Perhaps because the production was so troubled, perhaps because Baz Luhrmann is new to television, or perhaps because Luhrmann's always had a wandering attention span as a storyteller, Netflix's The Get Down is a show of great moments that only occasionally coheres into something more than that.
Its six hours so far feature maybe two or two and a half hours worth of story, with certain beats repeated too often, and leaning at time too much on thin characters and/or performances. But at least a few times per episode – usually, but not always, when the music started pumping and the characters started moving – The Get Down would roar to vivid life and inspire me to forgive its many flaws to see what other magic Luhrmann and his collaborators could occasionally work.
For those of you who watched all six over the weekend – and thus aren't averse to spoilers – here are six moments that particularly stood out to me over the course of the first half of this first season, coming up just as soon as I do not underestimate the crayon…