Steve Carell is back, and if the first six episodes of Rooster are any indication, he’s never been better.
Created by the genius behind Scrubs and Ted Lasso, Bill Lawrence, alongside his long-time producing partner Matt Tarses, Rooster is the kind of warm, wickedly funny, and surprisingly moving television that comes along once in a blue moon. It’s the show you’ll start on a Friday night and still be thinking about on Monday morning.
Carell plays Greg Russo, a wildly successful author of breezy beach-read thrillers whose fictional hero, a buff, suave detective, goes by the nickname “Rooster” , a name that couldn’t be further from Greg’s own bumbling, endearingly awkward reality. When his daughter Katie (the absolutely luminous Charly Clive) hits rock bottom after her husband Archie (Phil Dunster, perfectly cast) runs off with a younger grad student, Greg swoops in to help. One chaotic series of events later, he’s been blackmailed into teaching at the very college where his daughter works, his celebrated ex-wife (a sharp and funny Connie Britton) is something of a campus deity, and Greg is, very much, a fish out of water.
What makes it sing is what Lawrence and Tarses do with that premise. This isn’t another “middle-aged man trying to reclaim his youth” story. It’s something much richer and more honest than that.
An Acting Masterclass
If you need a reason to tune in, here it is: the ensemble cast is one of the best assembled for a comedy in years.
Carell is magnificent. Greg Russo sits comfortably in the lineage of his most beloved characters – the social awkwardness of Michael Scott, the well-meaning desperation of Andy Stitzer – but he’s a more fully realised, self-aware version of that archetype. Carell finds real poignancy in Greg’s uncertainty about what comes next, and delivers it with a light touch that makes you root for him from the very first scene.
Danielle Deadwyler, best known for her powerhouse dramatic work, reveals impeccable comedic instincts as Dylan, Greg’s sharp-witted colleague and slowly simmering love interest. And John C. McGinley, reuniting with Lawrence after Scrubs, is an absolute scene-stealer as the eccentric college president Howard Mann. Whether he’s running shirtless across campus or holding court in his at-home sauna, every McGinley moment is gold.
Laugh-Out-Loud Funny
Don’t be fooled by the emotional depth; Rooster is genuinely, frequently hilarious. The slapstick is a surprise gift: Greg burning down Archie’s house, getting hauled before the school’s disciplinary committee on repeat, a pair of inappropriate shoes leading to a chain of mortifying consequences… It’s borderline farcical at times, and it works brilliantly as a counterweight to the show’s warmer, more heartfelt moments.
The dialogue is sharp and fast, the pacing is crisp, and the writing has the confident ease of a creative team that’s been doing this at the highest level for decades.
The Heart of It All
At its core, Rooster is a father-daughter story. The relationship between Greg and Katie is the beating heart of the whole show, and Carell and Clive have an instantly believable, beautifully played chemistry. Katie is falling apart and fiercely pretending she isn’t; Greg is desperate to help and equally desperate to appear as though he isn’t hovering. It’s real, it’s funny, and in its quieter moments, it’s genuinely touching.
The Verdict
Rooster is elevated in ambition and broad in appeal, a combination that’s rarer than it should be. It’s Ted Lasso for the HBO set, with the humour of Shrinking: warm but biting, silly but smart, comforting but never lazy. Bill Lawrence has done it again, and with Carell at the helm, Rooster may just be his finest hour yet.
Rooster is now streaming on HBO Max with new episodes on Mondays.
