Rooster Review: Steve Carell's HBO Comedy Is a Charming Work in Progress

As Rooster opens, Greg Russo (Steve Carell) has no plans to start over, having only reluctantly left behind his life as a divorced Florida author for a one-time-only speaking gig at Ludlow College, a seemingly idyllic East Coast school with which Greg and his family have a history. The appearance will allow Greg to check in on his daughter, Katie (Charly Clive), an art history lecturer who's recently, and unexpectedly, split with her Russian studies prof husband Archie (Phil Dunster) after Archie started a relationship with Sunny (Lauren Tsai), a reserved grad student. Katie loves her father but doesn't really want him to stay. Which should work out fine since Greg has no plans to stay. But plans have a way of unraveling.

A new comedy co-created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses, Rooster was partly inspired by the friendship the pair formed with author Carl Hiaasen while adapting his novel Bad Monkey, though Greg's output seems to be a little less ambitious than that of the author who inspired him. "I write books that you're supposed to read at the beach," he tells Dylan (Danielle Deadwyler), a poet and professor of literature who takes a quick liking to him. "The characters you like have sex, the ones that you don't get shot in the face." That puts him out of step with the tastes of some of the students attending his lecture, particularly one who cheerily asks him why he hates women, then challenges his denial with a string of further questions. Ludlow, it would seem, is not the place for him.

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That may sound like the setup for a comedy poking fun at the excesses of Wokeness, but that's not really what Rooster's about. When the show does dip a toe into sensitive campus issues, it's usually the older generation with outmoded views who end up getting burned — but only mildly. Like other Lawrence-shepherded shows, Rooster doesn't have much interest in satirical barbs or sharp edges. It's more concerned with exploring how complicated, often difficult people who care about one another navigate sticky situations. Wherever they begin, the comedies Lawrence produces, like, to choose two recent examples, Ted Lasso and Shrinking, tend to become hangout shows about characters who form loving, functional extended families (even if they're arguably way too involved in one another's lives).

8.4

Rooster

at HBO

Like

• Strong writing
• A first-rate cast
• The familiar vibe of shows from the same team

Dislike

• Sometimes still plays like a work in progress

What sets Rooster apart, at least for now, are the many obstacles it's placed in the way of its characters reaching such an arrangement. Katie's in a sticky situation, one further complicated by the fact that she and Archie obviously still have feelings for one another. That doesn't, however, stop Katie from burning down Archie's house (mostly by accident), a development that compels Greg to capitulate to the wishes of Ludlow's eccentric president, Walter (John C. McGinley, making the meal of a chance to play a guy who thinks he's figured out all of life's mysteries). Walter's long wanted Greg to serve as a writer-in-residence and uses the crisis to force the issue. In short order, Greg is having uncomfortable conversations with Katie and Archie — and dealing with the consequences of rebuffing the advances Dylan made when both thought they would be two ships passing in the night.

Lawrence and Tarses (who worked with Lawrence on Scrubs prior to Bad Monkey) have created a scenario in which good intentions don't always prevent characters from hurting one another. Archie can't really explain why he strayed. Katie can't help herself from wanting him back and acting on her impulses. There aren't really any villains at Ludlow College (though Alan Ruck's funny pop-ins as a determinedly regressive chainsmoking dean almost give the show one), but that doesn't mean its students and faculty can't do each other harm.

Rooster seems to be still finding its feet at times in the six episodes of the ten-episode first season provided to critics, perhaps in part because of its intentionally chaotic premise. But that's also partly because of the generosity of spirit at the heart of the show and a willingness to give the cast room to emphasize their characters' humanity. Another series, for instance, might have made Sunny into a stereotypical homewrecker and confined her to the margins. Tsai plays her as a soulful, confused woman with a dry wit often delivered in near-whispers. By the end of the sixth episode she's embarked on one of the series' more compelling arcs. Similarly, Walter's assistant Cristle (pronounced, for reasons explained later, "Crissle," and played by Annie Mumolo) feels at first like a one-dimensional supporting character but develops into a more complex, and funnier, creation over the course of the series. The show sometimes feels messy, but appropriately so. It's about messy lives.

At the heart of the mess is Greg's relationship with Katie, a loving but fractious dynamic defined in part by Greg's divorce from Katie's mother (played in later episodes by Connie Britton), a development that's effectively destroyed his desire to experience life apart from the adventures he lives on the page. Carell and Clive are quite good together, giving their scenes a lived-in quality that suggests years of history, not all of it easy. Clive is likely a new face to American viewers, and her sharp comedic skills make her a discovery. Carell is, of course, more familiar, and unsurprisingly strong, which helps make Rooster feel anchored even when it requires him to play the buffoon and the sensitive dad in the course of one episode. In some ways the show's central character remains its least defined beyond mopey midlife ennui and unformed desire to move on, but Carell's presence suggests the blanks will eventually be filled in.

For now, however, Greg's lack of definition contributes to a sense that Rooster is a show still figuring itself out, and one that's not yet found a way to plumb the emotional depths of Shrinking or Ted Lasso, despite their shared DNA. Even so, it's already become a charming comedy filled with the warmth and clever banter of past Lawrence productions and ambitions to explore some thematic territory all its own, as both Greg and Katie attempt to deal with changes they never saw coming and struggle with unreconciled feelings for partners who've left them behind without disappearing from their lives. They might be teachers, but they're not done learning.

Premieres: The first episode debuts Sunday, March 8 at 10/9c on HBO and HBO Max, with subsequent episodes airing weekly
Who's in it: Steve Carell, Danielle Deadwyler, Charly Clive
Who's behind it: Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses
For fans of: Winning ensemble comedies
How many episodes we watched: 6 of 10