After a lackluster second half to the second half of the first season of The Get Down, Netflix has pulled the plug on the most expensive series in their history after one season.
Plagued by behind-the-scenes troubles and low rating, The Get Down failed to connect with audiences like some of the other notable series on Netflix. The season was separated into two halves and the ending of the second half that easily could be construed as a finale.
It is also notable that The Get Down was the most expensive original series in Netflix’s history, costing at least $120 million to produce. at $7.5 million per episode, the series was one of the most costly in Hollywood history.
Baz Luhrmann, a filmmaker known for elaborate feature film hits (“Moulin Rouge!”) and flops (“Australia”) said at the time that he felt overwhelmed by his role as showrunner and had considered abandoning the project.
“I really believed that I was sort of going to be an uncle to the project,” Luhrmann told Variety last year. “The mechanism that pre-existed to create TV shows didn’t really work for this show. At every step of the way, there was no precedent for what we were doing. The standard process really didn’t work, so progressively, I was drawn more and more into the center of it.”
While the show ultimately didn’t succeed, it will serve as the history of the founding fathers of hip-hop and the culture with its roots steeped in the South Bronx, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa and DJ Kool Herc. Special thanks to Nas for his involvement and his original rhymes that were written for each episode.