A-
The Get Down finale is hip-hop’s answer to “Jungleland”
When I first heard Bruce Springsteen’s “Jungleland” as a ten-year-old, it sounded gritty. It sounded real. It sounded…
The Get Down
C
The glue doesn’t hold on an unfocused episode of The Get Down
In film and television, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” almost always spells trouble. And why…
A-
The Get Down finally gets its criminal element right
When reviewing The Get Down, many critics (myself included) have focused on the show’s criminal element—its gangsters,…
A-
Music becomes a long (play) game on The Get Down
Early on in “The Beat Says, This Is The Way,” Marrakech Star’s Roy Asheton insists that, if Mylene wants to be taken…
B+
The Get Down adds more reflectors to its kaleidoscope
When reviewing the front half of The Get Down’s first season, most of my criticisms revolved around the series’ tonal…
C-
The Get Down gets even more over-the-top in its midseason finale
At times, The Get Down has deftly connected people from different backgrounds by showing them go through similar…
B+
Everyone gets to be more than one thing on the The Get Down’s strongest episode yet
Many of The Get Down’s characters have the opportunity to go down a single path in “You Have Wings, Learn To Fly.”…
B-
Music and politics finally begin to intersect on The Get Down
Because it doesn’t have a musical sequence as stunning as any of the episodes that came before it, “Forget Safety, Be…
B-
Disco gets its moment on The Get Down, even as several characters still get short-changed
Ever since the series was announced, The Get Down has described itself as tracing the birth of hip-hop, punk, and…
B-
The Get Down continues to get transcendent with its music and silly with its bad guys
Throughout the first half of “Seek Those Who Fan Your Flames,” we get several exhilarating sequences involving Shaolin…
C
Like Vinyl before it, The Get Down’s first episode gets distracted by the wrong story
In 2016, the musical drama has a gangster problem. HBO’s Vinyl suffered from it, and Netflix’s The Get Down suffers…
C+
Beautiful, boring hip-hop drama The Get Down tests the limits of binge-watching
Binge-friendly. Binge-worthy. Bingeable. The words are used frequently, but what exactly do they mean? After all, this…