Review: Tender Touches “Rock And Roll Guys”

“Rock and Roll Guys” is arguably the least exciting episode that Tender Touches has released for Season 3. That’s not to say that the event is without merit and its fair share of laughs; on the contrary, this installment of the Adult Swim series stands just fine on its own and contains the usual humor. Still, when compared to the high quality, we saw in the last few outings of this series, “Rock and Roll Guys” turns out to be a bit of a disappointment, leaving something to be desired.

This episode opens with an outrageous bit. Curtis once more attempts to successfully capture and share “beautiful celestial events” for his pink noise live stream podcast. He makes the mistake of taking his project mobile, and a homeless woman (who emerges from a garbage bin) attacks him. The out-of-her-mind vagabond attacks Curtis on the spot, interrupting his art to ask for his phone, disrupting his process, and disrespecting his equipment.

Curtis, with the help of his brother Steve (and pink noise,) accidentally stumbles on a song idea. As usual, the two stop their petty argument of the day to bond over something silly. Utilizing their keys and guitar, they begin to compose their new brainchild – “What’s That Pounding?”

Everyone piles into a taxi for a short comedic bit that comments on the nature of Uber and Lyft drivers who don’t know their boundaries or directions. They head to an awards ceremony so Curtis can accept his real estate award he’s been waiting for. For some reason, Michelle wears a rhinestone suit of chain mail? In any regard, its kind of cool looking.

Taishi, the Rock and Roll Realtor, wins the award much to Curtis’s dismay. It soon turns out that he doesn’t want to be a rock and roll realtor, and he simply wants to be a rock and roll guy. He joins Steve, Michelle, and Curtis for hangs once he ditches his real estate career, and Michelle quickly sees the potential and convinces the three of the guys to start a band. Finally, “What’s That Pounding?” is more than a mere dream!

Taishi made for an excellent addition to the group dynamic in this episode, although the lack of Charlene didn’t go unnoticed. The group didn’t visit her a single time in this episode, and as we expected, the cockroaches were one and done.

All in all, we liked the episode. It wasn’t bad by any means, but it flirts with mediocrity. While there was more than enough silly humor in the episode, the storylines within felt like they may have possibly been better utilized as sub-plots rather than a mesh of different things. The resulting product is enjoyable, but we’re certainly expecting an improvement in tomorrow’s outing.