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sunshineinmyveins · 7 years

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okay but my get down thoughts:

Because it’s almost Monday and I have seen NONE YET.

Behind a cut because spoilers abound (and that’s a sentence I don’t think I’ve written since 2009).

- First and to get this out of the way, it is DEEPLY troubling that in a show that’s supposed to be as diverse as it is and as representative of hip hop/disco culture as it is, The Get Down has positioned all of its darker skinned characters as the most morally corrupt (Fat Annie, some of her gangsters, Cadillac to a certain extent) or corruptible (Cadillac again, Shao, Boo Boo, Yolanda if you count her attack of morals as the disloyalty it’s presented as).

Meanwhile, the lightest skinned characters - Zeke and Mylene - are about as incorruptible as it’s possible for them to be. Ra-Ra is also, without question or contest, Good. And while Dizzee sits in a similar space, his queerness also removed him from much of Part Two’s larger narrative in a way that was both magical and also did a huge disservice to his character.

- To continue in this vein, the fact that the only major Black female lead is Fat Annie is appalling. By her very nature and name, Fat Annie is a product of fatphobic stereotypes. Adding to that, she’s dark-skinned which perpetuates negative, colorist and anti-Black ideas that deliberately attack dark-skinned Black women and contribute to their continued oppression. She’s both positioned as kind of a mammy (with her creepy mommy schtick) and a hypersexualized predator (with her rape-y everything else), delivering a one-two punch that combines two of the most harmful stereotypes about Black women into one nasty character. And as one of, if not the ONLY, irredeemable villains of color on the show (one can argue that even Mylene’s father who we saw brutally beat both his wife AND daughter was positioned as empathetic in the end after the truth dropped and he killed himself), she’s aligned within the narrative with the likes of the Yale and Yuppie racists rather than being given the same nuance and empathetic treatment as the rest of the POC cast.

- Last major complaint is also tied into something I really enjoyed about the series as a whole, and loved seeing played out again here: I needed more Dizzee and Thor and queerness in general. And I’m genuinely torn on this because I absolutely adored the comic book motif and the fact that Dizzee is the heart of the story - made sweeter by the fact that he, himself, thinks it’s Boo-Boo - means SO MUCH TO ME. I thought the exploration of this beautiful, bisexual alien was wonderfully done and minimalist in a way that worked but also edged along the line of “we’re too cowardly to actually explore non-heterosexuality in the same way we explore heterosexuality”. Dizzee and Thor’s relationship plays out in visual metaphors. And even the moment when Dizzee and Thor confess their love to each other happens in a drug-and-dream state that doesn’t actually exist. I don’t know that I needed a cut-to-black sex scene, but I wanted at least ONE concrete moment between the two of them that wasn’t just Dizzee painting a stripe down Thor’s face (which was STILL SO LOVELY). Also, you don’t get to make Dizzee the heart and soul of your story, give him a grand total of 30 minutes screentime (and that’s being GENEROUS) and leave us on that kind of cliffhanger. That’s just emotional manipulation.

- Speaking of queerness, though, I LOVE the motif of Queer Spaces as Safe Spaces in The Get Down. Though there are Black spaces that are safe, not all of them are. On the flip-side, I think all of the queer spaces we see in The Get Down are presented as welcoming, warm, restorative, and transformative. From the club Thor takes Dizzee to at the end of Part One, to Ruby Con - which is only made unsafe by Mylene’s militantly religious father’s invasion - to Jackie’s apartment in the finale, and even Thor and Dizzee’s crash pad/love nest, queer spaces are presented in a way that reminds me of how it feels every time I walk into a gay club or bar. I do wish we saw these spaces as more diverse because there’s something unsettling about how they seem predominately white, but there’s something so special about the fact that the two most open and supportive and magical environments our main characters find themselves in are The Get Down, and queer clubs/homes. It’s also historically important to the history of disco that these queer clubs are vital to the growth and development of Mylene’s career.

- MORE ON QUEERNESS BECAUSE CAN WE TALK ABOUT SHAOLIN FANTASTIC FOR A SECOND? So after Part One, we all were like “Shao, you’re obviously in love with Books, come on, son.” But Part Two leaned HEAVILY into this subtext. I wish we’d gotten something more resolute out of it (again, I don’t know if it was cowardice or what) but I will say the development of the subtext was still really emotional for me. First, there’s Shao’s obvious jealousy in the first episode. This isn’t anything new, but it’s blatant and almost uncomfortable to witness. And then, after the show at Les Inferno when shit hits the fan, things get real. Mylene confronts Shao and during their horrible, ugly fight she finally brings up what’s been lurking under the surface about Shao’s possible feelings for Zeke. Shao says “I ain’t no f****t” because of course he does, and she tells him to get his own man. And then he says more horrible things to her because Shao is kind of a terrible person and it turns out, queer or not, Zeke is basically the only person Shao loves or has probably ever loved.

