VH1’s ‘The Breaks’ to Become a Full Series; First Season Ordered

It looks like The Breaks is coming back to VH1 as a series. On the heels of it's successful January TV movie premiere, VH1 has greenlighted a full first season for the hip-hop drama.

The TV movie served as a "backdoor pilot" for what everyone assumed was a possible TV series. Based on Dan Charnas book The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop, the movie was the No. 2 cable movie for young adults 18-49 thus far in 2016. The premiere and encore airing landed VH1 a combined 2.6 million total viewers, a 42 percent gain among adults under 50 in January for the network.

Wood Harris, Mack Wilds, Afton Williamson, Antoine Harris and Method Man are all expected to return for the series. The film was set in summer 1990 New York, against a backdrop of crime and poverty but also music and creative expression.

“The Breaks’ is VH1 at its best, intersecting '90s nostalgia with hip-hop for the masses,” VH1 GM Chris McCarthy said via statement. “Both the viewers and critics have spoken, and we couldn’t be happier to continue telling the story that has already connected with millions of pop culture fans.”

Hip-hop-themed TV has become an industry unto itself in recent years, with the success of FOX's Empire and Baz Luhrmann's 1970s hip-hop drama The Get Down arriving on Netflix later this year.