One can never have enough comedies telling positive stories about people who like each other doing their best in life. Rooster continues in the vein of shows like Shrinking and Ted Lasso to satisfy that need, situating a likable ensemble in a cozy setting where, however flawed the people may be, they’re afforded an opportunity to figure their shit out with the people that matter most to them.
Rooster stars the incomparable Steve Carell as Greg Russo, a successful author of airport mysteries, who arrives at the New England campus of Ludlow University — ostensibly on hand to deliver a talk, but secretly to check on his daughter Katie (Charly Clive), an art professor. Katie is still reeling from a very public scandal: her pompous husband Archie (Phil Dunster) has left her after having an affair with his bright graduate student Sunny (Lauren Tsai). A man of a certain age with a few rough edges, Greg isn’t a natural fit at a liberal arts college where his every offhand utterance is just offensive enough to blow up in his face. Nonetheless, when Greg is unexpectedly offered a writer-in-residence position, he finds his rhythm at Ludlow — befriending colleagues, mentoring students, and exploring romantic options. Unfortunately, what Greg needs and what Katie wants aren’t always aligned, leading to friction between them as they try to figure out their lives and their relationship.
The familiarity of Rooster’s uplifting vibe is a feature, not a bug, as it quickly establishes itself as low-stress, high-laugh sitcom that, while predictably comforting, also has substantive themes backing its shenanigans. Carell may be one of the most gifted comic actors of our time, and he is perfectly deployed here, but as usual in this kind of show it’s a team effort; Clive, Dunster, Tsai, Connie Britton, Danielle Deadwyler, Robby Hoffman, Madison Hu, John C. McGinley, Annie Mumolo, Maximo Salas, and Rory Scovel all quickly develop terrific ensemble chemistry. An effortlessly watched show, impossible not to like.
