Pressing play on recent Bill Lawrence projects guarantees a main character experiencing a midlife crisis and their heartfelt/hilarious attempts to start fresh. You can’t really begrudge him for finding a narrative lane that is universally relatable. J.D. (Zach Braff) and Turk (Donald Faison) reckon with modern medicine on familiar turf in the Scrubs revival. In Bad Monkey, Vince Vaughn’s PI feels lost without his police badge and hopes solving a big case will fix the problem. Lawrence skillfully navigates similar themes without the work getting too repetitive. However, his latest offering does raise comparisons in tone and purpose to Ted Lasso and Shrinking. HBO’s Rooster, which he co-created with frequent collaborator Matt Tarses, has all the ingredients familiar to fans of both dramedies. It’s comforting, as well as a detriment, as we’ve kind of seen this before. But it’s not like Rooster doesn’t have promise.
“Release The Brown Fat” has the pitfalls of a premiere whose job is to establish the show’s world and those who populate it instead of presenting a cohesive, confident story. It’s an exposition-heavy setup for Steve Carell’s sweet but stuck-in-life Greg Russo, whose path to a new beginning comes by the way of a job offer, a hot poetry professor, and a house fire. Much like Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis), Greg needs a career pivot—even though he won’t necessarily admit it—because he seems to think the best he can do is write the beach read murder mysteries that made him popular. And like Shrinking‘s Jimmy (Jason Segel), he’s desperate to reconnect with his daughter—in Greg’s case, Katie (Charly Clive), who teaches art at the liberal Ludlow College. He gets a one-shot solution because, when he’s invited to be a guest speaker there, he’s also asked to be Ludlow’s writer-in-residence. He refuses the gig at first, but by the end of episode one, circumstances will likely make him change his mind.
Plus, Greg makes quite an impression on the teachers and students in merely 24 hours of being on campus. He immediately impresses Ludlow’s buffed-up president, Walter Mann (John C. McGinley), because of how he dealt with the student who was questioning his material. (“Why do you hate women?” someone asks Greg, while noting how many times his lead—whom the show is named after—has sex. And yes, Rooster does feel like a self-insert, considering the author’s last name is Russo and that the book’s love interest is inspired by Greg’s ex-wife.) Greg later bonds with Professor Dylan Shepherd (Danielle Deadwyler), who invited him to speak to her class, over tequila and warm nuts at the bar. He opens up about the difficulty of moving on from his divorce and feeling inadequate in most avenues of his life. So when she propositions him at the end of the night, Greg awkwardly refuses. Twice. (“Do you know how old I am?” “It’s your lucky day, grandpa.”) Watching the unexpectedly endearing duo of Carell and Deadwyler engage in embarrassing, delightful, flirtatious banter is a great sign of what Rooster can do with its talented stars.
Of course, the crux here is the father-daughter dynamic, which is also central to Shrinking. In his interview with The A.V. Club in 2024, Lawrence said he loves writing about parent-child relationships because “it’s what I know best.” In this case, Greg and Katie aren’t estranged or anything. In fact, they’re more similar than she would like. Katie’s husband, who teaches Russian studies at Ludlow, left her to fuck a grad student. Greg’s apparently far more accomplished ex-wife also cheated on him years ago. So, Greg and Katie both seem unmoored in life. He desperately wants to be there for her, and she reluctantly realizes she needs his support. Without it, she might just continue to stalk Archie (Phil Dunster) and Sunny (Lauren Tsai) by climbing up trees and hiding in bushes.
Unfortunately for her, though, Greg decides to confront Archie himself first. During the conversation, Archie quite quickly realizes how badly he’s “cocked up” his marriage and decides to win Katie over. As pissed as she is at her dad, Katie goes to talk to Archie the next morning. She does the expected amount of yelling in the vein of “I could murder you” before ultimately relenting that she does see a path forward between them. The timing couldn’t be worse because Archie drops an awful truth bomb on her. He’s just found out that his fling is about to turn into something very real because Sunny is pregnant. Whoops. Her desire for revenge leads to her burning up not just his War And Peace first edition but also his entire home (which looks more like fancy university housing). Something tells me that Greg, who pretends to be her alibi for a hot second before she admits the truth, is going to want to stick around for his kid so that Rooster can take off.
Stray observations
- • Greg has already made an enemy out of the cop (played by Rory Scovel) investigating the fire because he was also caught buying beer for a student. In his defence, he was tricked by flattery into making the purchase, okay?
- • John C. McGinley feels like an odd fit in the Rooster world right now. He’s obviously the comic relief and the only one with one-liners, but something just feels off.
- • Greg’s revelations about his marriage include that his ex, Elizabeth, is a famous Ludlow alum as well.
- • Annie Mumolo makes a brief appearance as President Walter’s secretary, Cristle. Other actors set to pop in during season one include Connie Britton, Alan Ruck, Scott MacArthur, and Robby Hoffman.
- • Nothing creeped me out more than Archie sending Sunny off on her bike by saying, “Big push for big girl.” Katie, you do not need to go back to this man.
- • “Nobody makes these kids feel bad anymore.”
- • “Liberal-arts colleges used to be safe havens for free thought, Greg. When did you and I become the bad guys?”
Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic.
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