Rooster Season 1 ☆☆☆☆ 1/2

Starring: Steve Carell, Charly Clive, Phil Dunster, Danielle Deadwyler, John C. McGinley, Annie Mumolo and Connie Britton

Created by: Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses

s one of our generation’s most celebrated TV creators, Bill Lawrence has a very specific kind of talent. From smash hits like Shrinking, Ted Lasso and Scrubs, as well as my childhood favourite, Spin City, the screenwriter knows how to make you laugh, then hit you with something a little too real. With his latest series, Rooster, Lawrence meticulously turns that instinct toward something even more personal: the uneasy space between a father and his adult daughter who both want the same thing, but keep reaching for it in completely different ways.

The 10-episode HBO series reveals some of that tension in a deceptively small moment early on and quietly steers us into what becomes a smart, charming, laugh-inducing hangout comedy. Steve Carell’s Greg Russo shows up on the campus of Ludlow College expecting to coast on his charm. After all, he is a best-selling author of a pulpy book series about a character named Rooster, the kind of guy Greg clearly wishes he could be more like. But as he sits in on a class and listens to students question the way he writes women, you can see the moment when he realises charm isn’t going to carry him through this one. It’s a quiet scene, almost restrained, but it sets the tone for the show’s first six episodes provided for review. Even this early, Rooster already feels like one of the year’s best new comedies for an easy, seamless binge that’s hard not to love and sneaks in emotional landmines when you least expect it.

While it might feel like something out of Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield, Rooster’s setup quickly turns into something looser and funnier as Greg shows up at the liberal arts college expecting a quick guest speaker visit but winds up getting pulled into its academia. Suddenly, he’s not just passing through his daughter Katie’s (Charly Clive) life; he’s living in it. That shift matters, especially as what starts as a quick stop to support her during a personal crisis slowly becomes far more complicated. Katie’s marriage to fellow professor Archie (Phil Dunster) hasn’t just ended, it’s become a painful and very public display across campus. Because the claustrophobic college town is as small and insulated as it is, there’s no way to escape the fallout or “the other woman,” who just so happens to be a grad student named Sunny (Lauren Tsai).

Rooster never treats the breakup like a plot twist to get past, but rather an emotional aftershock that ripples through Greg and Katie’s respective lives. Of course, Greg is also navigating his own identity crisis in real time. Still raw about his divorce from Katie’s mom, Beth (Connie Britton), teaching sounds pretty simple and yet it isn’t. While Greg builds a camaraderie with a few students who nickname him “Rooster”, he also falls into some unfortunate (but hilarious) mishaps with others. At the same time, Ludlow’s president, Walt’s (John C. McGinley), bizarrely intimate “hot house” sessions force faculty to air grievances and insecurities in front of each other, turning private tension into a safe space while sweating the anxieties off. While there is also an endearing, bumbling local cop (Rory Scovel) hovering around the edges of chaos and adding to the hilarity in every scene he has with Greg, the “Rooster” also finds himself in the midst of a push-pull energy with the charming and smart Dylan (Danielle Deadwyler). This professor doesn’t exactly buy his schtick so easily and often clocks him, adding to some heightened humour and a flirty energy even if neither of them wants to admit it.

While Carell is the obvious anchor, what’s really fun is how specific his performance is. Outside guest roles in The Four Seasons or The Morning Show, this is his first true TV lead in a while. Audiences might be quick to pin him to the lovable Michael Scott from The Office, but there is never an ounce of it seen here. Instead, Carell brings a familiar strength without copying anything he’s done before, which gives the show its spine. He plays Greg as lonely and occasionally holding back in conversations with his ex-wife Beth, Dylan, or even his new student (later friend and roommate) Tommy (Maximo Salas) but never in a way that drags the tone down. Instead, you feel his insecurity and the way he tries to be the funniest person in the room while also being the most wounded. It’s that push-pull that gives the character texture, and it makes even the smallest reactions land.

Balancing Carell most impressively is Clive as the kind of scene partner that makes everything around her sharper. Best known for the sci-fi series The Lazarus Project and coming off mostly UK TV, Clive plays Katie’s feelings like it’s something she’s careful not to spill. It’s that restraint that gives Rooster its simmer and it pairs perfectly with her sharp timing. Dunster is also a huge part of why the relationship at the center works so well, because he never goes broad. Even when the audience should be mad at him for running off with a very smart and level-headed grad student, Dunster plays Archie with a strong human thread, cleverly pivoting from what people expect after Ted Lasso. Showing a different kind of charm, one that’s more polished and a little more brittle, the pair together never play their dynamic like a sitcom but closer to a sincere dramedy.

Deadwyler is a genuine surprise in the best way. She brings a grounded intensity that makes the comedy land even harder, mostly because she plays Dylan so realistically. Her delivery is dry, her reactions surgical and she knows how to underplay a beat so it’s funnier. She also gives her scenes with Carell a low-key charge without ever turning Dylan and Greg’s dynamic into a gimmick. McGinley, who is best known for his matter-of-fact persona in Scrubs, inhabits Walt with a blunt, deadpan certainty only he can pull off. He’s direct, but also incredibly sincere. As someone who’s almost like the Greek chorus lending an ear (or even his heart) to others like Dylan or Sunny, he makes even the most uncomfortable moments feel like a performance piece.

If there’s one thing that Rooster does well, it’s in how the writing hits very specific Bill Lawrence rhythms. The 30-minute sitcom never leans too hard into one specific vibe. Instead, it sprinkles humour into the most everyday things, like Greg stepping into a classroom like he owns the place, but then tumbling downhill in a moment straight out of the Marx Brothers’ slapstick book. Those little nuances make scenes like Katie climbing up a tree to watch her ex-Archie even funnier. Even when the beats are big and chaos-leaning, however, the writing holds on to these expressions and lets the embarrassment do half the work.

Lawrence and co-writer Matt Tarses also have a great handle on Greg’s generational awkwardness, but what really keeps Rooster from feeling like just set pieces is the constant thread of emotional messiness through laughs, like with Katie and Archie. Their relationship is messy (and gets even messier throughout the season), but the scripts let that history dangle with anger and attachment rather than making it the focus. That being said, the show’s biggest writing knockout is the enigma that is Walt’s secretary Crissle (Annie Mumolo), who steals scenes with blunt one-liners and delivery, only for the series to quietly fold her into a larger web. Her storyline is genuinely funny on its own, but it also feels like Rooster is planting seeds in a way that makes Ludlow’s world feel even more connected.

Rooster’s successful balancing act between big laughs, small emotional landmines and relationships is exactly why Lawrence comedies hit the way they do. Earning so much of its laughter and heart through the time you spend on campus with these characters, the HBO series never just relies on its charm and one-liners. As a show that keeps getting better as it goes and an ensemble that is nailing every scene, Rooster belongs at the top of your must-watch list this season.

– Courtesy: Collider.com