Young Rock has a Dwayne Johnson problem: He’s the worst thing about his very good show

Paste Magazine

The NBC comedy featuring three younger versions of Johnson is a very likable. But Young Rock has a big flaw in Johnson, who bookends each episode with scenes of him running for president in 2032. "Nothing works with these presidential campaign scenes, the entire concept of which is just fundamentally flawed," says Garrett Martin. "The Rock has discussed his potential political ambitions for years, but framing the show as part of a presidential race unnecessarily brings up something that almost everybody is sick of thinking about, which is a goddamned presidential election. We just got through one of the most obnoxious, mentally and spiritually draining elections of our lifetimes; nobody’s in the mood to hear about another one, even if it’s complete fiction and a decade away. This framing device also makes The Rock look a little too arrogant. Arrogance is a huge part of The Rock persona, of course, but it’s always been counterbalanced by his charm, sense of humor, and the fact that he seems genuinely decent off camera. Young Rock marks the first time outside the world of wrestling that a Dwayne Johnson character has seemed too full of himself, and unfortunately that character is supposed to actually be Johnson. Young Rock is already a vanity project; there’s no need to intensify that by starting every episode with Old Rock running for president, and acting like the aisle-crossing, party-uniting savior of American politics. It’s not just The Rock who comes off poorly in these scenes. They’re so hamfisted and poorly written that they make every actor who appears in them look bad." Martin adds: "If you’re watching a network sitcom called Young Rock, odds are that you like The Rock. Hell, if you’re a human being who’s been alive in the last 20 years, odds are that you like The Rock, or at least did at some point. And the show has done a fine job of making its young Rocks likable, even when they’re petty or immature. The real Rock comes off as weirdly un-Rock-like, though. The sitcom that assumes everybody loves The Rock has made Dwayne Johnson himself more unlikable than anything else he’s done since becoming the biggest box office star in the world. And that’s probably not something you want to do if you’re serious about one day running for president—or even just want people to watch your sitcom."