Baz Luhrmann’s TV retelling of the birth of hip-hop has flabbergasted and horrified critics. Here’s what the experts say – and how the superfans defend it

Anticipation was high for The Get Down, director Baz Luhrmann’s retelling of the founding of hip-hop in 1977 as a mythological kung-fu fable. Who doesn’t want to watch a $120m boondoggle set in the burnt-out Bronx?

Reactions to the first six episodes (the final six will air in 2017) have not been positive. In fact, most critics have described it as execrable. In the Sunday Times, AA Gill writes a perfect evisceration:

“Nothing I’ve seen recently has made me feel as constantly uncomfortable and occasionally flabbergasted as The Get Down. It is wilfully dumb, and after the fuss about the underrepresentation of blacks at the Oscars, and their overrepresentation in morgues, the fact that US non-network TV ... can roll out a show like this and fail to make any others that aren’t about OJ is monumentally depressing.”

The Get Down review – an insanely extravagant love letter to 70s New York Read more

Most critics weren’t nearly as dismissive. The New Yorker’s Emily Nussbaum believes those that stick with it will be rewarded. “The show is working under a severe handicap, which is that the pilot (the one episode directed by Luhrmann) is truly terrible. It’s baggy and self-indulgent, alternately confusing and obvious. The next three episodes aren’t great, either ... Then, suddenly, there’s a legitimately fun eureka sequence in episode five, as Ezekiel and his young crew invent a new art form. In episode six, we get, finally, what feels like a fully original series: crude, witty, and defiant ... If I possessed my own special kung-fu powers, I’d time-travel and kick down the writers’-room door, forcing them to squash those first four episodes into one.”

In a rare positive review, the Telegraph’s Tim Martin gave the show four out of five stars: “The Get Down is narratively messy, frequently caricatured and tonally all over the shop. It is also a work of Class A magic and wonder.”

Sonia Saraiya, Variety’s television critic, thinks someone from Netflix should have reined Luhrmann in: “The Get Down is a beautiful mess, a flawed show interspersed with moments of remarkable brilliance. It was unprecedentedly expensive and time-consuming for parent company Netflix; the result smacks of half-baked creative ambition run amok.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A beautiful mess? The Get Down. Photograph: Myles Aronowitz/Netflix

Mike Hale at the New York Times points out what he perceives to be Luhrmann’s main issue. “Mr Luhrmann has the same old problem. He’s less interested in plot and character than in orchestrating big emotions the way the great Hollywood musicals did. Which leads to a Catch-22: he can get us excited with his manipulations of image and music, but he doesn’t create people or stories interesting enough to give those feelings any focus.”

Writing in Slate, Willa Paskin lays down the familiar criticism that the show attempts to tell a historical story, but that nothing about it is as real as it needs to be to succeed. “The Get Down wants to be gritty, but it doesn’t quite know how. It’s like a glistening manicure with the polish laid over flecks of dirt – under a few clear coats, schmutz is indistinguishable from glitter. The show uses archival footage from the ’70s Bronx, but Luhrmann’s aesthetic is so multicoloured macaroon that it flambés realism.”

However, viewers aren’t nearly as upset as critics. Sure, DJ A-Trak really didn’t like the show, but most other reactions on Twitter are surprisingly sunny.

Keith Calder (@keithcalder) First couple episodes of "The Get Down" I'm like "I dunno it's kind of uneven." Episode three and I'm crying with my jaw on my chest.

Candice Patton (@candicekp) And the 90 minute pilot was practically the best "movie" I've seen in a minute. #TheGetDown

Brendan Maclean (@macleanbrendan) Oh wow. The Get Down is making me smile and cry non-stop. It's wonderful television hugging stuff, the soundtrack is endlessly brilliant.

brandon jenkins (@Jersey_Jinx) "The Get Down" had me the moment Ezekiel recited the poem he was afraid to read in class

devin faraci (@devincf) THE GET DOWN's mix of social realism and mythologizing is absolutely perfect for a show about hip hop.

Perhaps fans are seeing something critics aren’t – or perhaps they don’t care about Luhrmann’s indulgences and slack storytelling. Or maybe they’re just blinded by the killer soundtrack. Still, we’ll have to wait for those final instalments to see if The Get Down really can boogie.

