Parents' Guide to The Get Down

Series creator Baz Luhrmann isn't exactly known for restraint, so the fact that this series is a surreal whirl of music and romance isn't a surprise -- but its sweetness and humor might be. It's awash in clichés -- Mylene and Ezekial are nothing more or less than a pair of star-crossed lovers straight out of West Side Story, Fat Annie would fit comfortably in with the dancing flappers of Chicago, and Smits rumbles and schemes like so many other corrupt politicos have in so many movies. Yet there's real magic in the way Ezekiel's liquid eyes watch Mylene every time she's on-screen or in the way Zeke and his friends describe how they'll know ghetto kung fu master and legendary criminal Shaolin Fantastic when they see him: "His pumas are always pristine -- his hands are samurai swords!" Like poetry, this is a story told in impressions and emotion, and it's messy and nonlinear. For example, an adult Ezekiel appears at the very beginning of the series to frame the plot that then unfolds, as if to point this out.

But it's mesmerizing and beautiful, too, and hard to stop watching. It may be a bit rough for hip-hop-crazed teens -- parents may want to watch first to check it out -- but it's a powerfully told story, with characters that make you want to keep watching.