Four Things to Expect From Mark Wahlberg’s HBO Show with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

Photo via Pain & Gain/Facebook

Yesterday, Vulture reported that HBO is developing a pilot starring and executive-produced by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson (remember professional wrestling?), which will follow active and retired athletes living in Miami. Although HBO didn’t specify when the show is expected to premiere, they revealed that the dramedy will be a half-hour long, and—get this—also executive-produced by Mark Wahlberg. While Vulture joked that the show is presumed to consist of a lot of “reciting quips and flexing” (truth), there are several other things that viewers should expect from a show brought to you by the guys who starred in Pain & Gain.

1. Dads are going to love it. If there is one person I associate with The Rock other than Hulk Hogan, it is Bruce Willis. Why? Not only does it feel like they’ve been in every movie together, but also they are both really good at getting cast in high-budget, mediocre action movies that appeal to nobody…except all the dads in America. Dads love car chases and explosions and everything that epitomizes Die Hard, which means a show on HBO starring The Rock is right up their alley.

2. Shaq will undoubtedly guest star. What’s a show about “active and retired athletes living in Miami” without a Shaq appearance? My guess is that they’ll use the irony card, and O’Neal will play an obscure secondary character, a snack-bar employee perhaps, who has nothing to do with sports at all and is too uncoordinated to function. Or maybe the bat-boy. Or the middle-aged, bitter aspiring athlete with no talent who still never quits. Either way, Shaq will be there, and everybody’s going to wonder why. Except the Dads.

3. Bobby Wahlberg will be an extra. If Shaq doesn’t play the obscure snack-bar employee, I’ll place bets that Marky-Mark’s older brother and actor Bobby Wahlberg most definitely will. Poor Bobby has been living in Mark’s shadow from the get-go with small supporting roles—from the “Interrogating Officer” in Gone Baby Gone to “Lazio – FBI” in The Departed.

4. In all seriousness, this show could be a breakthrough for television. It’s about time the world of television considers the dramedy as not just a silly portmanteau created by Tumblr users, but also as a genre of television that many of our favorites fall into. There are plenty of great series out there that can benefit from a dramedy category at the Emmys, including Glee, The Big C, and Girls. Maybe, for the very first time in history, comedies will not be jumbled into the same category as musicals. Because that makes sense to nobody. 

Will Marky Mark and The Rock’s untitled show become a breakthrough for all dramedies? Will it move mountains and become the most riveting series since How I Met Your Mother? Will The Rock become HBO’s next TV prodigy, right up there next to Chris Lilley, and Lena Dunham’s nakedness? It’s much too soon to tell in these beginning stages, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted.