' set you up for a certain level of comedic quality, only for 'Streets on Lock' to come along and kick the damn doors down with its shockingly funny, fucked up and considerate portrait of life inside a holding cell. From about 10 minutes into this one it was clear the show was something special, and it's never looked back since.
19Kid Cudi
Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’

2x2 - Sportin' Waves. Most memorable as our introduction to Tracy, the perfect foil for Glover's reticent and taciturn character who gets increasingly annoying and brilliant as the season progresses. This doesn't scrapes the high heights Robbin Season will, but it's front-to-back hilarious and one of the most rewatchable episodes of the show. Best line: "Your girl likes hippity-hop?"
18Soulja Boy
Souljaboytellem.com

4x6 - Crank Dat Killer. There's something oddly comfortable about this season 4 cut which features Earn, Darius and Al in roughly equal measure, dealing with an absurd circumstance that gets dangerously real too quickly. Again, it's very s1 but that's not a bad thing here: the collision of the two subplots is an all-time great moment in the show, and a nice reminder that standard sitcom plotting can still hit like a truck in the strange world of Atlanta. Best line: "This kiss ain't gonna french itself!"
17Kids See Ghosts
Kids See Ghosts

3x1 - Three Slaps. However you feel about s3's more controversial digressions from the (lmao) 'narrative', there's no denying that its premiere is an absolutely harrowing, haunting episode of television. It says a lot that the dream-within-a-dream which begins it, the most outright horror sequence in the show complete with a great jumpscare, is the least terrifying part of this episode. The creeping dread of wrongness throughout the main story, building to a sickly revelation that this shit was based on real events with a worse ending than the one shown in the show, makes for an episode that is not easy to watch but arguably essential to. Best line: "We're all cursed."
16Paramore
After Laughter

1x6 - Value. Glover's directorial debut is muted even for Atlanta, an episode that feels shot in hazy, shaky closeups as if to emphasise how uncertain and unsteady Van's day-to-day life is. We finally get a showcase for Zazie and she absolutely kills it, whether it's the drunk comedy at the beginning or the mundane (but oh too real) devastation of losing her job at the end. Oh, and that horror-movie cut to the kid in whiteface is among the greatest in the history of anything.
15Justin Bieber
Justice

1x5 - Nobody Beats the Biebs. The most memorable part of this s1 highlight is undoubtedly Al's pissing match with a black Justin Bieber, an intensely quotable and hilarious story beat that gives Henry some of his best material to date. But it's the Earn subplot that really sticks in my mind years later; his mistaken-identity scuffle with a drunk, absolutely terrifying Jane Adams is an early example of Atlanta showing how its characters don't even get to feel safe in the most comfortable of spaces, and it's a surprisingly intense and distressing watch for an episode that ends with Glover doing his best Bieber impersonation for an apology song.
14clipping.
Visions of Bodies Being Burned

2x1 - Alligator Man. When Robbin Season began I remember expecting more along the lines of s1, perhaps a little bolder and sharper with the early-show-jitters out the way. I didn't expect a gamechanging, top-tier season of TV; at least not until the opening horror short film of 'Alligator Man' knocked me out of my seat, only for one of the funniest episodes of the show to follow. Best line: "Shit's like an Azealia Banks Snapchat."
13Black Star
Black Star

1x7 - B.A.N. On first airing, this was an absolute classic, a hysterical break in format where even the ads are packed with winning jokes. With a few seasons' and several years' hindsight, it feels a touch undercooked, maybe a little long and with a real message that got slightly lost in all the punchlines. For pure entertainment value, though, 'B.A.N.' remains an all-timer episode of Atlanta. Best line: "What IPAs do you have on tap?"
12Tyler, the Creator
Flower Boy

4x7 - Snipe Hunt. After a run of episodes I found funny but frustratingly simple and unemotional, 'Snipe Hunt' was a perfectly placed gutpunch, just as I'd let my guard down in the show's dying days. Perhaps the most beautifully photographed episode of Atlanta, there's not much plot here except Earn talking Van into leaving the titular city, but the guarded warmth behind the actors' eyes that all spills out in Glover's big monologue says more than any words could. Best line: "I love you for you."
11The Devil Wears Prada
With Roots Above and Branches Below

3x3 - The Old Man and The Tree. Another of the funniest episodes of the show, 'Old Man' doesn't boast a lot of dramatic heft but manages to wrestle insane laughs out of every subplot while beautifully keeping the season's recurring ghost theme alive. It's not one to write a thesis paper about, but the cut to Henry chainsawing down a tree screaming "OH YOU WAKE NOW FERNANDO?" may be the hardest I ever laughed watching an episode of this show; sometimes that's enough.
10Thundercat
It Is What It Is

2x5 - Barbershop. Glover's best work in the director chair pairs Henry with an infuriatingly likable barber, an escalating farce that could slide into Curb Your Enthusiasm without much trouble, and a Thundercat/Flying Lotus score that somehow feels perfectly suited to the cringe comedy on display. It's a fair bit deeper than it would appear on the surface, like a lot of Robbin Season, but that surface is also absolutely hysterical on its own merits. Best line: "Anybody else pee a little bit when we had that wreck?"
9Pajama Club
Pajama Club

2x9 - North of the Border. The boys and Tracy get into a farce on a uni campus which comically escalates until they're in a surreal frat house with naked possible sacrifices. It's one of the silliest, most entertaining digressions of the show, but the simmering tension between Earn and Al provides a vital kick that makes things just a little more real.
850 Cent
Get Rich or Die Tryin'

