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Critic Reviews
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People struggling to wrap their arms around initial episodes of "Young Rock" may find a reason to stick around in the show's outstanding crew of actors impersonating such '80s-era wrestling legends as Ric Flair and Iron Sheik. That much the show nails straightaway.
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Promising but uneven, energetic but frustratingly familiar.
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Like Fresh Off the Boat, Young Rock isn’t wildly funny in the early going, but feels as if the laughs will grow bigger the better we get to know the characters. That there are so many actors playing our hero, not to mention different supporting casts in each era, complicates matters.
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To call this a vanity project would be an understatement, but Johnson's inherent likability goes a long way, and he spells out that this isn't going to be all happy nostalgia, citing missteps that he learned from along the way.
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The ambitious Young Rock jumps around in these timelines, the storytelling hampered by the smug framing device of the adult Johnson running for president. [1-14 Mar 2021, p.9]
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In the main, these featherweight stories have a simple, charming appeal, with period detail, subtly shifting between time jumps, tending to distract from just how little is going on. Meanwhile, the grown-ups — Anderson, Stacey Leilua as Johnson’s mother, and Ana Tuisila as his wrestling-promoter grandma — add just enough heft to make the show work.
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All this means is that I'm stuck complaining about structure flaws and a surplus of The Rock, when a correctly focused show would lead to a correctly focused review emphasizing how truly wonderful Anderson and Leilua are.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 5 out of 8
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Mixed: 1 out of 8
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Negative: 2 out of 8
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Jan 20, 2022admirable
[ ad-mer-uh-buhl ]
adjective
worthy of admiration; inspiring approval, reverence, or affection. -
Mar 3, 2021