S03.E07: Trini 2 De Bone

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Quote

White people watching this be like.. Pain.

Original air date 2022.04.28

[AngieBee1]

As season two was subtitled "Robbin' Season", this season should be subtitled "Scamming Season". We have T.J in "The Old Man and the Tree" and Khalil in "White Fashion" now the cast of "Atlanta" for appearing in maybe half the episodes of this season. But the episodes are still great, so fair play.
 

Spoiler

 

I assumed it would be a ghost story (I personally think of the subtitle for this series 3 as "Spooky Szn") when it was revealed that Sylvia passed away. It turns out it was a ghost story (a touching one, at that) - she still watched over Sebastian/Bash and was, in a way, a spectre to his parents as a reminder of her place as a stand-in for them. It really looked like she had a self-satisfied smirk in that last family photo of she and Bash. The fact that Bash knew so much of the Trini culture, and had a broader worldview (little man was watching "The Proud Family" when the show opened) shows how much time he spent with Sylvia. Hell, the fact she had clothes ,wigs and looked like cleaning supplies in the other room shows she spent many a night there. 

It was inspired to have Chet Hanks play Sylvia past child! Hanks has caught hell for speaking with a Jamaican patois. Hanks' Curtis got it from environment but I think he has a love the culture. I think Hanks' does too, so I can't fault him for putting an accent on. Especially when it doesn't seem as if he's doing it mockingly.

As soon as I heard that teeth sucking when the pastor said Sylvia sent money home I knew someone was going to break bad. In a perfect world (a) parent/s can have a healthy work/life balance but it's near impossible to do that in the best of situations, let alone one where a parent has to work longer hours or hold down more than one job just to provide. Of course children don't always understand that; and sadly, even with age, people can't transcend that past pain of not having their parent/s around. 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by AngieBee1

[heatherchandler]

What was with the photo the dad received at the wake??

[AngieBee1]

2 hours ago, heatherchandler said:

What was with the photo the dad received at the wake??

I assumed it was a white a**hole someone felt Miles was a white a**hole. But on Reddit people point out that it's a monkey's a** because someone said the Trini expression about a monkey's a**hole.

The more I think about this episode the more beautiful it is. Putting aside the class issues - because I truly believe this episode was less about race and more about class. Not to begrudge Bash's mom's yoga or his dad's really nice car, they are fine with spending money on those things but volley about whether Sylvia (who is doing the most important job of tending to their child) was too expensive. But I choose to focus on the fact that Sylvia touched L'il Bash's life so profoundly, as she did with Chet Hanks' character. Bash will go through life with an appreciation for the steel pan and mango chutney and other spicy foods. Sylvia spoke a business language like what they're seeking for their next nanny, but she enlightened that child's life with so much. At the end he's no longer afraid to be in his room and he says "Goodnight, Sylvia" in the direction of the chair- relishing in the peace and comfort she provided him when she was alive.
 

[JenE4]

1 hour ago, AngieBee1 said:

 

I assumed it was a white a**hole someone felt Miles was a white a**hole. But on Reddit people point out that it's a monkey's a** because someone said the Trini expression about a monkey's a**hole.

The more I think about this episode the more beautiful it is. Putting aside the class issues - because I truly believe this episode was less about race and more about class. Not to begrudge Bash's mom's yoga or his dad's really nice car, they are fine with spending money on those things but volley about whether Sylvia (who is doing the most important job of tending to their child) was too expensive. But I choose to focus on the fact that Sylvia touched L'il Bash's life so profoundly, as she did with Chet Hanks' character. Bash will go through life with an appreciation for the steel pan and mango chutney and other spicy foods. Sylvia spoke a business language like what they're seeking for their next nanny, but she enlightened that child's life with so much. At the end he's no longer afraid to be in his room and he says "Goodnight, Sylvia" in the direction of the chair- relishing in the peace and comfort she provided him when she was alive.
 

Well, okay, now we need to know what that expression is!

