Young Rock Episode 1 Review: 4 Ups & 3 Downs

1. There's Too Much Going On

There are four separate timelines that need to be included in a 22 minute episode, each with their own story to tell and characters to introduce. This would be quite a feat to successfully achieve in a full length movie, let alone a network sitcom--and inevitably, Young Rock ends up worse off for it.

There's no time to get invested in each story, and there's so much going on that there's not much room for meaningful character development for anybody but The Rock. 'Working the Gimmick' is the title of the episode, and was the narrative thread running throughout all the timelines. This is supposed to tie everything together and keep the focus narrowed for the viewer, but even with this plot thread to follow, the episode ends up being narratively messy. Inevitable for such a scope being told in a very short time frame.

Maybe more unique plots will come across better in this format than 'Working the Gimmick' did, but ideally, the show should explore different timelines in their own episodes, or even just two in an episode. This would let the show breathe, and maybe then the comedy could develop into something more than shoe-horned jokes between semi-autobiographical Rock stories.