The series On My Block was released by Netflix back in 2018. It ran for four seasons and received an insane amount of hype. The series regards four teenage friends that lived in a dangerous Los Angeles neighborhood called Freeridge, all while experiencing the struggles with gang culture and relationships, they go into their first year of high school. The show was super popular, and after the finale, Netflix decided the block needed to be further explored with a spin-off, Freeridge.

From the creators of On My Block, the heart of the show Freeridge opens with siblings Gloria and Ines who both are enrolled in the same school but they have an intense rivalry. Throughout the show, they are challenged by a box they discovered during a yard sale that is apparently cursed. With the help of their two friends, Demi and Cameron, the box helps them learn to see the value of each other’s personalities and they gradually start working together to find a reverse for the curse.

On My Block carried a lot of gang culture, friendship drama, and avoiding the involvement of violence. While both series take place in the same town, Freeridge touched on these topics, but it wasn’t entirely involved how On My Block is. The Freeridge series focuses more on the four friends trying to reverse the curse and its friendship drama, all while trying to solve the mystery behind the box.

Something to remember: in the finale of On My Block, the end of the episode “The Final Chapter,” Ruby recites the line “Look familiar” as the four friends, Monse, Cesar, Ruby, and Jamal, look up to see the peeking heads of four teens, which reminds them of when they were once in their shoes. Little did fans know those four friends behind the brick wall would be the next generation of Freeridge: Gloria, Ines, Cameron, and Demi.

Freeridge resembles some major characteristics of the series On My Block, which includes: the town of Freeridge, similarities in character traits, not to mention the appearance of characters that starred in On My Block, and most of all the storyline about an unknown haunting curse.

The film has strong features like the setting, clothes, plotline, and more. The setting strongly resembled the series On My Block, and it has very similar locations to On My Block as it was based in the same town just years later. The clothes the characters wore matched the characters’ personalities very well, and they were all more of a modern look to show the different time periods between the two series.

The plotline was similarly different to On My Block, as it consisted of four friends that were brought together by a “curse,” referring to the box that was mentioned in the original series, as they worked together to reverse this mysterious misfortune. The plotline was good but it lacked, it definitely mirrored some aspects of On My Block, which made it not as interesting or as interesting to watch as it was repetitive and is missing the spark it needs to be great, but it was still a good watch to dive deeper into Freeridge.

Overall, the Netflix series is good, but it will never replace On My Block. The film has plenty of strong suits, but it is definitely missing the spark On My Block has. The series is good and recommendable for the experience, but it isn’t a series that’s going to knock you off your feet.