By Kaylee Brewster
“The Last O.G.” is a humorous look at how much the world has changed in the past 15 years with a perfectly casted group of characters.
Tray (Saturday Night Live alum Tracy Morgan) has just been released from a 15-year prison sentence. All he wants is for life to return to normal with the woman he loves, Shay (Tiffany Haddish). However, the world he goes back to is very different than the one he remembers.
His old stomping grounds, the streets of Brooklyn, have been gentrified. White hipsters and coffee shops fill the space where he used to hang with his cousin. What’s worse is that his girl has moved on too, with another man, and not just any other man, a white dude named Josh (Ryan Gaul).
“The Last O.G.” (short for original gangster) follows Tray as he struggles to leave behind his past and make a new life for himself in a world he doesn’t understand. Episodes begin with a voice over tackling an issue like gentrification or masculinity, through the eyes of Tray with plenty of humor.
Morgan captures Tray’s inner and outer conflicts. He seeks a way to move forward but constantly looks back at the life he had with Shay. His outer conflicts are the funniest. He fights with roommates at his halfway house, he shows up unexpectedly at Shay’s house and he has difficulty handling the new politically correct culture at the coffee shop he works at.
Matching him beat for beat with comedic timing is Shay. She is a different person and has moved on from her past, but Tray keeps reminding her of the woman she was. This conflicts with the life she has built for herself. When Morgan and Haddish are in a scene together the laughs don’t stop.
The series is available to stream on Netflix. It’s humorous and heartfelt and deals with real-world issues in a way that’ll make you laugh.