I agree that it was about the class differences—but moreso the similarities. Both families ended up having children that were NOT raised by their own parents. In the white parents’ case, it seemed to be a choice to put yoga and whatever else above their own child. In that opening scene, I thought that was the step-mom and Slylvia was the actual mom the way they were like, what’s he doing here and what do we feed him? But, no, we quickly learned this is the child’s actual mother who has had no hands-on experience with her own kid. Since they had money, it was a choice to not spend any time with their kid before their first big parenting dilemma about explaining death. Then we assume that Sylvia had to work to survive—she had no choice but to leave her kids to fend for themselves! But did she? We soon learned that she had enough money to not only support her family, but various dance programs. She’s always been overly involved with the kids she’s hired to raise, as not only does Sylvia’s entire family know about the current little boy who’s straight out of Trinidad himself, but we see the product of a grown white adult from TriBeCa with a Trini accent. The family photos at the end drive home the proof that not only did the white family use Sylvia as a stand-in mother, but SHE took the role of mother herself over these kids. Did we even see her grandchildren at the funeral?! No, because she chose the children she worked for over her own family. And, yes, I’m well aware that there’s a massive issue with Afro-Caribbean women being in in-home caretaker industries such as in-home health care aids, making minimal money, spending all of their time and energy taking care of white people and having nothing left for their families. And I thought this was going to be that story…but, of course Atlanta is layered and nuanced and wouldn’t tell an expected story. Instead Sylvia was someone who apparently made a lot of money doing this, went overboard with these little white boys far beyond what would be expected from a nanny, had plenty of extra time and money to focus on dance—and still didn’t make any emotional room for her own family? The one daughter seemed close, but Princess told us another story of a mom who was just as absent as the white mom has been to her kid. Sylvia chose to put the white children first just as much as the white mom chose to put yoga first. 

[Crashcourse]

And Atlanta is supposed to be a comedy show? This season has been weird AF.

[heatherchandler]

3 hours ago, AngieBee1 said:

 

I assumed it was a white a**hole someone felt Miles was a white a**hole. But on Reddit people point out that it's a monkey's a** because someone said the Trini expression about a monkey's a**hole.

The more I think about this episode the more beautiful it is. Putting aside the class issues - because I truly believe this episode was less about race and more about class. Not to begrudge Bash's mom's yoga or his dad's really nice car, they are fine with spending money on those things but volley about whether Sylvia (who is doing the most important job of tending to their child) was too expensive. But I choose to focus on the fact that Sylvia touched L'il Bash's life so profoundly, as she did with Chet Hanks' character. Bash will go through life with an appreciation for the steel pan and mango chutney and other spicy foods. Sylvia spoke a business language like what they're seeking for their next nanny, but she enlightened that child's life with so much. At the end he's no longer afraid to be in his room and he says "Goodnight, Sylvia" in the direction of the chair- relishing in the peace and comfort she provided him when she was alive.
 

Please tell us the saying!  I would go to Reddit but it scares me.

L'il Sebastian lol

[AngieBee1]

The expression is "Higher monkey climb, the more he show he ass."
 

Quote

Instead Sylvia was someone who apparently made a lot of money doing this, went overboard with these little white boys far beyond what would be expected from a nanny, had plenty of extra time and money to focus on dance—and still didn’t make any emotional room for her own family? The one daughter seemed close, but Princess told us another story of a mom who was just as absent as the white mom has been to her kid. Sylvia chose to put the white children first just as much as the white mom chose to put yoga first.

I'm going to be a Sylvia defender here and while I agree with your points, I will say I understand where Sylvia was likely coming from and how different it was from Bronwyn and Miles' parenting. Bronwyn and Miles seemingly had a well-to-do life where they could have sacrificed some hours to be with Sebastian and it wouldn't affect their bottom line. They wouldn't be going without. Sylvia choose to put in those hours because she needed to care for her immediate family and those still in Trinidad and Tobago (helped bring her sister to the states and now her kid is a pro athlete!); and wanted to help out the community by chartering the dance program (how likely would it have been for the girls to fall into trouble if they didn't have someplace to go afterschool)? So while her kids got the short end of the stick, I can better accept where her heart was coming from than Miles and Bronwyn (just why couldn't one of them come to parent/child picture day?).

I think the one thing we can all agree on is that Sebastian/Bash was the sweetest little kid and the actor did a great job.
 

Quote

And Atlanta is supposed to be a comedy show? This season has been weird AF.

