"The Get Down', Parts 1 & 2 Review

The Get Down is an American musical drama television series created by Baz Luhrmann and Stephen Adly Guirgis. It premiered its six-episode first part (PART I) globally on August 12, 2016 on Netflix and the five-episode second part (PART II) concluding the first season of the series was released on April 7, 2017.

I finally finished Part II of The Get Down and my reviews of both parts are below

#TheGetDown Part 1 Review: YO I f*cking LOVED The Get Down! That shit was HYPE! Finally, finally, finally #HipHop gets its just due! I can't believe that they made a show out of hip hop. REAL hip hop! Not some sugarcoated, watered down explanation of what hip hop is or supposed to be and NOT another portrait of a rapper. Well not exactly. Yes there is that, but they explain the ESSENCE of hip hop, composing a rhyme, the deejaying, the cutting, the gotdamn breakbeat! Who ever did that? The show is also visually dope! The set design and costume design REALLY transports you to the time period. The show has vintage records from the time period, but the new original songs fit into that time period as well. The story really captures the fun and wonderment of early HipHop as well. They incorporate storylines around the DJ, the rapper (or wordsmith), the disco singer and the graffiti artist. All CORE elements of HipHop. This show SOARS mostly because of the young cast though. #ShameikMoore who I already knew was a STAR from the movie 'Dope' is still great, his boys in "The Get Down Brothers" #SkylanBrooks, #TJBrownJr and #JadenSmith are also good. The standout brother and the one that gets the most play because he's the "wordsmith" is #JusticeSmith is absolutely terrific! Also terrific is his female co-star #HerizenGuardiola! Those two apart and together just STEAL the show! 🎤💖🎤 As I stated in my review of the first episode (@ #GDP1E1) where I also explained my personal point of view being from #NewYork, "This was a romanticized retelling of the origin of #HipHop, but from everything I know and lived through also pretty authentic." This is only "Part 1" of the season. The "Part 2" remaining six episodes are coming in 2017 and I can't wait! As a headline I saw from 'The Ringer' stated it perfectly👌🏾 "‘The Get Down’ Is the Origin Myth That Hip-hop Deserves" #DanksGDRP1

A post shared by Dankwa Brooks (@dankwa) on Sep 5, 2016 at 3:27pm PDT

#TheGetDown Part 2 Review: I thought this continuation was terrific and still “the Origin Myth That Hip-hop Deserves”. The story continues pretty much where it left off with our characters. Zeke (Books) is still in his internship and Mylene is still straddling the fence of superstar and devoutly religious daughter. The other characters are still in the mix too and by the end of the day everyone is still in it for the love of the music. This second half delves a lot more into the characters and gets really dramatic, but it still never loses its core love of the music. My favorite sequence in this part was “disco versus hiphop”. Because of the drama, the blueprint of hip-hop gets shunted to the side for a minute, but by the end it’s right back like it should be, in the forefront. Again the acting is terrific. I must give props to the older actors on the show ZABRYNA GUEVARA (Mylene's mom), #GiancarloEsposito and of course #JimmySmits. Not to forget LILLIAS WHITE (Fat Annie) and YAHYA ABDUL-MATEEN II (Cadillac) who really have a lot to do in this part, and that’s all I’m going to say. Once again it’s the younger actors who steal the show, #ShameikMoore, whose character “ShaolinFantastic, REALLY gets into a lot of drama and shows you what a great actor he is. The rest of "The Get Down Brothers" #SkylanBrooks, #TJBrownJr and #JadenSmith also do well with the continuation of their characters. The standout brother again of course is #JusticeSmith (Books). JUSTICE SMITH is still absolutely terrific as again is his female co-star #HerizenGuardiola (Mylene)! Those two apart and together continue to STEAL the show! While things get a little animated, and I MEAN animated, this part of The Get Down delves more into the characters than the origin of #HipHop and I think it was wise to separate the episodes. It is still the continuation of the stories from Part One, but totally different. (Part 2 is only five episodes, as opposed to the six in Part 1, but there is an extended episode in there). The music is still there, the performances are still there, but Part Two chose to focus on what is the true heart of the show–the characters. In the end it’s the characters

A post shared by Dankwa Brooks (@dankwa) on May 9, 2017 at 9:35am PDT

 All of my recent reviews are on Instagram at hashtag #DanksReview

UPDATE: May 25, 2017
'The Get Down' Canceled at Netflix After One Season

My reaction

Ok let me explain #TheGetDown being cancelled. As a #filmmaker that shit was INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE to produce. A #PeriodPiece alone is expensive to produce, costumes, sets, cars, locations. THIS SHOW also recreated digitally a lot of stuff in the Bronx because they just don't exist anymore. Especially the graffiti subway trains. A lot of what they said on the show about getting rid of graffiti was true. Those trains, a core part of that time period, were eliminated. Add the music budget, original and existing, and you have more money to spend. The other #VFX (visual effects) like the animation and transitions are also expensive and take a long time to produce. Frankly while watching it I couldn't believe they spent this amount of money on #HipHop—old hip hop. As a #HipHopHead and someone from New York AT THAT TIME I love it for everything it accomplished.👊🏾 You can read my reviews of both parts right here on IG. 🎤PART I @ #DanksGDRP1_1 and 🎤🎤PART II @ #DanksGDRP2_2

A post shared by Dankwa Brooks (@dankwa) on May 25, 2017 at 4:31am PDT