Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Young Love’ On Max, A Follow-Up Series Based On Matthew A. Cherry’s Oscar-Winning Short ‘Hair Love’

In 2019, Matthew A. Cherry’s animated short Hair Love not only went viral, but won an Oscar. It was a heartwarming story of a dad who does his daughter’s hair, despite having no experience; we find out at the end of the film that he’s doing it because his wife, who would normally do her daughter’s hair every day, was coming back home after being in the hospital for cancer treatment. Four years later, the Young-Love family is back, and we get to see how they manage to keep that warmth going, despite life’s challenges.

YOUNG LOVE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Shots of Chicago, then a shot of a brownstone. Pictures of a girl’s drawings of her family line the wall in her room.

The Gist: Angela Young (Issa Rae) is doing the hair of her 6-year-old daughter Zuri Young Love (Brooke Conaway), like she did every day before she started cancer treatments. Angela is cancer-free and trying to get back in the routine of life, but she’s a bit rusty. She puts Zuri’s hair in twists and bows, and Zuri imagines herself on a red carpet, being called a “baby” by an entertainment reporter. She looks to her dad, Stephen Love (Scott Mescudi aka Kid Cudi) for help; he got good at dealing with Zuri’s hair while Angela was sick, and he expertly shapes some more mature-looking afro puffs for her.

It’s Angela’s first day back at the salon where she worked before she got sick, and she’s nervous. The routines that Zuri and her dad established while she was sick are hard to get used to — microwaved pancakes? — but as Stephen says, he had to “implement some shortcuts”, like soaking the dishes in the same tub where Zuri was taking a bath.

Stephen’s got a big work day, too; his producing partner Star (Tamar Braxton) has gotten him a meeting with a big hip hop star, who wants to hear the beats Stephen’s been working on. He needs the work; they live in the same building owned by Angela’s parents Russell (Harry Lennix) and Gigi (Loretta Devine), and he’s behind on rent. Russell keeps telling Stephen to get a “real” job, while Stephen and Angela both know he’s on the verge of a big break.

Zuri is counting on both of her parents to come by a school assembly where her classmates’ parents offer their skills for a silent auction. Angela begs off, but Stephen thinks he can make it work. However, when Stephen gets to the rapper’s mansion — complete with a moat and a live dragon (?) — the rapper dismisses all his beats as “trash”, and also keeps him waiting around. Stephen thinks these are the best beats he’s ever created, but Star knows this rapper wants more of a club beat, not the languid, easygoing beats Stephen has done. She tells Stephen that being a parent means that he doesn’t know what’s going on in the clubs these days.

Angela struggles at her first day back at the salon, not only with her coworkers tiptoeing around her, thinking that she’s still sick, but her styling skills are rusty. Only when an older woman comes in and is dissatisfied with how Angela styled her does Angela get some refreshing honesty from somebody.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Young Love was created by Matthew A. Cherry as a follow-up to his Oscar-winning short Hair Love. It’s vibe is similar to The Proud Family, albeit a lot calmer.

Our Take: What’s most impressive about Young Love is the layers that Cherry and his writers have built into the story of the Young-Love family. Even the show’s title itself is layered, showing millennial parenthood in all of its ups and downs just by putting together Angela’s and Stephen’s last names. But the show also deals with a family just getting back into its old routines after an extended medical crisis, which includes Angela not only getting back to work but also getting back to being Zuri’s mother and all that entails.

Cherry and company have been able to build a pretty relatable and welcome world out of that 6-minute short from four years ago. You have to remember that the only voice in that short was Rae’s, and she was mostly heard in YouTube hairstyling videos her character made. But the short managed to address gender roles and how families adjust in the face of adversity. The series continues those themes, with added characters and voices.

Another piece of the show’s puzzle that really works is the idea that these millennial parents are forging their path in their own ways. Despite Stephen struggling to gain a foothold in the music industry, he’s found enough wins to encourage him to keep going, but Angela’s boomer dad doesn’t see it that way. He also gets phone alerts when someone in his building has turned on the heat, so he may just be a thrifty grouch.

Angela’s cancer battle will still reverberate during the season, as we saw in the second episode, where she tries to run through a bucket list she made when she was sick; the list was things she wanted to do when she got better, and now that she was, she thinks she’s ignoring all of it.

What Age Group Is This For?: The show has some adult-leaning language and references that lead us to think it’s more appropriate for kids 8 and up.

Parting Shot: After trying to ride Zuri’s skateboard, Angela falls into a pile of garbage. Gigi clears everyone out and puts an oxygen mask on her daughter. Why does she have an oxygen tank? Just a part of being a loving and overprotective mother.

Sleeper Star: Brooke Conaway plays Zuri like the precocious kid she is, but not in a way that makes Zuri seem alike an adult that’s drawn like a kid.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Stephen mentions the dragon to the rapper he was seeing, the rapper says, “His name is Puff. And he’s not just a dragon, he’s a magic dragon.” Stephen says, “I love that song.” The reference to “Puff The Magic Dragon” is certainly not a millennial-centric one. However, we can assume that Stephen’s musical knowledge is pretty extensive, which explains how he knows a 60 year old Peter, Paul and Mary song.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Young Love is funny and heartwarming, and it doesn’t try to do more than show a young family trying their best to build their lives together, despite setbacks.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.