S1 episode with the black guy on the bus who gets off and goes into the wood, or the episode featuring an invisible car or the one with a black Justin Bieber or Teddy Perkins wasn't weird? This is a comedy. A surrealist comedy.

[Crashcourse]

14 minutes ago, AngieBee1 said:

This is a comedy. A surrealist comedy.

Not to me.  I'm done watching.

[heatherchandler]

55 minutes ago, AngieBee1 said:

The expression is "Higher monkey climb, the more he show he ass."

S1 episode with the black guy on the bus who gets off and goes into the wood, or the episode featuring an invisible car or the one with a black Justin Bieber or Teddy Perkins wasn't weird? This is a comedy. A surrealist comedy.

That’s a good one.

I watched some of the earlier seasons’ episodes the other day and the invisible car is so funny, I had to rewind like 3 times.. the guy in the seat, all of the people getting tossed like they were hit!  Insane!

[DearEvette]

First, I loved little Sebastian so hard!  That little kid was a great little actor.

Bronwyn kinda looked like a brunette Kristin Wiig.

I actually liked Miles.  I know that on the one hand he was being portrayed as a somewhat clueless white guy, but I think his heart was in the right place and I think he was authentically trying to connect with Bash through trying to belatedly connect with Sylvia's culture.

I also thought it was telling (and sad) that Bronwyn and Miles found out about how full Sylvia's life was only after her death.  She was just their son's caretaker, not a person i and of herself. She spent enough time at their house to amass clothing and wigs(!) and seriously imprint her culture on their son, and it feels like they never had a personal conversation with her to get to know anything about her. 

When Bronwyn busted out Baby Beluga my husband and I started cracking up and singing along.  We used to sing that to our oldest son, I can't front. 

Gotta say hands down the funniest thing, though is Chet Hanks playing what has to be a parody of himself.  I love the tongue-in-cheek twitter theory that it is his origin story.  LOL.

This is my favorite of the non-regulars installment this season.

[aghst]

It seems they put some bought into the episode descriptions to make them short and oblique.

More than once, they use “white people” as if they’re addressing race.

Or last week when they had the white woman accuse Van of shoplifting.  A couple of years ago, there was a lot of social media activity about instances of Karens calling the cops on a black birdwatcher in Central Park or black kids selling lemonade or black teens trying to use a community pool and so on.

Turns on in some of the cases, Russian bots were amplifying some of these egregious cases, possibly to depress black voter turnout.

In this case, the white characters, especially the kid, are sympathetic.  They didn’t have to take Sebastian to the funeral.  Sure they should be spending more time rather than outsource parenting, though they were already talking about replacing Sylvia with a Chinese nanny.

But what are they saying, they shouldn’t have hired Sylvia but she shouldn’t have spent so much time with children of rich people instead of her own?  Yet the kid got exposed to other cultures yet that may be more about the parents having their son be exposed to things which may help him professionally, such as learning Mandarin?

 

[possibilities]

The parents didn't even know what was in their own refrigerator. When Sylvia dodn't show up, they had to order out to get coffee and breakfast. Wow.

I don't care if the show is a comedy or a drama, I just care that it's interesting and nuanced and unlike all the other simplistic stuff on air.

 

[meep.meep]

So who was delivering the school photo envelope?

This one seemed much weaker than the other non-main-cast episodes.  Maybe because I'm on the west coast where the nannies definitely are not from Trinidad, maybe because I've seen stories like this before, probably because I'm white.

Good for Sylvia for being such a force.

[AngieBee1]

I think it was the spirit of Sylvia who left the package. She wanted them to have that picture of her -with a self-satisfied smirk - and Bash to remind them that she will always be a part of his life. I don't care what nanny they choose or if Bash will never have mango chutney ever again, L'il Bash is Trini to de bone at heart. Most importantly they're left with the image of someone who was there for their child when they weren't.

[aghst]

Maybe I didn't notice it as much in previous seasons but the running theme is white people doing bad things, or just being inadequate in this case as the parents.

You had the bad foster kids couple, two white women, in Sinterklaus.

You had the white billionaire welshing on a bet of maybe $40-50k in The Old Man and the Tree.  I think it was also a white guy who made a big deal about the woman who thought Darius was hitting on her at the party.

