TV Review - Young Rock

Dwayne Johnson is a WWE wrestler, known as "The Rock." He rose to fame in the late 1990's and early 2000's. He became super popular, as he emerged as a super charismatic personality. He became firmly established as a blockbuster draw since the 2010's. His popularity was so high that people pushed for him to run for president. There was talk of him doing so back in 2016. It's not surprising that the premise of this TV series, starring Johnson, is about him running for president in 2032. It's not surprising but a bit narcissistic and self-aggrandizing that Johnson running for president would be not just a one-off joke but in fact the whole premise and framework for the whole series and for each or most episodes. Unfortunately, this premise and framework are frustrating and annoying.

Yet, the true focus of this series is depicting Dwayne Johnson's childhood or exploring his earlier life prior to him becoming a wrestler himself. It's about exploring the lives of his parents and his extended family. In a lot of ways, it's akin to Everybody Hates Chris (2005), which is the quasi-biographical comedy about the childhood of Chris Rock. There's a minor trend of TV show prequels or spin-off shows that focus on the childhood of popular adult characters. Recent examples include Young Sheldon (2017) and Mixed-ish (2019). Those shows work better because they do center on one particular age. This series is less confident in that it jumps around from one age to another. The series jumps from Johnson at age 10 and then to age 15 and then age 18. If the show planned to go to at least three seasons, then the jump from 15 to 18 felt the least necessary.

Adrian Groulx plays Dwayne Johnson at age 10 in 1982. He's an adorable little boy who lives in Hawaii with his parents. His father is Black and his mother is Hawaiian. Mostly, he's being raised with his Hawaiian heritage in the forefront, which is incredible because it does put Hawaii culture and people who are Pacific Islander in the forefront in a way that isn't so in mainstream television, unless it's in something like Hawaii Five-0 (2010), but even in a show like that, Pacific Islander people are more background than foreground. Therefore, seeing this prepubescent boy experiencing and learning about his Polynesian roots is a good thing that this series is doing. However, that's not enough to understand all of what made Johnson who he is. This series proffers that a lot of what made him is his relationship and really idolatry of his father.

There is potential there with the relationship between Dwayne and his father that could make for a great series. In the beginning or at least in the initial, three episodes, the series feels like it might be about deconstructing that childhood idolatry of one's father. Dwayne age 10 looks up to his father and thinks him to be a hero and a great man. He has this image of his father, which is up on a pedestal. Yet, that image might not be true. There is evidence that Dwayne's father is exaggerating and in fact lying about his success or his abilities. Dwayne's father's success or abilities might be an act, much in the way the matches in WWE are, but, as the first episode establishes, saying the f-word, meaning "fake," in regard to wrestling is taboo. Quickly, it becomes clear that deconstructing that idolatry isn't a goal of this series and if anything, this series is just going to be hagiography about Dwayne's father.

Joseph Lee Anderson (The 24th and Harriet) stars as Rocky Johnson, the father to Dwayne who won the World Tag Team Championship in 1983, making him the first Black champion in WWE history. Yet, the series starts in 1982 and we're watching Rocky build to that distinction, but we see him poor and struggling and not yet famous. However, Rocky is very boastful and prideful, bragging and swaggering. Obviously, this is part of the personas that people have in the WWE, but we see later that his family is poor and struggling. It's possibly a problem if his braggadocio and his pursuit of wrestling come at the expense of providing for his family. Yet, this series rather skirts that issue and just defaults to idolize Rocky.

This is problematic, given the reality of who the real Rocky Johnson was. Rocky was married three times. Dwayne's mother was actually his second wife. Rocky cheated on his first wife with Dwayne's eventual mother. This was after having two children with his first wife. So far, this series never references any of this. Dwayne has two siblings whom he never sees or knows. This might be a true reflection of Dwayne's experiences, but, for the series not to mention or reference them is to suggest that they don't exist. This series can fictionalize Rocky and make it that his real-life first-born children don't exist, but it becomes a whitewashing or again idolatry or hagiography of Rocky that this series is essentially erasing the fact that he's actually an adulterer who abandoned his two kids, or maybe he was denied access to them by his first wife. I don't know.

Bradley Constant co-stars as Dwayne Johnson age 15 in 1987, nicknamed "Dewey." He's a large teenage boy living in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The joke is that he's 15 going on 30. He looks older than he actually is. He's had a huge growth spurt. Obviously, he's very well built and athletic. He also has full facial hair. Having this large teenage boy of mixed race try to fit into a mostly, white town or small city does derive some good comedy. Having him deal with the impoverishment that his family faces also derives some good comedy and drama. There is some stuff regarding his father in this time period that has potential, but there's some whitewashing or looking the other way in who Rocky really was. Maybe that will change as the series goes on. Episode 5 suggests as much, but not enough to convince me it's still going to be hagiography.

In 1987, Rocky Johnson was arrested and charged with the rape of a girl. He was blacklisted from wrestling, which led him to alcoholism. In 2000, he was investigated for sexual misconduct and sexual assault, as well as battery and theft. These things are alleged and may not be true, but Rocky Johnson did face serious issues. Given that this series was co-created and co-written by Nahnatchka Khan, the creator of Fresh Off the Boat (2015), which is a cleaner and more whitewashed version of the childhood of Eddie Huang, this series is posed to be just as clean and whitewashed. Khan brings a lot of that same tone into this series and it's doubtful that something that's very Disney-like will deal with something such as rape, alcoholism and sexual misconduct. That's something  more for HBO than NBC, if it's not Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Uli Latukefu (Alien: Covenant and Marco Polo) plays Dwayne Johnson age 18 in 1990. He's an even larger college student, very muscular and buff, who tries to come from under his father's shadow. This part of the story might be a more interesting section of Dwayne's life to see, but it seems as if it's the part of his life that we'll see the least. This age in Dwayne's life seems here if only to make this series more like NBC's This Is Us, which is a series that was initially designed as a triptych, showing us three different ages of its characters' lives. This Is Us does its triptych in a more purposeful way. It's not as purposeful here, except that it gives actors like Latukefu a chance for more exposure and potential for a more leading role than he would get otherwise.

If nothing else, this series is one for fans of WWE. It's certainly for fans of Dwayne Johnson, but the series allows for actors to play some of the most iconic wrestlers like The Iron Sheik, played by Brett Azar (Terminator Genisys), and André the Giant, played by Matthew Willig (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and NCIS). That might be enough to satisfy some. It's not enough for me.

Rated TV-14-L.
Running Time: 30 mins.
Tuesdays at 8 PM on NBC.