Best way I can describe it is "Black Sopranos" because both shows are absurd, but the difference is that in The Sopranos, the line for absurdity is clearly drawn and you know which reality is current being shown - I guess it's 'psychological absurdity' in a way. But Atlanta is more like magical realism; most things are happening in the "real life" but there are moments that defies reality yet they still happen in the universe and no one really acknowledges or questions it.

Also like The Sopranos, there are multiple layers and jokes to the themes and comedy. In The Sopranos, the overarching story is of a depressed mob boss trying to navigate his mental health, crime family, and biological family. But despite all the violence and macho, there are themes about masculinity, hypocrisy, loyalty vs morality, trauma, double standards, and so on. Many of these are shown back to back in subtle ways to the point where a lot of chuds miss the point.

Atlanta's overarching story is a young father trying to provide for his daughter and tries to become a manager for his aspiring rapper cousin. It has similar themes as TS, but there's also the bonus that it comes from a black perspective. Other themes include being a minority in the US, being poor in the US, black people's perspectives on societal issues that may be overshadowed in the mainstream, black and white interactions, and most importantly in my opinion, you can't judge a book by its cover, at least not all the time. There are lots of subversion of expectations to the point where I don't even bother predicting most of the outcomes, like the episode in the included picture. Some characters start off being absolutely the worst in terms of likability, but then they're explored throughout the episode and you find out they're a bit more complex than initially thought. But that complexity doesn't always make them a good person, or a bad person. We all have gray areas. (This isn't to say the show takes a cowardly centrist stance either, it just acknowledges we're human)

My only complaint is that the first half of season 2 has a lot of filler episodes focusing on individual characters. This is fine if the themes were meaningful or there's character development, but only Al gets some character development in his second solo episode. There are also some scenes and jokes where it can be seen as problematic on the surface, but I don't think the show would get lazy on those and they're just as layered as the other scenes.

Currently on season 3, and the first episode is already pretty depressing but also funny, and I'm looking forward to the rest of it