Freeridge is a teen comedy that was released on Netflix in February of this year. It was created by Lauren Iungerich, Jamie Uyeshiro, Jamie Dooner, Eddie Gonzalez, and Jeremy Haft, as a spin-off of the hit coming-of-age Netflix series On My Block.
The first, and hopefully last, season of this series has eight episodes, which range from 20 to 30 minutes each. The plot follows a group of four friends–Gloria, Demi, Cameron, and Ines–as they navigate high school life and try to solve a supernatural mystery.
At first, I was excited for Freeridge, because On My Block is one of my all-time favorite shows (even if the fourth season was lacking in the story department). It is a funny, engaging show, and I was eager to see more of the world and its characters.
But after around three episodes into Freeridge, it was clear that this series wasn’t going to live up to my expectations. It just doesn’t hold its footing as a spin-off, let alone as a stand-alone show.
The humor in this series is pretty hit-or-miss. Some jokes simply don’t land, and they come off as corny or Disney Channel-esque, which doesn’t fit the tone of the show. These gags are especially jarring coming from the team behind On My Block. Admittedly, there are some moments during the season that got a couple laughs out of me, but they’re few and far between and certainly not enough for a comedy series.
Story-wise, the plot is generic, and the whole “cursed object” storyline is something that we’ve literally seen before in the second season of On My Block. I just wasn’t invested in what was happening. Whenever the characters were talking about the plot, all that was going through my mind was “I’d rather be watching On My Block right now.” The sub-plots would have been interesting, if only the characters themselves were actually likable.
The characters in this show are some of the most annoying I’ve ever seen on television. All of them are written pretty much one-dimensionally, except for Gloria and Ines.
Demi’s entire personality is that she’s into astrology, and she wants to get Cameron to open up to her. Cameron’s entire
personality is that he doesn’t like opening up to people. The “romance” between the two of them is infuriating to watch, not because it’s so morally gray, but because these characters are just…bad people! We never see them display any sort of deep care or love for each other or for their other friends. They’re in a friend group with Gloria and Ines, but most of their time is spent gossiping about them. Those two are definitely my least favorites in the cast.
Gloria is probably the best-written character in the series, because of her relationship with her family. She genuinely cares about her father and her sister, Ines, even though she frequently fights with both of them. I found myself actually invested in how Gloria would grow over the course of the series, whereas when Cam and Demi came on screen, I wanted to tear my hair out.
Ines is a tolerable character, except for the fact that the writers couldn’t seem to make up their mind about where they wanted to take her. In the beginning, she is portrayed as Gloria’s petty and argumentative little sister. As the season progresses, she starts to redeem herself, but then she goes right back to her old ways around the middle episodes.
One can argue that people make mistakes, but it just doesn’t seem natural with the way everything plays out for Ines. I wasn’t frustrated in the way you’d be at your friend for doing something wrong. Instead, I was just frustrated with the lazy writing here.
The performances overall are pretty good, and the cast does a great job with the lines they’ve been given. But in the end, if your characters aren’t written like real people, then your audience just isn’t going to believe that they’re real people.
If the characters aren’t believable, how can you expect viewers to connect with or care about them? It’s impossible to get invested in a character’s journey if they don’t feel real.
Overall, my biggest problem with Freeridge is the writing. There may have been some potential here, but it is all ruined by the fact that the main characters are pretty much insufferable to watch.
Go ahead and skip this series. But if you’re looking for a witty, urban adventure series, I’d recommend that you watch the show it’s based on, On My Block, instead.
