The Beatles: Get Back – Series Review

British rock band The Beatles – Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison – write and rehearse fourteen brand new songs as they plan their first live show in more than two years; including their unforgettable rooftop concert at London’s Savile Row.

To sit here and talk about why The Beatles are the most influential band in the history of music would be an absolute waste of time. For starters, there are dozens of books, movies, shows, etc. that already discuss exactly why they’re so great in extreme detail, and, if I were to discuss those same reasons here, this would probably be a thirty thousand word-long review and nobody wants to read that long unless it’s in a book.

So I won’t bother talking about why The Beatles are so influential. But there is simply no doubt that all four members changed how we view music as a whole today. How in the world did four men from Liverpool, England, write that many excellent songs. “Hey Jude”, “Yesterday”, “Here Comes The Sun”, and “Penny Lane” are just four of the songs that the band created that you can still hear on the radio today. It’s insane.

Instead of exploring why The Beatles became famous, Peter Jackson‘s new documentary series, The Beatles: Get Back, gives us something ten times better. It presents us with eight hours of material recorded several decades ago as we watch all four members try their best to come up with what would eventually become the Let It Be album – their final body of work. During this time, The Beatles had hit a rough patch but by watching them perform and interact with one another in this series, you really wouldn’t be able to tell.

The chemistry between them all is simply extraordinary and seeing them just sit there and suddenly come up with some of the most iconic lyrics of all time is simply staggering. Truth be told, it’s the very definition of a comfort film. It’s so easy to sit back and watch these men do what they do best and next thing you know, it’s midnight and you should probably go to bed because you’ve just watched several hours of The Beatles.

Jackson’s film – which, by the way, is marvelously directed – is sure to please any Beatles fan – whether new or old – but will definitely be the most entertaining to long-time fans. To give you all an example – both of my parents are die-hard Beatles fans and grew up loving all of their music. The Beatles truly hold a special place in their heart and all these years later, they still have the same love for them that they did back in the 1960s.

So it was genuinely a lot of fun to throw this series on for them because what I noticed was that both of them simply couldn’t look away from the screen. Some will inevitably call this series boring (and I’ll admit, eight hours is a bit too much to watch at times) because, after all, it essentially just shows the Beatles sitting around and coming up with song material together. Lots of people will want to hit the snooze button whereas others will be fascinated at the mere idea of watching the most iconic band in history work together. It’s truly magical.