Getting Down With ‘The Get Down’
Netflix has rolled out another hit. Joining alongside the 80s era flashback Stranger Things, The Get Down takes place in the 1970s Bronx.
The show focuses on Ezekiel and his teenage group of friends just trying to make it big in one of the worst parts of New York. This is not some coming of age television show though. There is political back stabbing, drug dealing, and murders. The cast is also something new and refreshing for American television. And it’s an amazing thing.
The cast mostly comprises of people of color. African-Americans, Latinos, and mixed race fill the screen time. Anyone who is Caucasian seems to be portrayed as the bad guys, not looking at anyone of color as an actual person. It’s fitting for 1970s Bronx where people of color were being put down.
Jaden Smith is also a main character. His character shows a glimpse of what the sexual revolution of the 1970s was like. There are drag queens, transgender people, and open sexuality portrayed through the show.
The Get Down is realistic to its time period. It portrays what America was back then, and shines some light on what is still wrong with it today.