Geiger's Culture Counter: We don't deserve Donald Glover

“Woah, you just wrinkled my brain.” I fell in love with Troy Barnes’ character and antics the moment he said that on the first episode of NBC’s sitcom “Community.” Played by Donald Glover, that role is just one example of why the actor-rapper-writer-director is poised to take over entertainment industry. And we must do what we can to make that happen.

The show introduced me to Glover’s hilarious delivery as he transformed the football jock into an adorable nerd. I’ve previously written about the program’s wonderful Halloween episodes, but my other favorite moments include Troy and his friend Abed hosting a fake morning show, him freaking out about meeting LeVar Burton and his self-discovery of his air-conditioner repairing prowess.

I knew Glover had side projects, but I didn’t fully listen to tracks by Childish Gambino, his hip-hop persona, until he performed while hosting “Saturday Night Live” in May. Along with his stellar musical talent, the episode tackled America’s incarceration problem with a skit on prisoner customer support workers and a more lighthearted short on not knowing anyone in the Cleveland Cavaliers who isn’t Lebron James.

It was easily the best “SNL” episode in recent memory and seeing Glover stand at same studio for which he auditioned for twice made me happy. That same night Childish Gambino dropped two new tracks on the show from his upcoming album and simultaneously premiered a third with a wonderful video on Youtube.

During the four-minutes of “This is America” Glover poses like a Jim Crow minstrel and teenagers happily dance while cars burn. Every moment is mesmerizing in its horror. Glover shoots multiple people throughout the song, including gospel singers in reference to the Charleston shooting, and each time the bodies are dragged away while the weapons are daintily disposed of.

Among its layered themes, the main message is loud, clear and true: America favors guns more than lives. So far in 2018 there have been 23 school shootings. In the past seven days an Uber driver shot a passenger and a dancing, off-duty FBI agent accidentally shot someone when he dropped his gun.

Unfortunately “Community” is no longer on the air but Glover is still on television with FX’s “Atlanta.” Having just gotten around to finishing the second season this past weekend, I can definitively say it’s just as brilliant as the previous. It may skew darker and isn’t as laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s still just as good.

Like the first season, the show follows Paper Boi’s rise as a rapper with his cousin and manager Earnest (Glover) by his side. It continues to be written by Glover and his brother Stephen while being artfully shot by Hiro Murai, who also directed “This is America.” Yet there are more standalone episodes that showcase each cast member’s plight of doing whatever it takes to protect oneself and get ahead of the competition.

An entire column could be written about each episode, but since it’s the freshest in my mind, I’ll briefly touch on episode 10 of the second season. The penultimate story is one flashback to Earnest and Alfred’s, Paper Boi’s real name, days in high school. Earnest comes to school with a FUBU jersey only to see another classmate with an almost identical outfit. This leads to classmates bullying both of them since one must be a fake. When Alfred stands up for Earnest, the other kid is harassed more and sadly takes his own life.

The episode, and the finale that I won’t spoil, illustrate Glover’s poignant style of writing about race and wealth.

We could have had more of Glover’s genius on television with a “Deadpool” television show. Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be. Thankfully, we got a taste anyways when he tweeted out a 15-page “script” of an episode.

At first glance it appears to be normal dialogue and exposition peppered with one-liners. Then—just like the titular character’s habit of breaking the fourth wall—it veers into a meta territory by directly addressing studio executives and the state of Hollywood.

“Do you think they cancelled the show…cause of racism?” Deadpool ponders aloud to a rhino he’s supposed to guard from poachers. “Yeah, but all the writers were black. And the references were pretty black too.”

“I think our show woulda been funny.” He says on the next page. “I just wanted a place to be honest. And I guess that place is Freeform.” Hopefully someday we’ll get to see that show.

Though I have yet to make the time to see “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” Glover steals the scene in every preview and I know—just like with “Community”—he’ll elevate every aspect of the work when he’s on the camera. He’s the absolute perfect choice to portray a young, suave space smuggler like Lando Calrissian.

I eagerly await going to the theater for caped Lando action, dissecting the next whirlwind season of “Atlanta” and downloading the final Childish Gambino album. My mind is also racing from the possibilities of whatever he creates next. Donald is too perfect for this world and we don’t deserve him. We must protect him at all cost.