Shows like On My Block
Since 2018, the Netflix original teen drama On My Block has made audiences laugh and cry at the lives of Monse, Ruby, Jamal, and Cesar for 4 seasons, making them a part of our small Netflix “family” of Most Watched Titles and Favorites lists.
Recommended VideosBut now the fourth season has come and gone, leaving fans with a big gaping hole in their heart. After watching the quartet of bright street-savvy kids from South Central Los Angeles push their way through high school despite the challenges of living in a gang dominated neighborhood and finding themselves constantly mixed up with some kind of trouble, only need to graduate and still remain friends is an epic story enough to tug at anyone’s heartstrings. Of course, it’s a great happy ending, but knowing they won’t be around anymore kind of makes the victory bittersweet.
Not to worry though, there are still several teenage dramas to jump into once you’re done binge watching On My Block for the third time that are sure to help you get over the loss. And luckily, most of them are already on Netflix, so you won’t even have to get off the app to find them. Here’s at least ten of them that are sure to make you almost forget about you were even sad about On My Block.
Skins
This 2007 British teen drama follows a group of teens in Bristol, South West England as they navigate through their two years of sixth form (which is equivalent to junior-senior year of high school here in the US) to college. Unlike On My Block, Skins doesn’t just focus on one set of friends; it actually revolves around three generations of high schoolers.
The series is actually pretty long – having covered seven seasons before it ended in 2013 – so you’ll have plenty of time to spend with this new family of high schoolers before the ride’s finally over. The best part? You get to see British actors like Daniel Kaluuya, Nicholas Hoult, and Dev Patel before they became the leading men that they are today. It’s actually kind of surreal…
Each season (comprised of two parts at a time) focuses on a group of friends from each generation as they deal with sexual identity, mental illness, romantic entanglements, and substance abuse on their road to adulthood. Regarded as one of the best teen dramas to come from across the pond, Skins is a series worth watching after you finished the last season of On My Block.
Gentefied
Another Netflix original, Gentefied follows the story of three Mexican-American cousins living in Los Angeles and their struggle to chase the American dream as they try their best just save the Immigrant grandfather’s taco shop and their essence of the neighborhood is gentrification begins to shake up their lives.
Set in Boyle Heights, the Morales family come to terms with love and identity as the cousins – Eric, Anna, and Chris – stay at odds with one another about how to save the shop yet are united in their front to remain defiant to the ever-present changes in the area. But the real test begins when the gentrification begins to affect their personal lives in ways that they cannot ignore; forcing them to make a choice between standing with their community or leaning into the gentrification in order to achieve the American dream they’ve been searching for.
The Society
This may be a little bit darker for fans of On My Block, but teen drama is forever present in this Netflix original. Set in a dystopian future, The Society follows the story of a group of teenagers who must learn to run their own community after the rest of their town’s population mysteriously vanishes. Things get even weirder when a dense forest suddenly appears to surround the town and the outside world can no longer be contacted by telephone or Internet.
Forced to survive and create their own resources, the teens must learn to work together to run their own community.
Never Have I Ever
In this coming-of-age original from comedic actress Mindy Kaling and Netflix, Never Have I Ever stars Maitrei Ramakrishnan in a comedy-drama loosely based on Kaling’s childhood experiences in Boston.
Set in the San Fernando Valley, the show focuses on an Indian American high school student dealing with the sudden death of her father as she tries to improve her status in school and navigate through the trials and tribulations of adolescence.
Everything Sucks
Set in the 90s, this Netflix original focuses on a simpler time when teens did not have smartphones and social media to distract them. The story revolves around two groups of students at Warren High School in Oregon–the AV club and the Drama club–as they clash as they attempt to make a movie together while dealing with with their own personal issues with as mental health, sexual identity, as they navigate through high school as a group of misfits.
Outer Banks
From Netflix comes a teenage drama/thriller that once again pits two groups–the Kooks and the Pogues–against each other as they navigate through relationships and economic expectations as a long lost treasure threatens to light a fuse that will rock their small town.
Set in the outer banks of North Carolina, this Netflix original revolves around John B, a Pogue teenager living in an old shack by the water after the disappearance of his father. Dodging Child Protective Services, John is determined to find out what happened to his father and with his group of friends, he stumbles upon a legendary treasure in a process.
However, tensions ride high between the Pogues and the Kooks when the treasure seems tied to the disappearance of Jon’s father and indicates that foul play may have been involved. As Jon and his friends unravel the mystery, secrets about both the Pogues and the Kooks start to come to light.
Cobra Kai
A companion series that continues the story from the original Karate Kid films, Cobra Kai is a martial arts comedy-drama that is set 34 years after the events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament and revolves around Danny Larusso’s nemesis, Johnny Lawrence, from the first Karate Kid film.
Johnny, a down-and-out unemployed handyman haunted by his loss to the Russo and wasted life, finds purpose again when he rescues a bullied student–Miguel– from getting beat up. The confrontation inspires him to restart the Cobra Kai dojo.
Taking Miguel and his misfit friends as students, Lawrence begins to change their personalities. with Cobra Kai’s philosophies. However, in doing so, he inadvertently restarts his old rivalry with Daniel Larusso and from there, the two men stay locked in a conflict for the souls of the students and the kids that practice karate in their neighborhood.
As the kids navigate through the normal trials and tribulations of adolescence, their emotions lead them to solve their issues using everything they’ve learned…with their fists! A teenage drama full of butt-kicking action, Cobra Kai is essentially On My Block with a lot more hand to hand violence.
All American
Inspired by the true life story of NFL Superbowl Champion, Spencer Paysinger, All American is an inspiring, ensemble family drama about a young, high school football phenom named Spencer James and the two families whose homes he shares after transferring from Crenshaw to Beverly High – his mother and brother in South Central LA and the Bakers of Beverly Hills.
Now, under pressure from his family, his unaccepting new peers, and his old classmates, Spencer seeks refuge in a football coach who becomes a father figure as Spencer tries to adjust to his new life.
But as these two families and their vastly different worlds are drawn together, Spencer, the Bakers, and the James family will discover that the differences that divide us on the surface hide a deeper connection – the complicated, imperfect humanity that unites us all.
Greenhouse Academy
Imagine if On My Block and Marvel’s The Runaways bumped uglies and made a baby; the result would be Netflix’s Greenhouse Academy.
The show centers around a group of teens who go to an elite boarding school for the future leaders in Southern California, America. The students are split into two teams to compete over the course of the school semester and its here where two siblings–Hayley and Alex– enroll at the Greenhouse Academy after their mother’s demise, who was to become the first female astronaut to orbit the moon, in the rocket explosion.
At the school, Alex and Hayley join rival houses-‘Ravens and Eagles–and end up becoming adversaries. But when mysterious events draws kids from both competing houses into a secret investigation, the students find out about a deadly scheme to destroy the planet.
Grand Army
Probably the closest to On My Block in terms of the plot and teenage drama, Grand Army focuses on five teenagers– Joey Del Marco, Dom Pierre, Sid Pakam, Jayson Jackson, and Leila Kwan Zimmer–amidst the much broader scope of the fictional Grand Army High School in Brooklyn, New York.
Similar to Skins, Grand Army widens that scope to follow other students as supporting in an ensemble cast each dealing with their own trauma, issues, as they struggle with sexual, racial and economic politics and fight to succeed and become somebody.
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