With the return of FX’s award winning show Atlanta, fans were immediately introduced to the main theme hovering over the season, appropriately promoted Robbin’ Season. With two young teens dawning ski masks and holding a chicken spot at gun point for a stash of weed, it’s clear that the season will not only follow along with Earn (played by executive producer, Donald Glover) and those around him, but witness the citizens of Atlanta as some do whatever means necessary to provide for themselves.

Atlanta is a comedy with drama underlying in it, and with the path started with “Alligator Man,” we are definitely in for moments that will resonate with us for days after, and not just for the giggles.

Unsurprisingly, the characters are able to display the hardships of Black America in the forms we understand best; hilarity. When one of the boys in the robbery is about to escape, a cashier begins to fire at him recklessly with an AK, chasing the boy out until he accidentally shoots a girl in the backseat of the getaway car, who is kicked out with injuries before breaking down in loud wailing as the vehicle speeds off. When Earn is kicked out of his home (a storage unit) and chastises a worker for taking his stuff, the employee says “I watch Storage Wars, too. This ain’t that.” Earn’s Uncle Willy (played by famous comedian Katt Williams) refuses to let the police into his home over a domestic complaint, and he threatens to release his alligator on them. To this Earn tells him to stop acting foolish because the cops won’t hesitate to arrest all of them over the complaint, and Willy replies “How you gonna tell me about myself? You homeless, Earn, you don’t even got a mirror to yourself.”

With the comedy, the serious themes of the episode lie underneath until all of the covers are stripped and you’re left with the real issues. Willy clearly has issues with his mental health, but he doesn’t handle it well. Earn is homeless but he doesn’t ask for help from his cousin, who’s quick rise to fame makes Earn nervous that he will eventually be forgotten. Moment like these remind viewers that the world of Atlanta isn’t just for their entertainment; the characters are as authentic as they come, and Glover doesn’t hesitate to show that every chance he gets.

There’s a reason that Atlanta continues to be a show to watch; its air of confusion is often cleared up by the end of the episode, but when it’s not, even those on the show have matching faces of “what the hell just happened?” Maybe it’s the well written characters of the show, or the changing storyline that gives a new focus every episode.

No matter what it is, it keeps us waiting next week for what’s to come for the people of Atlanta.