Parents' Guide to On My Block

Parents need to know that On My Block is a series about four friends growing up in Freeridge, a fictional area in South Central Los Angeles. The friends are loving and supportive of one another and their flaws, but their surroundings are challenging: Several scenes show men being "jumped in" to gangs by being beaten and kicked as teens walk by; gunfire is so frequent that friends make a game of guessing a bullet's caliber; and important characters die by gun violence. Crucially, the series humanizes its Black and Latino characters, no doubt aided by the almost all Black and Latino writers who developed them. Sex is referred to as "hitting it" and "hooking up" and is commonly referenced along with masturbation and "blue balls." In later seasons, main characters become more sexually active. Passionate kissing, loud sex that's heard but not seen, and other hormonal situations are often exaggerated and played for comedy. A boy talks about a girl wanting to "sit on" his face. Men catcall a young girl and talk about her breasts; she crosses her arms and looks uncomfortable. Teens frequently smoke pot and drink from red Solo cups and beer cans; two friends drink something from brown bags to pretend they're having beer (it's really Gatorade). Language includes "hell," "damn," "goddammit," and the word "bitch" used both affectionately and as an insult. Content matures across the series' four seasons, with subplots about deaths, trauma, grief, pregnancy, drugs, cancer, and suicide. But such heavy themes are more than offset by the show's wacky sense of humor and obvious love between friends and family members.