As Netflix continues scoring goal after goal with their latest wave of original content, The Get Down fever is reaching a boiling point in the build up to the show’s August 12th release. After initially sparking some controversy for a Latino-less casting announcement, Baz Luhrmann’s stylish saga of late-70s South Bronx adolescence has racked up some serious street cred with the addition of Latina lead Herizen Guardiola, and producer co-signs by hip hop royalty like Nas, Grandmaster Flash, and writer Nelson George.
Plus, the show just looks dope and we have a brand-new trailer to prove it. Following up on a stylish sizzle reel released six months back, Netflix has blessed us with a two-and-a-half-minute rundown of The Get Down. Throughout the clip, bold colors, fly threads, and funky break beats compliment promising performances and Luhrmann’s trademark flashy style. Of course, this was all relatively clear in January’s sizzle reel, but the new trailer also gives us a much better idea of what we can expect from the plot of the series’ six-episode “Part One.”
In the case of Guardiola, the young actress’ subplot as Mylene Cruz pits her heavy-handed evangelical father Ramón (Giancarlo Esposito) against her more understanding uncle – a local political boss played by Jimmy Smits – as she dreams of disco stardom. To boot, with a last name like Figueroa, Cruz’s love interest and series protagonist Ezekiel (played by Justice Smith) may actually be more Latino than we thought.
The trailer heavily features the young Ezekiel hustling his talents as a wordsmith and musician in the face of nay-sayers and social decay, with his ride-or-die homies of The Get Down Brothers standing at his side. For her part, Guardiola shows the world her golden pipes as she rocks her local congregation with a scandalously inspired performance. There may be a bit of cultural confusion with the Puerto Rican churchgoers dressed like an African-American Baptist choir, but we can’t expect them to get everything right.
With things looking up, in just a few short weeks we’ll finally know if it was all worthwhile.
The first six episodes of The Get Down drop August 12, 2016 on Netflix.