chantalroxanne The Get Down is one of the most remarkable and epic shows I have ever seen. I believe this is a show everyone could watch, even if you don't like hip-hop. It combines a lot of different genres to make it appealing for a big crowd. In general this is a drama/musical, but it also contains humor and action. Besides putting a spotlight on the evolution of hip-hop in the 70's, this show also focuses on the career of an aspiring disco singer, which makes the music throughout the show very versatile. The main characters all have unique personalities and the show really focuses on their personal life goals and the struggles that come with them. This show had a gigantic budget and you can really see that. The creators paid attention to every little detail. Even if you think this show is not for you, please give it a try. If you don't wanna watch because the show is cancelled, no worries. You won't be left with a big, annoying cliff-hanger at the end of season 1. I would've loved a second season, but the ending is satisfying enough to wrap up an entire show.

swilliky The second part of this Netflix original picks up where the Get Down brothers left off. The Get Down crew had a major success winning a rap battle and now they perform nightly at their own club. Ezekiel 'Books' Figuero (Justice Smith) is straddling two worlds as he works on his college essay before going out to perform a show. Mylene Cruz (Herizen F. Guardiola) has had success with her first hit but now must manage a crude record producer and the demands of her father Pastor Ramon Cruz (Giancarlo Esposito). Shaolin Fantastic (Shameik Moore) tries to pull Books back into the music business while also trying to maintain his drug dealing business by selling at their shows.The villainous Cadillac (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) still insists that this musical movement is fiction yet begrudges the Get Down brothers success. Ra-Ra (Skylan Brooks) falls for a girl in the Zulu brotherhood, though the members don't support what that the Get Down's rap show is a front for the drug dealing. Dizzee (Jaden Smith) writes to his lover Thor in prison as he draws the story of the Get Down. History catches up with Papa Fuerte (Jimmy Smits) as he hopes to develop a part of the Bronx but the law is also threatening to catch up.Check out more of this review and others at swilliky.com

lesleytee The Get Down is one of the most entertaining yet educational TV shows that are out today. Watching this TV show will teach you a lot about New York in 1970s and the development of popular black dominated music genres such as rap and hip-hop. Baz Luhrmann was able to combine, graffiti/street art, rap music, vogue dancing and the disco movement with the popularity of drugs, growth of gangs and poverty to create one fully comprehensive experience that makes you appreciate New York. One of the best aspects of the show is the realism that the actors bring to the screen. For example, the main character Ezekiel Figuero played by Justice Smith, a bright minded young man from the Bronx shows his ambition to better his life financially and socially by using the tools of his environment. Ezekiel is successfully able to fully utilise his mind and his talent to get to where he wants to be. Without telling too much about the plot, The Get Down has made me appreciate the music on my playlist. Thank you Netflix!

micke-bystrom I think Justice Smith does an admirable performance in the first episode and he and Herizen F. Guardiola are together the only thing that have me grounded in this musical-style delivery Moulin- Rogue-for-hiphop play. If this was a Broadway show it would be spectacular and the other stereotypic and overblown characters could almost have been possible to forgive. But this isn't Broadway.With the recent decade of more or less "realistic" TV-series, in the sense that suspension of belief is possible while watching because of you're getting closely knitted to the story with lots of gritty and real details, Get Down comes off as a parody of an highly interesting musical era. Very little of what is presented is believable, if not for the details themselves but for how these are presented or told. That's clearly a stylistic choice, but it's concoction that doesn't gel well.I think some of the stylistic elements of the storytelling could have been acceptable had the attention to acting and presentation been better. It seems like what we get here is what the directors wanted to bring out from their actors, but it's hard to watch without feeling pain for how the potential is handled. The occasional overplaying mixed with good and somewhat believable performances is quite confusing even as it's clear there are some talent at hand. Maybe if you're in another state of mind can you make these disparate details come together, but if you enjoy the finer details of modern TV drama, as opposed to the fake feeling old TV shows typically brought with them and required that you had to accept that stern limitation, and you yet are open to new ways of storytelling, then chances are still that Get Down won't be something you can savour. The depiction of the night club owner and her son are too close to racist stereotypes and almost made me sick to my stomach. Details like that and others make classical Blaxploitation movies looking highly realistic in comparison. The Saxophone playing father, while sympathetic, also feel stereotyped even if you can accept that some fathers had some aspect of a stereotype with them in their persona or how they present themselves to the world. But there's a difference between a realistic presentation of that and a caricature. Where's the love for the characters created here? The street gang depiction almost makes you laugh at its silliness. One-dimensional at best as is true for many other details presented in the first episode. This is supposed to lure me in? Unfortunately not.The little glimpse of the roots of Hip Hop we get in the Vinyl TV-series are in comparison so much more attractive and real. That's a series with a story told with exaggeration, overplay and hyperbole, yet it's much easier to adjust to so you can enjoy the story being told. Not so with Get Down, where the stylistic choices get in the way of everything, including the story. You could say the same about Vinyl, but Get Down is actually worse.I had to turn off just before the end of the first episode, which is very rare. I have no hope for the other episodes. I really wanted to like this. Baz Luhrmann made me enjoy Moulin Rogue once even as I hate musicals, but where unrealistic storytelling works in a musical or theatrical show, the choices made here by the creators Stephen Adly Guirgis and Baz make me cringe. I'm out.