I am not a humor fan. Not just on here at THiNC. – but really in general, ever. I hear many of you talking about shows you’ve loved back in the day like, oh I don’t know Friends, The Office, … you know, massive comedy cultural phenomena, yeah, I just never have gotten into these shows. But lately, in the last several years… I’ve fallen in love with shows like Ted Lasso and the like. Shows with heart, but that are simultaneously hilarious. Shrinking. Platonic.
Well, now, Bill Lawrence, the guy who sort of established these messy comedies (w/ Scrubs, Ted Lasso, Shrinking) then Rooster is exactly what you’ve been waiting for. Now streaming on HBO Max, this ten-episode comedy is the latest entry in what critics have lovingly started calling Lawrence’s “Likable White Guy Failing Upward” trilogy, and honestly? The label fits, and so does the show.
Rooster follows Greg Russo (Steve Carell), the divorced novelist behind a popular series of airport-bookstore thrillers — all centered on a confident, self-assured hero named Rooster. Greg takes a writer-in-residence job at Ludlow, a cozy New England liberal arts college where his daughter Katie (Charly Clive) teaches art history. He never went to college himself, so he sets about getting to grips with the experience, his job, and most importantly, trying to bond with and support Katie, who’s reeling from her own relationship troubles.
Let’s start with the obvious: Steve Carell is one of the most gifted comedic performers alive, and this role was practically engineered for him. Carell is an actor who knows exactly how to wrap cringiness and warm humanity into the same performance — giving him this role is the equivalent of asking LeBron James to make an easy lay-up. Greg is a man who has spent his whole career writing a version of himself he wishes he could be, only to show up on a college campus and realize he doesn’t know who the real version is. It’s rich territory, and Carell mines every inch of it.
The supporting cast surrounding him is equally stacked. In addition to Carell and Clive, the series features Danielle Deadwyler as Dylan, a poetry professor, along with Phil Dunster, John C. McGinley, Scott MacArthur, and Connie Britton. Phil Dunster — moving beyond his Ted Lasso role as Jamie Tartt — shines as the egotistical husband Archie, a role that could easily be a one-note villain, but Dunster adds depth and charm, successfully walking the line where the character is more likable than you’d probably want from the guy who cheated on Katie. McGinley, meanwhile, brings the kind of eccentric authority figure energy that makes every scene he’s in feel a little unpredictable in the best possible way.
What Lawrence and co-showrunner Matt Tarses (a longtime Scrubs collaborator) do better than almost anyone in television is find the loneliness underneath the comedy. Rooster is an easy watch rooted in positivity, but just beneath the surface is a surprisingly poignant thread of loneliness that grounds it. Greg is not just a father checking on his daughter — he carries with him the pain of isolation, a feeling he experienced even through a long marriage that had left him feeling profoundly alone. The fact that Katie is struggling gives Greg the perfect excuse to break out of his routine, but the show understands that he needs this as much as she does.
The show strikes a perfect balance: grounded enough to ring true, escapist enough to uplift. Lawrence’s dialogue is witty and stuffed with heart. It feels like reuniting with an old friend — comfort viewing that’s easy to consume and keeps you wanting more. If you gravitated toward the emotional warmth of Shrinking or the relentless optimism of Ted Lasso, the DNA is absolutely present here.
There’s also a refreshingly honest undercurrent about what it feels like to be a middle-aged man stepping into a world built for people twenty years younger. The protagonist of Greg’s novels, Rooster, is confident, self-assured, and sexy — three qualities that Greg finds himself acutely lacking. But as one of his students reminds him, “This is college. You get to reinvent yourself here. Just decide whoever you want to be, and you be that shit.” That line could be the mission statement for the entire series.
Fair warning: not every critic is fully on board. Some feel the show hasn’t quite found its center of gravity yet, and there are legitimate arguments that the campus setting is more backdrop than texture. But even the skeptics concede that Carell’s presence elevates everything around him, and the ensemble is too good to dismiss.
For viewers who don’t need their comedy to be edgy or subversive — who just want something that makes them laugh while quietly sneaking up on their emotions — Rooster is exactly that show. Funny and touching, it explores themes of finding yourself after loss at different stages in life, and if you just need a reminder that there is joy to be found after heartbreak, this might hit the spot.
