Young Rock 1x07/1x08 Double Feature Recap & Review

 


Who doesn’t like a good throwback 80s/90s action adventure movie? Well that's basically what Young Rock delivers in “Johnson and Hopkins”, as future presidential candidate, The Rock, narrates the tale of how he learned the value of trust when he teamed up with his co-worker Hopkins in early 90s Miami to pull off a nearly impossible feat. The setup for the story goes that Young Rock was failing in his grades in 1991 at Miami University so his football coach insisted that he show his dedication to the school by working campus security, in the order of phone repair. Young Rock gets paired with a student named Hopkins who tells him that the phones always work and never need repaired so they are free to participate in the greatest college scam ever by watching movies during their shift before clocking out signing off on the phones working when they actually haven’t checked them. Young Rock isn’t thrilled at the idea about messing up his football career over getting caught with this, but he sees Hopkins is right and the two participate in a binge-session of great old time movies which back then wouldn’t have been so old. The two friends even have a spirited debate over which is the better action star: Schwarzenegger or Stallone? I’ll leave you to decide that one for yourself. 

 

 

Things change though when the troublemakers learn that a quality inspection is being made of the university including the phones which they never check. So this leads Young Rock and Hopkins to have to race to check all the phones before the quality inspection lady gets to them. This includes a series of high-end maneuvers with fast chases across campus paying homage to the delightfully over the top tropes of action movies. And of course the climax to their adventure is dealt with disaster as the last phone to be checked doesn’t work necessitating Young Rock to make fast work of repairing the phone while consulting with Hopkins over his walkie talkie. The drama is of course tongue-in-cheek but it makes it all the more hilarious in the end. 

 

“My Baby Only Drinks the Good Stuff”, on the other hand takes the story back to 1987 Bethlehem where the 15-year-old version of Young Rock is on a mission to fix things with his girlfriend Karen who he just recently stood up. However there's just one problem: she wants to have dinner with his parents and she thinks he is rich. Young Rock being so insecure about his lack of wealth turns to advice from his father who tells him to keep “working the gimmick even harder.” This all happens at the same time as his mother loses a major client and that brings the Johnson family into dire straits financially affecting everybody. So of course Young Rock works the gimmick as hard as he can but to no avail it doesn’t do much for him as Karen learns the truth about him and hurt by his lies ends things between them. During this time-frame in which he was stressing on how to not let Karen find out he is poor he has a run in with the football coach who he disrespects majorly partially because of his lack of respect for the game and to take out his troubles on him all the more. After his failure with Karen he takes it upon himself to fix what he can so he makes things right with the coach, and the coach seeing the character in the man Young Rock is to become offers him a spot on the team. He isn’t sure at first but hearing how far football could take him and his family he heeds his words and tells him he will be there tomorrow and thus the timeline is coming full circle in connection to his adventures at Miami University in the early 90s.

 

At this point I’m not sure how long Young Rock can go. While it is an entertaining sitcom to be sure just how many stories can be told? It seems like a few seasons might be sustainable but how long before the 15-year-old Young Rock becomes the 18-year-old Young Rock in Miami who by the way is played by a completely different actor with the two different actors being of the vastly differing ages 22 and 36 respectively. So logistics aside of where Young Rock is heading it's entertaining humor and engaging thematic storytelling is enough for now. 

 


 

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