Steve Carell stars in HBO’s Rooster. Is it worth watching?

Have you heard about HBO’s television show The Rooster? On this episode, Anne and I discuss episode 1 of the show that stars Steve Carell as the writer Greg Russo. He’s a bumbling, gold-hearted author who says he writes the kind of novels people like to read at the beach. The show follows Greg as he heads to an elite East Coast college under the guise of a doing a reading. In reality, he’s there to check on his daughter Katie, whose life has spiraled after her husband Archie (played by Ted Lasso’s Phil Dunster) cheated on her with a graduate student.

The episode, titled “Release the Brown Fat,” introduces us to a quirky cast of characters at Ludlow College, from John C. McGinley’s eccentric, sauna-obsessed President Walter Mann to Danielle Deadwyler’s aggressively forward and hilarious poet, Dylan Shepard.

We compared the show to another Bill Lawrence project, Ted Lasso, noting the show’s massive heart and 80s and 90s infused soundtrack. While it shares that signature Lasso warmth and a focus on the wages of divorce, Rooster carves out its own identity through Carell’s portrayal of social discomfort and use of his “shot in the face” metaphor for heartbreak. We cover the “Hot House Rules” of the sauna and that shocking ending involving a first-edition Tolstoy and a house fire.

Is this show worth a watch? (Spoiler: at least for Bill Torg, it definitely is!)

Thanks for checking out the episode!

Author: Torg

Writing Teacher at App State, Head Women's Basketball Coach at Watauga HS in Boone NC and podcaster at Torg Stories View all posts by Torg