But queer or not? That’s the question. WE DON’T KNOW. One super significant, absolutely beautiful scene to me was when Shao realized where they could find Dizzee and tracked him to the crash pad/love nest. This is where I think we could’ve at LEAST seen Dizzee and Thor in a more compromising position but either way, Shao walked in and knew exactly what was up. Even before the tag to the scene, I thought it was incredibly significant that of all the characters to find Dizzee alone (by entering not only a literal queer space but Dizzee’s very queer narrative), it was Shao. But the tag is lovely, with Shao essentially designating himself as a safe space for Dizzee and validating Dizzee’s sexuality. This from the one character who uses the f slur the most out of anyone other than, perhaps, Cadillac. Which may or may not be purposeful and significant (but is certainly as annoying and hurtful in Part Two as it was in Part One).

Also I have to say here that I don’t know if I’m mixing up Shao’s story with Todd Chavez in BoJack Horseman (which I also just binged) but I feel like there’s a moment in Part Two where Shao implies that his romantic/sexual life and/or understanding of sex/romance is stunted because of what Annie did to him. This obviously doesn’t mean he’s queer, but if this moment happened it does indicate that Shao’s never really had the chance to figure out what he is. Either way, we see exactly how much his trauma has affected his relationship with Zeke during their breakup. Later, when Annie threatens to kill Zeke she refers to him as Shao’s boyfriend. It’s an attempt to emasculate him, but Shao’s response now - rather than saying he’s not gay - is to say that Zeke’s not his “fucking boyfriend” in a tone that’s at least as defeated as it is defensive.

There’s something innately Other about the way that Shao’s feelings for Zeke are framed and that’s been the case from the beginning, but combined with some narrative play and the way third parties are starting to respond, it’s pretty clear the question of Shao’s sexuality hasn’t been answered. Whether he’s bisexual, gay, or homoromantic ace, I think the door has at least been left open.

- And while we’re on Shao, I have to say I don’t remember if Part One really delved into his history of abuse. I think the implication was always that his relationship with Annie was toxic and abusive but in the way of a drug kingpin with a favored pet. So while I definitely read it for what it was, it wasn’t confirmed until Part Two. Shao comes as close as he can to admitting that he he’s been raped and brainwashed by Annie and the thread of his story that addresses the wounds he obviously still carries is subtle and powerful and PAINFUL. And the way that Cadillac is folded into that story was really moving, too. The show went from playing their jealousy as the trope of “inadequate son hates the favored adopted son” to really looking at the roots of abuse leading to that situation and to Cadillac’s codependency. And the moment between Shao and Cadillac when Shao lays it all out there and tells Cadillac he knows they both suffered the same abuse was HEARTBREAKING. And shocking in the best way. The fact that this show allowed this kind of vulnerability between two of the more hyper-masculine characters in the show is HUGE. And this is where yes, I’m probably reading too much into it, but I do find it really fascinating that these two men who were sexually abused and are still BEING abused use the f-slur the most liberally. It probably means nothing but it is really fascinating.

- Though I think they did Yolanda dirty (and I get it, it made for great conflict, just really annoying) I DO appreciate Mylene’s loyalty to her girls. And their loyalty to, and belief in, her. Yeah, there’s some sketchy purity stuff involved with Mylene that contributes to this, but it’s also really refreshing to see a story where the most drama the girls had was because one of them wasn’t comfortable being half-naked and grinding on strangers in a club. The rest of the time they love and support each other and that’s awesome.

- The love story between Mylene’s mom and her uncle-dad was SO BEAUTIFUL. I mean it was beautiful in Part One but other than Shao/Zeke and Dizzee/Thor, I think it’s probably my favorite. Just so well-written and well-acted and lovely and painful.

- Still love that The Whites are pretty much globally THE WORST on this show. And love that their proximity to queerness actually indicates how trustworthy they are. Thor? The best. Jackie? Troubled, possibly not to be trusted, but all-in for Mylene. The Australian director guy? Suss until he comes to Jackie’s apartment party. And everyone after that is pretty much trash.

- Honestly some great, shocking moments and zingers in the dialogue. The musical set-pieces were all FABULOUS. The use of music throughout was just top-notch. I was deep in my feelings and loved every minute of it.

- But mostly I LOVE MY PRECIOUS BRONX BABIES AND WANT THEM ALL TO BE SAFE AND HAPPY FOREVER.

. . . I think that’s it. A day has lapsed since I started this tbh so I think some of my thoughts have since drifted to the back of my mind and might yet come back.

#the get down #meta #i just have a lot of feelings okay

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