THE LAST O.G.

After 15 years of imprisonment, when Tray (Tracy Morgan) leaves prison, he’s shocked to see what has happened to Brooklyn in this span of time. The spirited atmosphere he once knew had vanished into something more fitting for the modern generation. And so, Tray sets his goal; getting his life back on track as a new, free man, leaving behind his years of drugs and jail.

The Last O.G. is pretty energetic and vibrant, full of life much like Tracy’s character whose mouth, once opens, leaves out a string of colourful words. Tiffany Haddish who plays Shay, Tray’s ex-wife who has now moved on with her life, has garnered just as much as attention Tracy has in the past few years, and my favourite scenes are those which include both the actors. Their chemistry together is amazing, to say the least.

However, like all shows, this one has some flaws as well. Some jokes aren’t received properly by the audience, and just aren’t… funny. It’s apparent that Tray’s relationship with his roommates is rather insipid as compared to his relationship with his children and Shay, or with the strict rules he’s forced to follow under his high-on-caffeine supervisor Elizabeth (Edi Paterson) at the coffee shop he’s working at.

The episodes are abrupt, or you could say that continuity isn’t something the creators looked deeply into. One example is that when Shay shunned Tray from seeing their kids ever again, he ended up attending her mother’s funeral two episodes later with barely the bat of Shay’s eyelashes.

But I believe that both, Haddish and Morgan, will make some beauty out of this show. At least, I hope they do.

Ratings: 3Stars

ORIGIN

A group of strangers – Lana (Natalia Tena), who previously worked as a government bodyguard, Shun (Sen Mitsuji) who used to be involved in some gangster work, tech-savvy Lee (Adelayo Adedayo) and Logan (Tom Felton) the known grouch, as well as several others – awaken from their cryosleep, realizing that they have been abandoned on a spaceship named Origin (I guess that’s where the name of the series Originated from, heh) which was on its way to planet Thea. Startled and feeling somewhat out of place, the group tries its best to get back on its feet while at the same time, attempting to land somewhere safe.

It seems as though every sci-fi movie or series (see: Doctor Who, etc.) to be made has been thrown together to create Origins with how predictable and bland the premise is. What I expected it to be was some sort of action-packed, thriller-filled series but what I got after I watched it was nothing of that kind. You’d think that the 50 minute long episodes would be engrossing, but in reality they had little-to-no action in them. There were barely any genuinely mind-blowing scenes, only repetitive

I actually think that the cast deserves more credit for how hard they tried to make the show seem enjoyable. But honestly, were the characters more than just their grief-stricken pasts? And dear Lana was supposed to be portrayed as a badass female character but the writers did her wrong and turned her into more of a tsundere female with barely any character development.

Origin can do pretty well if it moves away from the recurring scenes it includes (scenes we have already watched in many other series of the same genre), so I hope it does. Also, it would’ve been better if the characters were given a proper and clearer background.

Rating: 2Stars