There’s a good chance that these Rooster recaps are getting repetitive. But that’s because the season seems to be spinning in circles as it approaches its end. Eight episodes in, the HBO comedy is in kind of a limbo. In its early outings, Rooster‘s biggest challenge was setting up Greg Russo’s pivot from, as he puts it, a “banter-driven mystery-action author” to a writer-in-residence at a liberal-arts college. As it turns out, he’s a natural at it, which gave the show a pleasant middle patch to establish the rest of its protagonists. Now that Greg’s semester-long commitment is about to wrap up, though, the show feels stuck.
Yes, it’s fun to hang out with this cast (even if their chemistry ebbs and flows), but not all the characters. Rooster needlessly reminding us that Walt loves his hot sauna/cold plunge combo has gone from a funny sight gag to a groan-worthy re-occurrence in every freaking installment. (The same can be said of the two female students who keep fawning over Archie.) In this week’s half-hour, too, Walt’s decked in a sauna-specific vest Sunny gifted him, and she adds that it “makes his guns look good.” What we need a reminder of is that Walt is college president and Sunny is his pregnant mentee and a grad student. I’m not saying we can’t abandon logic to buy into unexpected friendships. Shrinking and Ted Lasso constantly demand this of us, too, but it comes with believable, heartfelt character development that Rooster hasn’t afforded either of them yet. They’re both too one-note. Tommy has gotten a more fleshed-out arc than Archie’s baby mama.
Speaking of Sunny, she is perhaps the show’s biggest question mark. It’s understandable that a smart, young woman like her is torn between accepting a prestigious job in the Big Apple or staying in New England to raise a baby. Can she have it all? Her arc would make for an interesting show in and of itself, but buried under many subplots, Sunny’s story ends up as a punchline that’s not really funny at all. Lauren Tsai does the best she can with the material, but Rooster had better give Sunny the complexity that she deserves. It’s particularly jarring because in “Nobody Spook It,” she confesses to Archie that Biotecha offered her a position, but she’s refusing it because he won’t be in New York City with her. There’s zero conversation about doing long distance, and he doesn’t bother to say that he’d move for her. (Yes, I know he’s tenured.) Sunny gives up on her dream job, swayed after seeing him read a parenting book—and that’s after listening to him drone on earlier in the day about how he thinks parenting is actually instinctual and that Sunny’s hormones are taking over her.
It’s hard to take Rooster seriously because why in the world would Sunny choose to be with him? Shouldn’t she know that even though he recently spent Thanksgiving with her family, he doesn’t seem to be that into her? Also, he slept with Katie. Katie herself spends “Nobody Spook It” in a funk. She’s been mourning her torpedoed marriage, realizing that Archie has chosen to be with Sunny (likely because of the baby). She’s been in a sadness spiral to the extent that when she confronts Archie outside their favorite coffee shop, she can’t stop crying. I’ll say it again: It’s hard to take Rooster seriously because why in the world would Katie want to be with this guy anyway? Please let this be the final time we see her cry over a doomed relationship.
Katie does take a big step at the end of episode eight when she confesses to Greg that she’s been hooking up with her estranged husband, who has once again left her to cope all alone. We don’t hear the conversation, but Katie is inspired by Tommy telling her that she’s lucky to have a dad who cares so much about her. She’s the reason he’s at Ludlow in the first place. So after avoiding the truth and lying to her father about who she’s been sleeping with, Katie musters up the courage to be honest, despite fearing his reaction. And Rooster strangely doesn’t let us listen in. Knowing Greg, he’ll be as supportive as possible. After all, the whole purpose of “Nobody Spook It” is to reemphasize what a Nice Guy he is.
First, he reunites with Cristle, who’s back after Thanksgiving and her emotional breakdown. She lays down the law now that they’ve broken up. Greg can’t wear crotch-defining pants, smile or show tongue, and perform acts of chivalry that will make Cristle swoon, lest she fall for him once more. As funny as Annie Mumolo is, this subplot suffers because, again, Rooster hasn’t developed their dynamic after the two banged in Walt’s office. Cristle ultimately reaches out to Greg on her own, hoping he’ll help convince Tommy to not drop out of college. So Greg spends this half-hour chasing after Tommy, who decides to put his studies on the back burner to become a cop, inspired by, of all people, a klutz like Officer Donnie. (His whole “I left my gun in a donut shop” bit is too dated.)
This part of the episode feels like the writers suddenly remembered they have Rory Scovel at their disposal. Donnie takes Tommy under his wing ever so briefly, talking about the pros of becoming a cop (hmm). Thankfully, Greg intervenes and joins them for the rest of the day. He not only convinces Donnie to turn Tommy against becoming a policeman, but also tells Tommy to stay at Ludlow because he sees potential in him. They even discuss the paper he submitted, and it’s all very sweet. It’s a sign of Rooster‘s abilities, but the show doesn’t go as deep as it needs to in order to make it work. Instead, the focus is on lingering narrative threads that don’t allow this enviable cast to really dig into their characters. It’s an arena that Ted Lasso and Shrinking thrive in, so hopefully Rooster figures its way out soon. Hey, at least the slow burn between Greg and Dylan is still going strong. They go on walks, grab hot chocolates, and banter about poetry versus whodunits. Steve Carell and Danielle Deadwyler’s dynamic is as good a reason as any to tune in.
Stray observations
- • I can’t say I’m too thrilled about a couple of the one-liners in this episode, like Katie’s “Santa is a fat fuck” or Greg telling Cristle he wouldn’t have imagined that she gave birth to a baby who weighed 14 pounds.
- • Dylan finds a mentee of her own in “Nobody Spook It,” encouraging sex-positive Gen-Zer Eva (Madison Hu) to be more vulnerable in her poem so that it can be published in The Ludlow Review.
- • Dylan: “It really bothered me when you said you weren’t going to be an artist.”
Eva: “Oh. My bad, diva.”
- • Did bartender Hunter not find it utterly weird that Katie, who is barely an acquaintance, sat next to him during the hockey game and was acting a little too friendly?
- • Tommy chases down the guy who stole the mascot costume, only to discover it’s one of his friends. The only lesson here is that Ludlow’s mascot being a mustachioed man is very creepy.
Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic.
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