We're always looking for ways to time travel. We're obsessed with nostalgia to the point of near sickness and a lack of presence in the time we're living. We're 90s babies looking for a fresher Fresh Prince or a Fuller House (who's actually looking forward to that? Oh, nobody? Thought so).
Totally stupid statement? Sound like your sh*tty, pedantic Uncle who launches into long diatribes diagnosing exactly what's wrong with millennials? Yeah, but there's a grain of truth in that.
Because of the sheer amount of information we have access to, we have pretty pronounced opinions on what "the greatest time to be alive" actually was. On the other hand, we're increasingly apprehensive of movies, TV shows, and books that claim to have nailed that time period down perfectly.
But seeing as how we didn't live in that time period, we're not the best judges of what that landscape should actually look like, and we're still trying to ask Grandma and Grandad if Mad Men truly captured the essence of NYC in the 60s, if only they'd actually watch it.
Some networks are turning away from that period-piece sensibility because, believe it or not
Downton Abbey is done. Mad Men is done. The Knick is still trying to convince audiences that Clive Owen isn't the most electric actor in the series, and HBO's probably about to give us some more of the whitest people you never met in the 70s with their new Scorsese joint, Vinyl.
While the underrepresentation of black culture is most pronounced in just about every commercial endeavor you can imagine (and no, Blackish is not the "concession" we should allow for, and no, The Carmichael Show isn't "enough", Netflix is looking to prove themselves a real game-changer.
Yes, not only are their original series totally killing it as of late (Narcos, Making a Murderer, Daredevil-- if anyone says Sense8 is a great show, remind them they're confused), but they're bringing one of the most exciting projects to streaming audiences everywhere: The Get Down.
[anad]
The Get Down focuses on a tight group of South Bronx teens resolved to survive the near-bankruptcy (in every sense of the word) of New York City in the 70s. It follows these teens through the birth of hip-hop, punk, disco-- everything from the South Bronx tenements to the SoHo art scene. Everything.
A few things, though. You should be vary wary of Baz Luhrmann's involvement in all of this. He really came alive with his interpretation of Romeo + Juliet (starring DiCaprio and Danes), and even Moulin Rouge was passably good. But who remembers Australia? Nobody? Right. And yes, Gatsby was, in fact, garbage (see: Tobey Maguire).
But the cast looks promising, namely with one of the most under-the-radar successes of 2015, Shameik Moore who was... dope... in the movie... Dope (which, coincidentally, was dope). Giancarlo Esposito (Gus from Breaking Bad) also makes a return to (hopefully) good TV.
hoodzshop The Get Down a série, que é o primeiro musical que Luhrmann faz desde Moulin Rouge, se passa nos anos 1970 em Nova York. Um grupo de jovens do Bronx se juntam e começam a viver o hip-hop, punk e disco, movimentos que mudam a cidade para sempre. Vai ser foda hein?! #thegetdown #netflix #hiphop #bronx #anos70 #southbronx #discomusic #punkbronx
Aside from Jaden Smith (who we still don't know what to make of just yet), the rest of the cast (and this is often a good thing for TV-- especially with a Netflix series) is mostly a bunch of actors who haven't exactly made any kind of names for themselves.
Will The Get Down be a real taste of the South Bronx in the 70s? Who knows? We'll ask someone's mom and dad. Will it be a good show?
Well, that, too, remains to be seen, but if we've learned anything about TV in the last two years, it's that the network model is dying, and the best stories are being created by streaming service show runners. Check out the sizzle reel below, and then get stoked because it's coming to Netflix sometime this year.
Check out The Apocalyptic Wasteland That Was NYC in the 1980s.
[Feature Image Courtesy Instagram]