We barely had a moment to digest the intro before shit got really, really, really creepy. Darius buys a red Confederate-flag trucker hat and changes the embroidered phrase “SOUTHERN MADE” into famous Cam’ron meme “U MAD” with a Sharpie. But yep, a black man proudly sporting the Dixie stars and bars on his head is one of the most comfortable moments of “Teddy Perkins.”
In Robbin’ Season’s most Get Out-iest, heebie-jeebiest episode thus far, it’s finally Darius’ turn to be the center of attention. And it’s everything you expect, but somehow, substantially iller, in that “imagine Michael Jackson as The Crypt Keeper” kinda way. Let’s just say I stayed up later than expected after watching it, and not just because I had to write a review. If “Teddy Perkins” didn’t creep-you-T-F out, you might be Teddy Perkins IRL.
The layers of disturbia in “Teddy Perkins” are manifold, laced with more sheer eeriness than we thought we’d been conditioned to expect from the show’s anything-goes attitude toward plotlines and predictability. It’s still an ends-justify-means format, in which we’re always promised at least some resolution near the end, but given no guarantees of what the ride will be like once we’ve bought the ticket. And somehow, even with an distinctively dark 41-minute mini-movie — with an ending that makes us wish we could pass Darius a blunt of whatever he needs to settle his nerves — we end up with brilliant psycho-comedic gold, which may now officially be a genre.
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Music also factors into the mood and story of Teddy Perkins, the amazingly creepy brother of a mysterious hermit pianist named Benny Hope. Perkins is selling his brother’s multicolored piano to Darius, who found it on an internet message board and decided to buy it, pulling up to a Bel-Air-style mansion with a U-Haul truck to make the purchase and move the keys. And songs from Stevie Wonder’s Music of My Mind album are sprinkled throughout. In a bit of audio foreshadowing, Stevie’s normally soul-settling voice feels out of place as Darius approaches the mansion in his rental. The album itself, made in 1972, features Stevie almost exclusively, from vocals to instruments and production. It’s considered an arrival at artistic maturity for the groundbreaking artist, with somewhat-heavier contemplation on social issues. And we definitely get some of that with this Atlanta episode.
By the way, yes, that was Donald Glover playing Teddy, in prosthetic whiteface. I wouldn’t bet against the possibility that he just won another Emmy with his portrayal of Teddy (who, in the meantime, you should be following on Twitter.
Teddy Perkins is easily one of the most comfort-repelling characters Atlanta has given us to date. His hair has a similar shape as the villain from No Country For Old Men, his pigmentation deficiency seems unnatural, to say the least, his voice just isn’t right at all, and his eyes seem to be see-through. The bone structure of his face is something like Jim Carrey’s alter-ego in The Mask, and the black and magenta colors of his robe seems particularly bothersome. I wouldn’t have been mad if Darius just turned around and left at first sight of Teddy — everybody else would’ve left, right? — but again, this is Darius’ episode, so of course he stays, and doesn’t seem sure if he’s really in danger, because sometimes he’s clearly an idiot.
He stays as Teddy cracks open and prepares to eat a soft-boiled ostrich egg (which is apparently a real thing people do). He stays through Teddy’s alarming acknowledgement of not having a butler, despite seeming like he’d requested water for Darius through the intercom. He stays after admitting, in one of the brief phone breaks Darius takes to call Alfred for advice about staying or leaving.
Meanwhile, Alfred, Earn and Tracy seem by contrast to be just fine at a Krystal drive-thru, stunting on the guy taking the order by rejecting his advice to add fries and make the meal cheaper, with hilarious egging-on from Tracy. They’ll make it to the next episode with no major issues, but back at Teddy’s house, things feel quite different, which helps to build nervous anticipation that something’s definitely coming. You certainly feel the connection to Get Out in the sequencing and pace of the episode’s remaining events, but it’s cool to see it in TV format and get the same ominously tripped-out vibe.
Once again, Atlanta uses an episode to take issues familiar to all, and shines line on the experience of having these issues while being black, which certainly makes them more complicated.
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Teddy’s appearance, which we assume to be a product of skin-bleaching, comes from a painful place of African-Americans equating fairness or darkness of skin color with societal worth, and being something that you don’t get over, over time. There’s also an interesting mention of rap music, which Teddy says “never quite grew out of its adolescence.” It sort of brings us back to how “Little Stevie Wonder” grew into musical deity who wrote and recorded Songs In The Key Of Life, with timeless songs like “Black Man,” “Pastime Paradise,” and “Love’s In Need of Love Today” — the kind of real-life music that demands maturity just to be truly appreciated.
It’s certainly a fair point, but when we meet the mannequin Teddy has propped up and dressed in a suit as a possible effigy of he and Benny’s dad, and we learn that the brothers — particularly Benny — were beaten in order to be “good at life.”
And it seems that Teddy has come to an acceptance of this as a way of life: sacrifice of joy and happiness are to be expected, and “great things come from great pain,” as he says while looking up to the faceless cloth statue, admiring what it represents. “We were a sacrifice,” he says with pride and without remorse for the childhood he missed.
It was hard not to laugh when Darius checks his phone, and Alfred has texted him to ask if he’s dead yet. But it’s also making viewers nervous, because unlike Alfred we can tell that Darius is a deer in Teddy’s trippy headlights. He wants to relate, even as he’s cuffing himself to a chair at gunpoint.
The ending of the episode is a bit confusing. It doesn’t seem clear why Teddy’s surprised his brother is still alive. It also feels strange that Teddy knew all of a sudden to look in the attic for the gun Benny mentioned to Darius. And if Benny was right when he tried warning Darius of Teddy’s intention to kill them both, but Darius was going to be tied to a chair, did Teddy plan on killing his brother with the poker? If so, why? Also, damn.