1x7 - The Club. Atlanta's straight-up funniest episodes puts us in the club to show everyone having a disappointing or straight up miserable time. From rotating walls to invisible cars, that classic Atlanta surrealism is just underneath the surface but here playing a supporting role to the never-better comedy of the show. Best line: "N***s know I drink juice and shit, man."
7Deakin
Sleep Cycle

4x9 - Andrew Wyeth. Alfred's World. Atlanta's penultimate episode had a lot riding on its shoulders. I'm far from naive enough to expect narrative wrap-up or some form of closure from this show, but with Earn and Van having reached a tentative peace and Alfred not appearing for several episodes, there was a buzz around this episode before it had even aired which it more than lived up to. 'Alfred's World' doesn't tie a neat little bow on any storylines, but it feels like an exhale from a character who's spent the entire series tightly wound and holding his breath, waiting for the next tragedy to fall. A literal tractor falls on him in this episode, and he fights a hog to the death, but Alfred seems to have found his peace out in the same woods that nearly killed him, and if that isn't some form of closure I don't really know what is. Best line: "These Backhoes Ain't Loyal".
6My Chemical Romance
The Black Parade

3x5 - Cancer Attack. s3 was a hell of an up-and-down ride, with the show's absolute best and worst stuff sometimes airing back to back. When the experiment paid off, though, holy shit did it pay, and 'Cancer Attack' is one part of a spiritual two-parter which is in contention for the show's best. This is a quiet, haunted episode which quickly makes clear that the search of Al's phone is a paper mask over the search for something much more important, his motivation and inspiration, that love of music that made him get into rapping in the first place. We never see Alfred as vulnerable as in his big confession scene here, spilling his guts out to (probably) a ghost who doesn't have any answers; it might just be Brian Tyree Henry's finest moment in a series full of superlative moments from him. Best line: "I'm the white Liam Neeson!"
5Childish Gambino
"Awaken, My Love!"

1x9 - Juneteenth. I tend to look back on season 1 of Atlanta as a prelude to what was coming next, an enjoyable and nostalgic but fairly straightforward take on a world that would only grow more textured and strange with each season. That's true to an extent, but it's unfair to overlook the essential work it did in setting up that world in the first place, especially in an episode as good as 'Juneteenth'. The first script from series MVP Stefani Robinson is still one of her best, setting up punchline after punchline with effortless skill while never losing sight of the very real Earn/Van relationship at the core. Best line: "Why do you have a pair of your sister's underwear?" "Never know, man."
4A Tribe Called Quest
The Low End Theory

3x8 - New Jazz. The spiritual sequel to 'Cancer Attack' could on any other day be my favourite episode of the show. 'New Jazz' throws in surrealism, drug-trip black comedy, possible time travel, a fucking insane cameo that's just too good to spoil here only to end with a gutpunch of a twist that completely transforms the whole episode on rewatch. This was Atlanta at its absolute best, doing things no show can do quite on the same level in the same way, and it was worth the trip to Europe for this alone. Best line: "You don't feel shit. Can't even feel your legs".
3The Cure
Disintegration

2x6 - Teddy Perkins. Maybe it's a little unfair that 'Teddy Perkins' is The Episode of Atlanta, the one people probably know if they don't know any others, that dominates internet conversation and discussion about it to this day. It's not the best episode, though it's not far off; it's not as unexpectedly emotional behind sincerely great comedy as the show at its best, and it doesn't leave you thinking about the space you occupy and how you occupy it in the world for days afterwards as the best episodes do. That said, as an extended, complete dive into Jordan Peele-esque horror with no escape hatches and no relief from the slowly ratcheting tension, 'Teddy Perkins' is a total success, boasting career-best work from Lakeith Stanfield and single-handedly proving the show's bonafides could extend to horror without a single doubt. Best line: "I went through daddy shit too, man."
2Anthony Green
Boom. Done.

2x4 - Helen. Stunningly underrated even among fans of the show, 'Helen' throws Earn and Van into a 'Juneteenth' situation on drugs, an Eyes Wide Shut-with-German-puppets situation that ends in the show's single most devastating moment. Things have been fraying between the couple for a while, and their strange never-defined situation was always untenable, but it doesn't make it any easier to watch as they leave the future of their relationship down to a ping-pong match that's a lot more heartwrenching than it sounds. Amy Seimetz does series-best work as the director here, lingering especially on Zazie Beetz's expressive face as she slowly comes to terms with the fact that she doesn't love Earn anymore, if she ever did - by any rights, this is one of the realest and most uncomfortable relationship dissolutions put on TV, a beautifully acted slow-motion trainwreck it's impossible to look away from.
1Avantdale Bowling Club
TREES

2x8 - Woods. 'Woods' isn't just the best episode of Atlanta; it's one of the best I've ever seen of anything. I want to say that anybody's ever seen, but maybe that's tempting fate, and this episode is such a small-scale, intensely personal sigh of pain that it's unlikely to hit any two people the same. What's for sure is that 'Woods' is proof of the show's mastery in keeping the quiet part quiet: you may not catch the detail of it being the anniversary of Al's mother's death for a few watches, and you won't know the devastating real-life context of Henry's mother passing unless you're actively researching. All of that informs, but doesn't make a perfect episode - 25 minutes of heartbreak, horror, and Darius putting his actual foot in some pasta. This was the most Atlanta, no fucking doubt about it. Best line: "Keep standing still, you're gone, boy. You're wasting time. Only people who got time are dead."
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