TV review
There’s something fitting about how “Rooster” — a comedy about an author, most known for writing formulaic airport thriller novels, returning to college — quickly settles into its own familiar rhythms. While the series playfully pokes fun at said novels, it’s more like them than it’s different.
It’s a comedic comfort show that itself plays like the TV equivalent of a beach read: sturdy, often silly, yet still most defined by how it plays it safe. You get to know the characters, led by Steve Carell, by a small smattering of defining traits; see them go through charming yet contrived conflicts; and then experience a surprise twist to close out each chapter for good measure. And yet, even as you see the patterns, it’s all perfectly good fun.
While this could sound like damning with faint praise, making a comfort show like this is still no easy feat. You have to make what is repetitive by design also feel unexpected. Thankfully, co-showrunner Bill Lawrence (known for a host of feel-good shows such as “Shrinking” and “Ted Lasso“) has done this many times over and does so again here. While not particularly ambitious, “Rooster” still elicits plenty of earned chuckles, not by reinventing the wheel or taking big leaps, but by confidently playing it safe.
This all centers on Carell’s well-meaning yet woefully out-of-touch patriarch Greg, who is awkwardly trying to connect with his daughter (Charly Clive) at the college where she works. As he gets to know some of the other professors, the highlight being the always dynamic Danielle Deadwyler, and continually struggles to get the overbearing university president (a wonderful John C. McGinley) off his back, he’ll soon find that he’s becoming a part of this campus community. This makes it a mostly sweet comedy that stops just short of being too saccharine. It even occasionally brings more pointed jokes that make you sit up a bit, from cheating via artificial intelligence to the state of modern education.
Even as shenanigans ensue and plenty of relationships are upended, there is always a sense that everything will be mostly just fine in “Rooster.” In each half-hour episode, you’re almost guaranteed to have a punchy little comedic interaction when a class comes to a close, followed by a needle drop to carry us into the next scene. It all runs like clockwork, bringing just enough mirthful and slightly madcap energy to give the more mechanical narrative beats some comedic bite.
In the moments when it starts to drag, the uniformly strong cast can be counted on to elevate the material. You still see nearly every development coming from a mile away, but Carell, in particular, is stellar, delivering even the most brief of comedic asides with the right timing and cadence.
This will be unsurprising to anyone who’s ever watched him when he was the chaotic boss from hell in “The Office,” where he made comedy gold out of maddeningly mundane workplace tedium. However, in “Rooster,” he stretches his wings a bit and plays a flawed yet sincere straight man — like his character from the film “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” though with more self-respect.
Even when the show throws in some stiff jokes about kids not being (insert generic upstanding trait here) these days, Carell’s self-effacing performance ensures it’s cheeky and playful rather than patronizing. You often wish some of the supporting cast (such as the riot that is Robby Hoffman) were given more to do, but the show’s center remains rock solid.
The majority of students at this college may be in danger of failing, but Carell and company give them the boost they need to make a show that may just be your new favorite comfort watch.