It’ll take watching it again, but it’s totally worth it since the climax includes a telling moment in which Darius, as calmly as can be expected for the situation in which he finds himself, tries explaining that it’s not too late for Teddy to break the cycle of violence and “sacrifice.”
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Teddy’s not exactly wrong, because we all see the results of the work those dads put in on Michael and his Jackson 5 brothers, and the Williams sisters, and Tiger Woods, and even Emilio Estevez’s character in The Breakfast Club. But as black fathers do what they think is necessary to increase the chances of their children’s survival, they’re not only breaking them in, they’re also breaking them and continuing a cycle of violence and retribution that affects the family.
As Teddy explains how Benny was pushed to become the best piano player possible, we are pushed to consider how aggressive over-parenting affects talented individuals throughout their lives. And this did a masterful job of further humanizing one of Atlanta’s most irreplaceable characters, and making us ask ourselves what happens when we keep habitually dehumanizing brilliant black kids.
I imagine I’m not the only person who’s been waiting to see what the show did when it eventually got around to having a Darius episode, but you can tell that everyone involved knew this one had to be special, if not also completely nuts. They did not disappoint. As we’ve been trained to expect from Darius’ twitchy personality and beautiful mind, it’s another one of those times where you’re left thinking about it for longer than you think you should be. Yes, Darius has flashes of brilliance at times, making us all think about the deeper level of it all, man. But sometimes he’s also an idiot. We’re never quite sure how much of which he’s giving us, or how he’s going to get through a situation, but he’s one of the best reasons to watch Atlanta, and I’m glad he somehow survived.
Rating: 4.9 out of 5
Mike, I’ve been watching and reading from the beginning (of season 2 that is) and I gotta say, this episode left me TRULY sunken in a pool of various emotions. That said, I still must ask, not that I am judging questioning your judgement: why a 4.9 and not a perfect 5? Either way, great review as always.
because this is HHDX where they always hedge their bet with a 4.9…. lame
Great cuffin episode, it appears that this year whole episodes are fuckin nuts, where last season, it was just scenes that were nuts or unexplained. Really like how they threw Sammy sosa in their to bolster the episode brilliant, and the comment on the room ode to dads, “And the father of Emilio Estevez’s character from that movie Breakfast Club”…classic
Now, let’s pretend it was the other way around – some white guy would wear a prosthetic blackface. Imagine the outcry – there would be accusations of racism, boycottting and demonstrations, big ass BLM marches on the streets of every city etc. This way around.. *crickets*
Stop being so sensitive. Buck up buttercup
Lmao says the person who everytime they dont get the job they applied for its cause racism or if your the only black person in a building full of white people ehhhh they are racist and staring or dear god if someone says you people or shoots an unarmed black man thats racism even though for every 1 black unarmed man shot theres literaly 3 white men shot unarmed for no reason but thats ok huh? Dumbass hypocrites man thank god you only represent 13% of the country compared to 73% being caucasian wait till that 73% is fed up and its almost there
Ummm, I’m white. You just went on a racist rant for nothing lol. Shows a lot about your character
Ask Robert Downey Jr how he felt in Tropic Thunder. Didn’t hear too much outcry back then. Stop it.
He wasn’t in whiteface. He was a bleached skinned black man. Huge difference
did black people ever had white slaves?
do black cops shoot unarmed innocent white kids in the back?
did black politicians ever create a ghetto and put all the poor white people there and kept them without any chance to get out of it?
did black movie mackers ever made fun of white people in movies by having black actors in whiteface acting like uneducated servants?
the answer is no,stop beeing dumb and think before you post stupid comments
I love how white people are so utterly thin skinned despite having nothing to complain about. “What if it was a white person in black face?!” Firstly, you didn’t even have the intelligence to follow the plot fo the episode, apparently. Both of the brothers are black. It’s clearly displayed throughout the entire episode. There are no white people in the house. Nobody is in white face.
Secondly, black people don’t have a history of systematically oppressing white people. Black people didn’t have minstrel shows were they did nothing but belittle white people for fun and profit. So switching the nouns is an invalid argument because the terms aren’t equal.
When white people have it written into law that it’s illegal for them to READ OR WRITE by black people, THEN white people can complain that they have been unfairly treated.
‘Arlanta’ Is an amazing series and I have to say this is the best episode yet! Teddy Perkins is a trip man lol
I didn’t think season 2 could get any wierder after helen but holy shat
Was traveling and staying in my hotel room when I turned this on and started watching it. I had never heard of this show before. Being a horror film buff I had immediately thought I was watching a horror film because it played out like one…..when I found out that this was a tv show I was left very impressed…..this particular episode had me hooked as I was glued to the tv the entire time….I felt like this is Emmy award winning material as the acting, directing and WRITING were all TOP NOTCH QUALITY!! When I looked up the show and what its about it sounded like a show I would normally have 0 interest in but what I read was NOTHING LIKE what I had just seen….so I am left wondering if this was just a stand alone episode different from all of the other episodes which I am thinking is most likely the case but I can not help but to feel curious to see the rest of this series now. I could not believe that this episode I watched was a tv show. Amazing material and very clever plot.
Teddy is surprised Benny is alive because he tried to kill him before Darius. If you look closely, Benny is bleeding in his abdomen area
The ending of the episode is either brilliant, or poor writing. I can’t tell.
One has to remember that Darius discovered blood on the piano. Fresh blood. This would suggest that someone was freshly injured. He was beckoned to the piano by the fact that music was just being played on it. Yet, when Darius asked about it, Teddy said his brother was sleeping. SO we can assume that Benny was playing the piano and then attacked by Teddy.
This is why Benny is surprised that Teddy was still alive.