The Get Down (2016-2017) Review

The Get Down, set in New York in the 1970s, tells the story of how the music genre we know as Hip Hop was created, and the roots of the revolutionary genre can be traced back to The Bronx. The South Bronx in the 70s was ravaged by government incompetence, corruption, violence and poverty. A unique sound emerged out of the ruins. Shaolin Fantastic (Shameik Moore) and Ezekiel Figuero (Justice Smith), two aspiring musicians, set out in pursuit of the get down, metaphorical, and any other kind of get down out there is. Disciples of the great Grandmaster Flash (the actual hip hop legend was an associate producer of the show), they come together along with Ezekiel's childhood friends to create the fictitious group The Fantastic Four Plus One. Intense Shao looks to break away from his day jobs of being a coke dealer and graffiti artist and the brilliant but tormented poet Ezekiel must grow a backbone, gain self-confidence and let go of his love for Mylene Cruz, a cute girl from the neighbourhood and wannabe disco queen (Herizen F. Guardiola).

However, you might have to look elsewhere if it's a gritty re-telling of hip hops, sometimes brutal and unpredictable origins you are after. This is a Baz Luhrmann production, and he brings all the classic Baz Luhrman-esque gimmicks. From the young lovers' inevitable rooftop stargazing, extravagant high campness, cartoon-like characters, distinctive score and cheesiness-nothing about The Get Down is understated. The series is visually beautiful and sounds fantastic, but it should with 10 million dollars per episode to work with; it was Netflix's most expensive show at the time. Baz Luhrmann only signed up for the series at first as a consultant, but when pre-production started to heat up, he realised he wanted to take on a more important role, serving as a writer and executive producer for the series as well as being the director for the pilot.

That is the crux of The Get Down's problem. Of course, Luhrmann is a brilliant director and a big name in Hollywood, but once he started burning through the huge budget, which contributed to a lot of production delays, that eventually led to the delay of the second half of the series not being released until the following year. Surely someone could have taken him aside and asked if he could bring the budget down a little or even if he needed help. As is often the case for big-name movie directors (Judd Apatow comes to mind), self-editing isn't always their strong suit, and the more influential and successful they get, the more challenging it is for someone to tell them that to hold back. Surely, if Netflix was trusting Luhrmann with the biggest budget for a television series and the biggest budget in the streaming service history (at the time), it was their duty to ask some questions about the production of the show. One of the biggest questionable decisions by Luhrmann is why he chose to make the first episode 90 minutes long, unlike the rest of the series that is 60 minutes long, and why it has got such a slow start when the show is incredibly fast-paced for the rest of the series.

However, Luhrmann's brilliance does shine through during the show; the best example of this is the downtown Studio 54 inspired club in the first episode, which is full of incredible dance moves and seductive, electrifying, funky disco music. Along with the club dance sequences, we get an invitation to the biggest, best and secret underground party in the Bronx where you won't find a mirror ball or bright flashing lights insight. But the thing you will see is two turntables and people having fun. The audience gets taken back to the South Bronx in 1977, even if they had never been there in the first place. The musical scenes are spectacular, and there is hardly a scene that goes by in The Get Down that isn't accompanied by a score. But, instead of copying the hits from the era, they create their own original songs by combining classics from the time, like having Janelle Monaé feature on a Jackson 5 album song, or Michael Kiwanuka's soothing voice morphing into a Rufus Thomas song.

It stands out among other shows that attempt to bring the 1970s to life because of its authenticity. From Shao's pristine red suede Pumas to the language, hair and makeup. The audience only has to look at the credits to see the legendary musicians involved to know how Luhrmann brought realism to the show. Names include Grandmaster Flash, Nas and Nelson George. The Get Down is a thoughtful, touching and sincere love letter to New York, but mostly to the Bronx in the 1970s.

Throughout the series, the audience may begin to realise that sometimes an episode ends with a big dramatic moment or an argument, but when the next episode starts, everything goes back to normal as if nothing had happened. One episode even suggests that The Fantastic Four Plus One will never perform together again before undoing that in the first five minutes of the next episode. This may seem to be lazy and careless plot construction, but The Get Down manages to get away with it because of how well it depicts the experience of being an everyday teen as well as being an artistically gifted teen who sees everything and anything around them as potential inspiration or fuel for future material. If you wanted to, you could nitpick the show on many levels. The adult storylines are pretty slow and boring, for example, but it's almost as if the shortcomings make it better. It's chaotic, passionate, and full of big dreams, much like most teenagers.

The cast for the series is perfect. Like many of the other Netflix original shows, Stranger Things (2016-) and 13 Reasons Why (2017-2020), it has young and relatively unknown actors in the lead roles. The most well-known name among the young actors is Jaden Smith, but he manages to slip under the radar while being brilliant at the same time. There are some excellent and exciting performances from an ensemble that is mostly inexperienced and non-white. As the story unfolds, Justice Smith's performance as Ezekiel becomes more extraordinary. Justice is truly the lead and the breakout star in this series. He is fantastic in the role of Ezekiel. A moment where you become aware that a star performance is being played right in front of your eyes happens in the very first episode. Ezekiel is reciting a poem he wrote for a class at the request of his teacher, one of the few adults who sees his talent, and the raw emotion Justice delivers in this scene tells the audience everything that is hiding within his character. It is emotionally charged but incredibly beautiful and powerful at the same time. The show would not work without the perfect casting of both the teens and adults of the series. The adult section of the cast has fantastic and experienced actors, including Jimmy Smits, Giancarlo Esposito and Eric Bogosian. A standout partnership is not the romantic pairing between Justice and Herizen F. Guardiola, who have unbelievable chemistry, but the relationship between Justice and Shameik Moore. As Ezekiel and Shaolin, they have a tight brotherhood that keeps the shows' shakier moments together. Ezekiel and Shaolin are two young men who could not be more different, but yet they could not be more alike. Everything which should divide them only brings them closer together, and Smith and Moore make wonderful work of their growing reliance on each other as well as the traces of animosity that surface occasionally throughout the series.

Despite The Get Down having a few weaknesses, it is easy to ignore them. The Get Down is unlike anything else out there with its sincere emotionalism, underlying goals, and full and utter commitment to telling this story as genuine and honest as possible. There's no denying that Baz Luhrmann produced something special, visually beautiful, and in so many ways perfect here; it just might have needed a little less Baz Luhrmann.