FUBU (Atlanta)

In April 2018, FX announced that the tenth episode of the season would be titled "FUBU" and that it would be written by executive producer Stephen Glover, and directed by series creator and main star Donald Glover. This was Stephen Glover's seventh writing credit, and Donald Glover's fourth directing credit.[1]

The episode was watched by 0.694 million viewers, earning a 0.4 in the 18-49 rating demographics on the Nielson ratings scale. This means that 0.4 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode.[2] This was a 42% increase from the previous episode, which was watched by 0.487 million viewers with a 0.2 in the 18-49 demographics.[3]

"FUBU" received critical acclaim. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating for the episode, based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10.[4]

Joshua Alston of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B+" and wrote, "'FUBU' has a vestigial quality, which probably sounds like an insult, but it's not intended to. Perhaps it's because Atlanta has acclimated its audience to ten-episode seasons, and Robbin’ Season features 11, including 'FUBU', the first episode of the show in which none of the regular cast members appear. But it feels less like a standard installment of Atlanta and more like a canonical, full-length webisode, one that, like many episodes of this show, could be inconspicuously plucked out of the episode sequence. That said, it's a mostly pleasant surprise that shades in characters we've seen a lot but still don't really know that well."[5] Ben Travers of IndieWire gave the episode an "A-" and wrote, "Earn may struggle to see the big picture, but Atlanta always does. There's a lot to unpack in 'FUBU', but there's value in the specific story and the larger one. Clothes are important, but so is family."[6]

Alan Sepinwall of Uproxx wrote, "It really does feel like the season has been building to something important between Earn and Al, and this origin story was part of that, in addition to being a bittersweet nostalgia trip in its own right."[7] Matt Miller of Esquire wrote, "this show has consistently provided completely unexpected episodes. Maybe Glover's next episode will take place in the future. Maybe it'll be from the perspective of his mom. But whatever it is, Glover has proved he can pull it off."[8] Bryan Washington of Vulture gave the episode a perfect 5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "It's taken me a few months to condense the feeling into words, but I think Donald Glover, Hiro Murai, and company create illusions so all-encompassing that they've created a world with its own mechanisms, functioning independently, in tandem with, and in spite of its viewers. That's what the show does better than anything else on television. All of that preamble is to say that 'FUBU' is a masterpiece. It simply can't be overstated what an achievement this episode is."[9]

Leigh-Anne Jackson of The New York Times wrote, "In the present day, Al and Earn have come to a crossroads. Al's ready to level up in his career and Earn is little more than dead weight. 'FUBU' offers the first substantial glimpse into their past, revealing that Al has a decades-old history of carrying his cousin."[10] Jacob Oller of Paste gave the episode a 8.4 out of 10 rating and wrote, "Atlanta's second season has been ambitious in the extreme, teaching its lessons in one-offs that separate its characters and genres that don't bend so much as become multi-hyphenates. Its first all-flashback episode is just as dark and just as revealing."[11] Miles Surrey of The Ringer wrote, "Last week's 'North of the Border' might've been the breaking point for Earn and Paper Boi’s professional (and personal) relationship, when the rapper finally put his foot down and dismissed his ill-equipped manager. How will this split affect their respective journeys, and what does Atlanta look like when its two lead protagonists are at an impasse? That answer is on hold until next week's finale; Thursday's penultimate episode, 'FUBU', is about how the dynamics of their relationship were first planted. That means we have to go back in time."[12]