Nov 17, 2022

The "Atlanta" episode features a hilarious, heartbreaking alternative history to the production of "goofy movies."

FX Atlanta is a show that is not afraid to pull off a high-concept episode or disguise another format. In the episode "The Goof Who Sat By the Door" the series hit another high water mark with an impressive run that came to an end last week after the Four Seasons.

A complete one-off that can be enjoyed without knowledge of the show or its characters, "The Goof who sat by the Door" accidentally became the CEO of the Walt Disney Company and hired him to make Disney's 1995 fan favorite, "The blackest movie of all time." It's a 35-minute mockumentary about Thomas Washington, a fictional black animator who uses newfound authority.

Featuring an incredibly long Michael Eisner sabbatical, the untimely death of the interim CEO of Fabric, an absurd conceit that requires a case of false identity, the candid delivery of the episode and the spot-on imitation of an overly dramatic Hollywood history documentary make it clear whether at least part of the story was real. There were viewers who questioned whether it would make a truly immersive experience.

The sound part of a genuine early 1990s archive film mixes produced footage with contemporary interviews with age-appropriate celebrities such as Brian McKnight and Sinbad, making a very convincing straight-face performance in the interview scene.

Far more than a mere slapstick retreat from the main Atlanta story, "The goof Who sat by the door" offers a poignant critique of race relations in the United States in the early 1990s that feels completely contemporary.

This episode offers alternative interpretations of many of the movie's most iconic scenes, sometimes hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking. By the end of the episode, it's hard not to feel deep sympathy for Washington and those who loved him.

Of course, this episode is complete fiction and far from the real story behind the goofy films documented in the Disney Channel's 1995 "Making Of" special, but this is nowhere near as funny.