The Get Down

Wow! Just finished the first episode of 'The Get Down' and being a massive Hip Hop fan with a healthy appreciation of countless musical genres stretching from Punk to House, it's perhaps inevitable that I've fallen in love with this show. Everything about it seems well thought out, the characters, the sets, the wardrobes, the music, just everything! Yes, it's flamboyant and a bit over the top but very much in keeping with the period.

I'm not gonna go into a detailed review other than to say - get it watched. Hope the rest of the series lives up to first episode - if it does - this will be the best TV show of 2016. Word up.

This is a great series. There are little things that they got wrong that you would only know if you grew up then... some songs that were a year or two off but it does a fantastic job of capturing life in N.Y. in the 70s.. I graduated from Taft H.S. in 1973 so I know the flavor.. I recognize some of the places and I love the way they blended historic footage with film footage to create a nice image of The Bronx in the 70s. Some of the stuff .. like some of the gang stuff.. was a little over done.. When I was coming up the gangs I knew about in my area were The Black Pearls, The Young Saigons, Savage Skulls and The Black Spades .. there were many others.. but I was not a gang banger. When I moved to the Belmont Ave Ave area the Ching A Ling Nomads had a clubhouse right around the corner on Arthur Ave.. This series does a good job of capturing the fashions and dialog of the time as well..

I saw part one minutes ago. As someone to whom Grandmaster Flash and the likes of him is a big part of growing up the movie strikes a cord with me by nature.

But apart from that I like the wild mixture of dance movie, musical, Hip Hop party, poetry slam, documentary, Kungfu flick, coming of age, spraying, "mastering" the ceremony, DJing, comedy, drama and romance. I recommend to watch the documentary Rumble Kings before watching The Get Down to fetch some historical background information.

Hip Hop with its sampling, mixing, scratching and juggling with words opened up a musical playground for audience and artists. The movie transforms this successfully into visuals.

As someone who's not a fan of rap music, I still find the historical aspects and how the elements of hip-hop came together very intriguing! All the characters are interesting and entertaining in their own ways which make me want to know more about them--making for very vivid episodes (it seems each character has their own mood that they add). Hopefully, next season we'll get to see more of those stories... As more of a disco fan, I found those parts to not be as interesting sadly but it could be because of the transition that disco was going through at the time. The parts about the music business was really eye-opening in seeing how it operate(s)(d). Hopefully, the show keeps up the cultural and historical elements that make this show feel like a time-warp, while telling us more about the non-main characters.

I am a big fan of Baz Luhrmann's work. I love his creative, colorful and unique styles. I didn't know The Get Down was his work until i finished the show and looked it up and it made total sense that it was his work. I loved this show, by far one of my favorite Netflix series. The young men and women they chose for the cast do an excellent job acting and seemed to come so natural to them.There is also a few actors we have seen before in some of our favorite shows, which was very cool to see. It is very poetic & emotional and connecting with the characters is really easy.The story line is fun, exciting, edgy and easy to follow with a lot of historical fiction included.