S1E7 B.A.N.

'B.A.N.' is the episode that established Donald Glover as a television auteur rather than a showrunner operating within familiar genre parameters. The entire episode is formatted as a segment of a fake talk show called Black American Network, complete with period-accurate commercials, production design that mimics the aesthetic grammar of early-2000s cable TV, and a panel debate format that allows the show to put the absurdity of mainstream media's handling of race and identity on trial without editorialising - the format's own absurdity is the argument. The commercials are the episode's formal achievement: a Dodge Charger spot that, through accumulation of imagery and music choices, says what the talk show's panel format refuses to say directly. 'B.A.N.' has no villain. It has a system, and the system is presented with enough fidelity that the audience recognises it. The episode scored a 9.5 on IMDb and was cited by television critics as one of the most formally inventive single episodes since early 'The Wire.'