Netflix’s On My Block is On My Must List.
There’s one show I can’t stop telling people to watch right now —Netflix’s On My Block. A story that follows four best friends about to enter high school. Blending culture, race, and traditions, with adolescent struggles, laughs and tears, The Goonies, and a whole lot of I want more.
How is this show different from all the other shows about high school?
You give these kids a voice.
You take undeniably quirky, relatable characters and put them in a real life setting. A chance to show the world that these kids are just like you: they have anxiety about living up to their parent’s pressures, they find their first love and experience heartache, they experience self-doubt and struggle with what means to grow into manhood, and they are placed in tough situations where they have to decide who they want to be versus who they have to be.
You give audiences another perspective.
On top of the typical struggles of the teen entering the high school scene, these kids have other issues they have to deal with. The show reminds people of the world these characters live in. A life where your parents are deported and you have to live with strangers who become your family, a life surrounded by gang violence and family creeds where these kids are smart and have hopes and dreams of getting out, a world where you have to figure out life without a parent.
You show that aside from the world they live in, these kids are just like you — they’re not just brown.
Right off the bat, this show does not disappoint.
The first episode shows the lay of the land with a block party celebrating a recent grad’s full ride to college. It shows what a party from la vecindad looks like, where everyone in the neighborhood is practically family. Shout-out to the girl who ran from the gun shots with the party bag of Cheetos still in hand, I saw you. #UnsungHero
It deals with stereotypes and racism, hitting them head on.
When Cesar is in danger, he goes to school anyways because he doesn’t want to miss his math test. This kid is smart. He has an A- in Computer Science. I could barely get a C+ in Pre-Cal. When a white guy from a rich neighborhood is dressed up like one of them on Halloween, the tea is spilled. Well, in this case, the juice. The white boy cries, it’s worth it.
It’s a testament to not underestimate the ability of the kid from the hood. To believe in him. To help him believe in himself. So that one day, when he’s a famous architect, he can build his brother a beach house and save him from the lives they currently live.
This show will make you laugh and will continue to surprise you.
The writers use comedy to help you fall in love with the characters and slip in the drama so you can loose your shit. You become so emotionally invested, that for a second, you forget the world they live in and the outside factors they continue to deal with.
You learn how tight a crew is in a place where your friends are family, where you would do anything to protect them even if it costs a life. You learn how amazing these characters are and how they continue to survive with the hand that was dealt to them.
I’m tired of seeing the Gossip Girls and the Riverdales. I want more shows like this.
The trailer doesn’t do it justice, but I’ll leave it here for you to get a taste.
So what do you say, compa? You gonna watch? You better.
