[ad_1]
The new NBC sitcom Young Rock bounces around four different periods in the life of its producer and star, professional wrestler turned action hero Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock. In 1982, it was a 10 year old boy who passed by Dewey (played by Adrian Groulx), who lived in Hawaii with his wrestling father Rocky (Joseph Lee Anderson) and his aspiring mother, Ata (Stacey Leilua). In 1987, he’s an oversized teenage boy (played by Bradley Constant) in Pennsylvania whose classmates are convinced he’s an undercover drug addict. In 1990, he was a first-year University of Miami football player (played by Uli Latukefu) trying to convert his height and athletic ability into a career. And in 2032, played by Johnson himself, he runs for President and remembers the pivotal moments of his childhood that helped make him the people’s champion.
The time jump is all the rage on television these days, from dramas like Westworld to docuseries like The last dance. Still, four different eras are hard to juggle in the span of half an hour of networked comedy. After a busy pilot episode that tries to give The Rock’s many different faces the same time – and doesn’t always strike that balance – the other episodes NBC has provided for review focus on just one of its three Young Rocks, with comments from adult Dwayne Johnson.
But where Johnson is one of the few universally beloved celebrities – and true movie stars – that we have today, he is perhaps one too many ingredient for his own autobiographical series, which tends to work best when it focuses on one of the incarnations of its title character.
The main creative voice here is Nahnatchka Khan, undermining nostalgic territory in the vein of his latest sitcom, ABC’s Fresh off the boat. This show was also inspired by the life of one of its producers, author Eddie Huang, who recounted the adventures of his young alter ego for a few seasons. When Huang left for creative differences with Khan and others, FOTB Ditched the voiceover altogether, hoping that his characters were well enough established by the time that they didn’t require any further instruction or explanation.
Johnson is proving useful in the Young Rock pilot, which is presented as an interview he does with FOTB Star Randall Park, who plays himself, works as a TV news anchor in 2032. The adult Johnson quickly establishes the cast and stakes of each era, as well as the series’ main theme. Rocky Johnson reminds little Dewey that every wrestler must find and work out their own gimmick, and politician Dwayne tells Park that his own gimmick turned out to be simple: “Be me.”
This is how Johnson presented himself throughout his career as an artist. His authentic and down-to-earth nature is the key to his appeal. We think what you see is what you get with it, even though it is built in rather fantastic proportions, like an aircraft carrier. Young Rock is meant to be a memory of warts and all – Rocky Johnson is shown to be a shy degree of a con artist, and teenage Dwayne shoplifters and tells a lot of lies to impress a girl he loves – but the guy in 2032 is so holy that the framing device begins to look less of a political parody than the subliminal launch of Johnson’s real political career.
And once Young Rock settles in an era by episode, the presence of the real Rock proves to be more of a distraction than anything else. Khan and his collaborators have done such an effective job building the extended Johnson family – including actors playing a number of future WWF / WWE stars – that the series is more effective and endearing when it stays with them. The sixth episode, titled “My Day With Andre,” is a warm and bittersweet tale of the lessons Dewey and Andre the Giant (Matthew Willig) must learn from each other, and Rocky’s precarious place in the circuit. local pro-catch. run by his stepmother Lia (Ana Tuisila). The 2032 footage, with candidate Johnson announcing his running mate, takes time away from what works so well in scenes set 50 years earlier.
Like Fresh off the boat, Young Rock isn’t very funny at first, but it feels like the laughs are going to get bigger as we get to know the characters. That there are so many actors playing our hero, not to mention different supporting actors in each era, complicates matters. The real Dwayne Johnson is the name and face that’s supposed to entice viewers to watch these other versions of him, but the best thing he can do for his younger kids is maybe step out of the ring for a while to give us more. of time. feel what these other rocks are cooking.
Young Rock premieres February 16 on NBC. I saw the first, second and sixth episodes.
[ad_2]
Source link