Rooster

If you haven’t yet stumbled across the show Rooster starring Steve Carell on HBO MAX, it may be a good idea if you do. Set in a nostalgically autumnal New England college setting, (the show is actually filmed in Stockton, California) Rooster is the kind of show you didn’t realize you need until you so discover it. Greg Russo (Steve Carell) moves to the town of Cabot where fictional Ludlow College is located to support his professor daughter whose marriage has hit the rocks. It is the kind of low key, charming show Carell was made for, also hosting a small circle of quirky, affectionate characters that you like enough to catch up on and even make sure they are doing okay. But nothing is easy.

Rooster matches life today; the complicated, everyone-deals-with-issues part that makes up real life. Greg’s daughter Katie Russo (played by the quick witted and engaging Charly Clive) has already discovered that her professor husband Archie (played by the supremely charming Phil Dunster) has been having an affair with a student (Lauren Tsai) ten years his junior. It is something Katie has to live with daily as they are all at the same school. Katie has had a strained relationship with her father Greg, who has gone through his own divorce and is still reeling from it. Family needs each other so Greg has moved to Cabot, much to the dismay of his independent daughter, to strengthen their relationship and be a support. Everyone is trying to live through the challenge of letting go of a marriage to a person you still love. The hope in Greg’s eyes that he and his wife will be together again is always bubbling underneath the surface; his eyes and voice always giving him away. Katie still loves Archie, who very much wants to get back together with her until the revelation a few episodes in that the student, Sunny, is pregnant. And the stories begin.

Highlights are the students of Greg, Archie and Katie with whom they bond and share in the tough times and humor as they figure out life at different stages. John C. McGinley plays Greg’s old friend Walter Mann who also happens to be the dean of students at Ludlow. It is refreshing to see that great energy McGinley brought to the show Scrubs years earlier. Greg’s colleague Dylan Shepard (played by the sharply deadpan funny Danielle Deadwyler) keeps everyone on the right path and the effervescent Connie Britton plays Greg’s estranged wife Elizabeth.

The good-natured and slightly awkward Greg represents all of us who know you never stop figuring life out no matter what age you are. No one has “just got it” like is often portrayed in most tv shows where people are just effortlessly rich or have it all and just juggle life without breaking a sweat. If you are looking for a warm, refreshingly funny treat and a break from the serious thrillers, stepping into the world of Steve Carell’s Rooster is the perfect fix.