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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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