“What I forgot my world needed, until I saw Ozark’s second episode, is someone to root for in the seedy, underworld of a Mexican drug cartel, that special someone to fill the cavernous void left by Walter White on Breaking Bad. Ozark’s story is somewhat similar, in that it involves a seemingly good family guy, paying the consequences of a very bad partnership, and having his family dangerously tied up in his questionable actions.”

At this point, if I suddenly had to cut some expenditures down, and had to start axing viewing options, the last to go would be Netflix (well, as soon as HBO’s Game of Thrones goes away again for Gods know how long), because man, they are making some great shit, and they don’t mind dropping $20 billion or so to get it right.

One of the most recent examples of Netflix getting it right, Ozark, comes from creator Bill Dubuque (The Accountant, The Judge) and exec producer and star, Jason Bateman, breaking out of the long shadow cast by his seminal role of Derek Taylor in Silver Spoons. The hour-long drama, of which all ten episodes are currently available for bingeing, is produced by Media Rights Capital, who among many other fine products, are responsible for the series that really set Netflix on the right trajectory: House of Cards.

If you’re looking for further reason to invest your time, the show also stars three-time Oscar nominee, Laura Linney; Rip Torn, who hasn’t made a wrong move since well before The Beastmaster; and Esai Morales, best remembered as the drunk older brother in La Bamba, or at least he is in my world.

What I forgot my world needed, until I saw Ozark’s second episode, is someone to root for in the seedy, underworld of a Mexican drug cartel, that special someone to fill the cavernous void left by Walter White on Breaking Bad. Ozark’s story is somewhat similar, in that it involves a seemingly good family guy, paying the consequences of a very bad partnership, and having his family dangerously tied up in his questionable actions. In this case, it’s Bateman’s Marty Byrde, a frugal Chicago suburbs financial planner, who’s been illegally cleaning money for the cartel, finds himself with a huge debt to pay to the wrong people, and in order to keep his family alive, ends up — somehow convincingly — getting one last opportunity to move the fam to the Lake of the Ozarks and launder money for those he owes. It’s definitely a mo-money-mo-problems situation.

Having seen the first two episodes, I’m sure I’m up for more. The story works, and is getting all the more interesting as Marty must pivot from the safe life in the ‘burbs with a wife he thought he loved and two perfect kids; to a very dangerous, reckless, path, that may very well end up getting them all killed. While there’s a lot that works, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it all shakes out, what really roped me in we’re two great moments, one important, the other not so much. One: a throw away line, that really doesn’t spoil anything, when a small-town records keeper tells Bateman to “walk a mile in my Crocs.” That craned my neck, for sure.

The other is a bit of spoiler… when Linney socks Bateman, her husband who has just explained how little sympathy he has for her and her dead lover that just got thrown off a balcony by the cartel that Marty owes money to. Yeah, family life gets really complicated when the cartel’s involved!

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The heroes of this sometimes true, mostly fantastic hip-hop origin story are many, but ultimately, it’s the story of four neighborhood kids led by gifted wordsmith, Ezekiel “Zeke” “Books” Fiuero (Justice Smith), who pines for another neighborhood friend, Mylen Cruz (Herizen F. Guardiola) while ably aiding her quest for disco glory. When the four meet mysterious graffiti legend, part-time underworld boy-toy, and aspiring super DJ Curtis “Shaolin Fantastic” Caldwell (the incomparable Shameik Moore), Puma-kicking-Kangol-tipping-record-scratching fireworks erupt, and the Fantastic 4 Plus 1 are born. With a little help from Grand Master Flash, who’s revered as much like a Kung Fu Grand Master as a DJing one, the crew sets out to take over not just the Bronx, but the world, despite the forces of poverty, organized crime, and disco working against them.

Luhrmann co-created the show, along with Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Stephen Adly Guirgis. Luhrmann also directed the Shaolin-Fantastic first episode, in all its frenetic, majestic, fluorescent glory. It’s the same type of glory I saw when I first fell for Baz, with Romeo + Juliet – perhaps the only Shakespearean production I’ve ever really loved. And The Great Gatsby is my favorite book of all time, a sacred text, somehow made all the more magnificent and telling in the modern hands of such a master visionary. Both source materials are iconic pieces of art, treated with passionate understanding and vibrant expression, and made all the more vital by Baz. That he has given the origins of hip-hop such legendary light is a testament to those funky forces who lived it, those who soared above the graft and poverty all around, who rose from the ashes of a world on fire, and created something bold and new.

