O.G.
HBO | Release Date: February 23, 2019
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
2
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubFeb 25, 2019
Season 1 Review: In the end, every cliché and nearly every expectation that comes in a typical prison film is stripped away. What’s left is an unshakable performance, and a sense that you’ve seen a piece of cinematic art that isn’t fiction or nonfiction, but somewhere in between. Read full review
90
Paste MagazineAmy GlynnFeb 22, 2019
Season 1 Review: It’s keen-eyed and unflinching without giving in to the temptation to make everyone as bad as possible; even the authorities are human beings. Because of this, it holds the tragedy of squandered human potential up to the light. It doesn’t have a complicated plot, and because of that you can see how much is really going on. It eschews sentimentality and achieves genuine feeling. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 27, 2019
Season 1 Review: The brilliant Jeffrey Wright plays Louis in the HBO movie O.G., and it is one of the finest performances of his career. ... O.G. is a work of fiction and yet is almost unsettling in its authenticity. Director Madeleine Sackler does a magnificent job of plunging us into this world. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeFeb 28, 2019
Season 1 Review: Planted mostly in a tasteful middle ground between Shawshank sentimentality and the terrors of Oz, Madeleine Sackler's prison film O.G. revolves around a deeply sympathetic performance by Jeffrey Wright as a longtime prisoner about to re-enter the outside world. Read full review
75
IndieWireBen TraversFeb 25, 2019
Season 1 Review: O.G. can be a tad slow, a touch too simple, and even a little distracted from making a larger, more declarative point about modern incarceration. But by carving its own path through Louis — and with a huge helping hand from Wright — it’s nothing short of original. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushFeb 20, 2019
Season 1 Review: An intense and immersive, if overly familiar, prison drama. [18 Feb - 3 Mar 2019, p.15]
50
VarietyDaniel D'AddarioFeb 20, 2019
Season 1 Review: The film needed more insight, more spirit of curiosity and provocation beyond its pious, vitamin-rich but ultimately inert and unsurprising take on prison, in order to justify its place. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezFeb 20, 2019
Season 1 Review: O.G.’s ostensible authenticity does little to add dramatic heft to these stock character moments. Wright does most of the heavy lifting here, weaponizing glances and gestures to impart a weary history that the film fails to develop. Read full review
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