By Jessica Wheeler, AliveTampaBay Columnist
Should You Stream…examines the options available on popular streaming services to help you decide what new shows to check out. In this installment, we take a look at the Netflix original The Get Down.
What’s it about?
In the summer of 1977, teenagers growing up in the Bronx face poverty, violence, and the blight of arson on the burrough. In the midst of the hottest summer on record, Ezekiel Figuero and his friends discover a new kind of music burning up the underground parties: a music that will come to be called hip hop, pioneered by DJs like Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash. Together with their new friend and burgeoning DJ Shaolin Fantastic, the group vows to carve out a new territory for their crew.
Created and directed by Baz Luhrmann, famed director of Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet, The Get Down provides inspired moments of musical greatness amid some slower storylines. It might take awhile to get off the ground, but for hip hop fans this may be the closest it’s possible to get to the founding moments of the music that took over the pop charts and then the world.
Who’s in it?
Newcomer Justice Smith stars as Ezekiel, while Shameik Moore (fresh off his acclaimed performance in Dope) is Shaolin Fantastic. Jimmy Smits pops up as political boss Francisco Cruz.
What are some other shows like it?
Vinyl, Empire, The Bronx Is Burning
Where can I stream it?
Netflix has the first six episodes of season one streaming now.
https://youtu.be/usv442G6H8A