Though Luhrmann relinquishes the directorial reins after Episode 1, and there is a bit of a drop in subsequent shows, his stamp is all over The Get Down, as he remains the Executive Producer. Nas is an EP, as well, and also dubs the raps for the grownup wordsmith, Zeke during flash forward arena shows, which serve to make the Fantastic 4 Plus 1’s origin story all the more epic since you know at least one of them “made it.” The raps also serve as story bumps before and after episodes, like a dope Greek chorus that catches you up far more eloquently than your typical “scenes from last week” fare. Nas’s stature also obviously serves to bolster the creative team’s hip-hop credibility, along with consulting help from the genre’s originators, like Kool Herc, Grand Master Flash, and Afrika Bambaataa.

One thing the show certainly doesn’t lack is music cred, not just of the hip-hop variety, but everything else that was popping in 1977. Indeed, it’s the music that glues this whole she-Baz-shebang together. But it’s more than just a great soundtrack; it’s a celebration of creation, no doubt, and the magical, mythical, world-changing forces that can unleash. Netflix just released the final five episodes of season 1, so do yourself a favor and get down with The Get Down. Your street cred depends on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usv442G6H8A

The post The Get Down: The Most Dynamite Time You Can Have Watching TV appeared first on FactoryTwoFour.

“You’re immediately drawn into the love so obvious between man and wife, which is the glue that keeps not just their marriage together, but also the show compelling. This young couple in love gets into some shit together, and that tenuous love is the only thing keeping Quarry’s heart from breaking bad.”

Not that Quarry doesn’t have its fair share of skin, as relative newcomers Logan Marshall-Green and Jodi Balfour smolder in the southern heat with a sultriness not seen since William Hurt and Kathleen Turner in Body Heat. Or perhaps that’s just the power of a perfect mustache, which Logan most definitely dons. And Balfour’s bra-burning, fight-the-power hippyness is seductively hypnotizing as well. But while that attraction may have initially drew me in, the dark, gritty, underworld story set against the right and true lightness of their love, keeps me coming back for more.

Based on the novels of Max Allan Collins, Quarry takes place in 1972, when disgruntled and perhaps soon-to-be-disbarred Marine Mac Conway (Marshall-Green) returns home to Memphis after two tours in Vietnam. When Mac and his hometown friend and platoon mate, Arthur, return home, they are greeted by angry picketers protesting their involvement in a Vietnamese village massacre. Fortunately, Mac comes home to the love of a good woman, Joni (Balfour).

You’re immediately drawn into the love so obvious between man and wife, which is the glue that keeps not just their marriage together, but also the show compelling. This young couple in love gets into some shit together, and that tenuous love is the only thing keeping Quarry’s heart from breaking bad.

See, not everyone is as happy to see Mac as Joni seems to be, particularly his family or any potential employers. Except one: a mysterious man, the Broker, as played by Peter Mullan (a character actor who you’ll definitely recognize, from Braveheart, Trainspotting, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, among others). We soon learn the Broker knows that Mac possesses certain skills, which would be helpful in his line of work; he offers Mac $30K to kill a man. But Mac turns him down.

But later, Mac finds out that the Broker offered the same deal to Arthur, who took the job. So Mac agrees to be his look-out on the assignment. Well, I don’t want to spoil the pilot for you, which you can watch below (warning: skin!), but let’s just say that assignment doesn’t go very well. Mac ends up having to work off Arthur’s debt to the Broker, who nicknames Mac “Quarry,” for not very obvious reasons. So Quarry becomes a paid assassin working in the Memphis underworld, full of lunatics both cunning and crazy. And his first assignment is connected to Joni!

Add all that intrigue and steam, throw in the social relevance of placing the story in the year 1972 — another polarizing time, but with American Muscle and sweet soul music — and you’ve got yourself some quality entertainment. Give it a whirl.

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