The reparations episode with some white people being angry about personally having to pay in The Big Payback.

You had the white roadie stealing Alfred's phone and causing a lot of turmoil in Cancer Attack.

White Fashion was using the Central Park 5, with a poster showing 5 young black men around a young white woman, for which the white fashion designer was hiring Alfred to "end racism" by 2024.  Then you had the white woman buying out the lease to put the Nigerian restaurant out of business so she could do a weak imitation of Nigerian food in her food truck.  It also featured a Karen accusing Van of shoplifting -- she did steal.

Then Trini 2 the Bone with the clueless and unhip white parents, who wanted to buy experiences for their son by hiring a certain type, like a "more metropolitan" nanny to replace Sylvia.

So this season has been kind of a compendium of white people behaving badly.  Now were previous seasons as obvious about white privilege?

Maybe the only black characters behaving badly were the young black woman housing the white guy about reparations in the Big Payback, the cynical black activists looking just to get paid in White Fashion and Van stealing stuff.

Though in White Fashion, Alfred wanting to just get free stuff and then stealing Earn's ideas about giving back to the black community wasn't a good look, nor was Darius being so hipster and wanting to telegraph it when he asked for Nigerian food makes him seem less genuine.  Earn and Van scammed a free night at a plush hotel suite from gaslighting the accusatory Karen.

 

 

 

 

 

[Crashcourse]

And those are all the reasons I got sick and tired of this "comedy."

I miss Bibby.

[Marley]

What the fuck was this. This show is such crap now. It tries so hard to seem like it’s different and interesting but it’s really not. I’m over it.

[AngieBee1]

Quote

So this season has been kind of a compendium of white people behaving badly.  Now were previous seasons as obvious about white privilege?

During the Television Critics Association and repeated at South By Southwest, Donald Glover said this season was inspired by seeing a CNN commentator talk about how white people can overcome whiteness. From there he thought of how some people theorized there is a curse to being black. As Glover feels that as humans we are connected, if black people are cursed, then what if there is a curse to whiteness?

Whatever the audience chooses to take from those episodes or this season lies within their perception of what they are seeing transpiring. It seems that many feel this season as being highly critical of white people when I think it is only highlighting the obliviousness that some white people have. I would even count one of the mothers in THREE SLAPS in this. One really seemed underwater and realized they took on more than they could. Up until the murder/suicide decision, they felt they were doing good deeds.
I have seen a lot of people hate the standalone episodes and doesn't feel this season measures up. The ratings have also tanked. I understand this isn't the show many people signed up for. But I don't begrudge an artists' growth. What are the odds that the Glovers will get a chance to tell the stories they want to tell in this fashion?

When Glover first pitched the show to F/X, they thought it would be a standard series about music; an ENTOURAGE but about the music scene. They had no idea the surreal, dark comedy it would be. And I'm glad that the story telling gets deeper and broader.
 

Quote

Maybe the only black characters behaving badly were the young black woman housing the white guy about reparations in the Big Payback, the cynical black activists looking just to get paid in White Fashion and Van stealing stuff.

In prior seasons Earn, Paper Boy, Darius and Tracy getting involved with all kinds of scams. Van using her daughter's urine to try to fool a drugs test. Abusive Uncle Willie keeping his wife trapped in the house. The show has never tried to portray black characters as saints; why shouldn't it do the same with the white characters? I don't even see the show passing judgments on these characters - just showcasing different

[Marley]

It just would be nice to see the characters the show is about and a story develop. These standalone episodes are lame and just seem try hard to me.

Edited May 1, 2022 by Marley

[qtpye]

22 hours ago, Marley said:

It just would be nice to see the characters the show is about and a story develop. These standalone episodes are lame and just seem try hard to me.

I agree. They have a brilliant cast that can really make the writing come alive.

These stand-alone episodes feel a little too "try hard". I only liked the one about the foster kid because it was terrifying and true.

I could have used another episode on Van and what is she going through. 

Edited May 2, 2022 by qtpye

[luckyroll3]

On 4/29/2022 at 3:34 PM, Crashcourse said:

And Atlanta is supposed to be a comedy show? This season has been weird AF.

Listen, that entire funeral was comedy! And so true to life. I'm from the Caribbean, and the last funeral I went to I was laughing so hard in between tears at the pure shenanigans from my family, that I had to excuse myself to the bathroom and text my BFF (who's family is Trini) about the ridiculousness cause I knew she would get it.

The kid speaking/understanding patois and Chet Hanks, the og Jamaican cultural appropriator! 

On 4/29/2022 at 2:29 PM, JenE4 said:

And I thought this was going to be that story…but, of course Atlanta is layered and nuanced and wouldn’t tell an expected story. Instead Sylvia was someone who apparently made a lot of money doing this, went overboard with these little white boys far beyond what would be expected from a nanny, had plenty of extra time and money to focus on dance—and still didn’t make any emotional room for her own family? 

From what I understood, she stopped dancing in order to get a better paying job in childcare to support her family. Also, while she "made a lot of money", it was clear from the parents' discussion about replacing her that the mom thought that Sylvia was cheap and a "metropolitan" nanny would cost significantly more, but the dad felt Sylvia was too expensive, probably compared to what his peers were paying for their nannies. It also certainly wasn't loss on me that they were willing to up the price to give their child a more "worldly experience".

 

[Crashcourse]

1 hour ago, luckyroll3 said:

Listen, that entire funeral was comedy!

It might have been funny to you, but it wasn't to me.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

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[lasu]

It sounds based on everyone else's comments that I'm WAY off base, but I swear I thought this might have been a backwards Get Out situation in which Sylvia took a white boy (who's going to grow up to be a white cis male - cha-ching!)'s body.  I think I was just looking for too much, but there seemed to be a bit of a sinister vibe to the episode, and the way the package kept showing up with no apparent person or reason behind it.  And the way they both looked in that picture, both a bit smug and spooky.

[tennisgurl]

I'm really torn on these stand alone episodes. On the one hand, they have all been really interesting, I can see why the show is making them, giving them a chance to explore different issues that the main cast might not be able to, and I certainly don't begrudge them a desire to try new creative avenues. On the other, I do wish we were spending more time with the main cast, I especially want to know what is going on with Van, who is clearly going through it. I have really liked the exploring race abroad and I want to see more of that, especially when the gap between seasons was so long. It can feel like the creators got bored of their show and want to be doing something else. 

Despite that, I did find this episode to be really interesting. The parallel between Sylvia and Sebastian's parents was interesting, both of them worked so much that they didn't have time to spend with their kids, but while Sylvia was apparently doing the best she could to provide for her family, giving up her love of dance to take a better paying job to help her family, which meant that she didn't get to spend much time with her own kids, while Bronwyn and Miles apparently make plenty of money making it seem like they are more making a choice not to spend much time with Sebastian, being baffled by what Sylvia and Sebastian actually do together or even what food their son likes. I don't think they were terrible people, and Miles at least seemed to be making some effort by the end to understand the culture their son was connected with, just so wrapped up in their lives to think much about their kid. It seems like talking about death with Sebastian was their first real "parenting" moment they have had to deal with in years, and even then were planning on finding a new person to raise Sebastian right after they spoke to him, thinking about getting a more "metropolitan" person who can teach the kid Mandarin because it will help him more in the future working in finance, a Chinese influence will be more "helpful" for him, which I thought was an especially bad look. The poor kid is about eight, its rather early to start planning his career in international finance, and picking someone to take care of your kid should be about finding a person who will care for him, not about how absorbing their culture will help his future career prospects. Their reactions to the funeral were also interesting, they looked so shocked to realize how much of a life Sylvia had lived when they had never given her own life a second thought, she was just their nanny and that was all they felt they needed to know. They are also apparently terrible at understanding accents if they thought that Sylvia's daughter was hard to understand. If it was the same daughter they met who showed them where to park, her accent was pretty light, even on the phone I would imagine. So they, literally, could not understand Sylvia or her culture that their son had become invested in.

In general theme of most of the stand alone episodes have been clueless white people who are unware of their privilege's or about cultures outside of their own. The teacher who called child protective services on the little boy which led to his near death and the clueless social worker who kept giving kids to these train wrecks, the guy who tried to avoid paying reparations, now the wealthy parents here, most of them were basically well intentioned and certainly would never consider themselves racist, just that they don't understand things outside of their own sphere. The white granola foster moms are that taken to a horrifying extreme. 

Little Sebastian was an adorable kid, the child actor did a really good job. The episode was possibly a ghost story, it was left ambiguous like a lot of the shows supernatural and more surreal events, although the ghost could have been either an actual ghost or more of a metaphorical ghost. Was it the ghost of Sylvia sending those pictures and even sitting by Sebastian, to remind the parents that she was their sons real mom? Or was it more metaphorical, that Sebastian would always have this connection to Sylvia and her culture and that even with her gone she would always be a part of his life? 

Edited May 9, 2022 by tennisgurl

[Racj82]

Judging Atlanta for not being comedy is not new at all, thus I'm not sure why there is so much surprise. When PAPER Boi was lost in the woods or when we got Teddy Perkins, among other episodes people said "What is this is? This isn't comedy"

Atlanta isn't and has never been a flat out comedy. It also always has humor even if it's coming from some dark places.

That funeral was straight humor...until it wasn't. Just like a lot of other situations.

I don't care about seeing the crew. I really don't. I'm sure between covid restrictions and all thr actors being super busy, this makes getting a season out much easier.

I also love this quasi twilight zone style of the episodes happening stateside. As long as I'm entertained, I'm happy. That's about it. I'm not worried about the comedy. 

[DearEvette]

I think a lot of people associate comedy, especially tv comedy, with the more traditional situational comedy.  I can write a short essay on how I think the way tv shows get categorized, esp. for the Emmy's for instance, does the audience a disservice.

Personally, I am in the camp that prefers my comedy to make me laugh-laugh and/or feel upbeat about what I just saw. It doesn't have to be a trad sitcom but it does need to make me at least laugh and enjoy.  And yeah, Atlanta does not do that for me all the time.

But that said, comedy is a very broad umbrella.  I would categorize Atlanta as observational or satire most of the time with some surrealist comedy thrown in, this season it is moving deeper into the surrealist territory.

I do think this season is wildly uneven (for me).  I have enjoyed a couple of the episodes, this one being one of my favorites and it did make me laugh-laugh in places.  White Fashion and the Old Man and Tree were also good ones for me.  But I the rest didn't work for me on varying levels.

[DrSpaceman73]

On 4/29/2022 at 3:34 PM, Crashcourse said:

And Atlanta is supposed to be a comedy show? This season has been weird AF.

This has been my problem with the show from the beginning. 

I'm not saying it's not well written. But ive never viewed it as a comedy.

It has comedic elements. I get dark humor and subtle humor.  I watch many shows.  I'm not expecting a standard 22 minute laugh track sitcom. But this show just is not what I'd call a comedy 

And that's not necessarily a criticism. It's just I don't know why it's described or promoted that way.  

[Court]

I lost it when the lady tried to climb in the casket. Then again when the man said we're scaring the white people. I found that whole scene hilarious and also very real. 

[Bluesky]

On 5/3/2022 at 3:02 PM, luckyroll3 said:

Listen, that entire funeral was comedy! And so true to life. I'm from the Caribbean, and the last funeral I went to I was laughing so hard in between tears at the pure shenanigans from my family, that I had to excuse myself to the bathroom and text my BFF (who's family is Trini) about the ridiculousness cause I knew she would get it.

From what I understood, she stopped dancing in order to get a better paying job in childcare to support her family. Also, while she "made a lot of money", it was clear from the parents' discussion about replacing her that the mom thought that Sylvia was cheap and a "metropolitan" nanny would cost significantly more, but the dad felt Sylvia was too expensive, probably compared to what his peers were paying for their nannies. It also certainly wasn't loss on me that they were willing to up the price to give their child a more "worldly experience”

Sylvia was a professional dancer with Alvin Ailey, a much better paycheck than nanny.  Her career would be over by 40 and she chose childcare because she loved children.  It’s not unusual for the latest immigrants to care for others children while their children are home.  

I ff the White couples part mostly, not too many White people or any others can relate to them. I loved the funeral scene and my favorite part was the family day pictures.