Disclaimer: potential spoilers ahead
Ever since “On My Block” came out back in 2018, I have been obsessed with it. I have been watching every new season released since then that have been released. I tend to binge-watch it multiple times since I am so in love with everything presented in the show. This year, I’m not too sure if that is the same case since many of the characters that I grew to appreciate and love have changed. Two of my favorite characters throughout the series have been Abuelita (Rub’s grandmother) and Jamal who is one of the main characters, yet in this season I feel like they make them into something else.
The show focuses on the lives of four teenagers (Ruby, Jamal, Monse, and Cesar) who live in South Central Los Angeles. They are all attending their first year of high school when the show begins and so they are dealing with many teenage issues such as going to parties and having significant others. But since they do live in South Central much of their lives relate to gang activity and just trying to make it out once they graduate high school.
The first season is when the group enters high school. Prior to the beginning, Ruby’s older brother told them to not let anything come between them, yet by the time they enter freshman year Ruby and Jamal are not speaking to Cesar while Cesar and Monse are sneaking around and not telling their friends. By the end of the season, they are back to being friends and begin to deal with more adult issues.
When season 4 (the final season) begins, the main characters, Ruby, Jamal, Monse, and Cesar are dealing with the senior high school drama as well as the fact that their group has broken apart. Since they are now seniors so many of them are worried about their future and the legacy they will leave in high school, but also Cesar joining the Santos gang (more officially) and being the top guy.
As the season continues much of this drama is being resolved while new issues are coming up that have to do with Santos, Oscar, and Lil Ricky. The Santos is the gang that Cesar and his family have been involved with. In this season, the boss of the Santos has been founded dead and so many gangs that were under her control are fighting for territory. Oscar is Cesar’s older brother who is no longer in the gang and has created a family of his own despite never seeming to be that type of person in previous seasons. Then there is Lil Ricky who had buried some money in season 1 and so Jamal looks up to him as a hero since he had known about the hidden money and discovered where it was buried. Dealing with the Santos is one of the biggest issues throughout the season since Cesar loses his power and is no longer really part of the gang and Oscar isn’t either. Then, we also find out that Lil Ricky is still alive despite looking for him during the first couple of seasons.
As the show went on, I especially connected to Abuelita and Ruby since they were my favorite characters. I cried a lot when it came to what would happen to these two characters despite it not being too horrible, but it just hurt. The other characters such as Monse and Jamal had very good character development from the previous episodes. Now they are more of their own people and are trying to grow and change into new teens.
Now although these parts of the season finale were great, the final episode of the season was probably the worst part of it. I felt like it was unnecessary and didn’t leave much closure for the fans to see. If it would’ve ended an episode prior it might have been better. The four main characters, Cesar, Monse, Jamal, and Ruby are all together and are hanging out as high school seniors who just graduated but it didn’t provide closure for all the other things that happen with the gang or the romantic relationship that some of them had with each other.
Overall the season was average compared to the others which had me on the edge of my seat and actually paying to all the characters I cared about. This time I didn’t mind missing parts of the show since it seemed anticlimactic. On a scale of 1-10 of rotten tomatoes, it would probably be a 6.