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Credit: HBO
Steve Carell seemingly likes to keep us on our toes, with his best performances spanning all sides of the comedy-drama spectrum. In Rooster, which premieres on the 2026 TV schedule on March 8, he digs into his bag of tricks for a father-daughter dramedy co-created by Bill Lawrence (Ted Lasso, Shrinking). Critics have seen six of Season 1’s 10 episodes and, overall, their sentiments seem to align.
Rooster stars Steve Carell as Greg, a bestselling author who takes a teaching job at a small New England college to help his daughter Katie (Charly Clive), an art history professor, after her fellow professor husband Archie (Ted Lasso’s Phil Dunster) leaves her for a grad student. Michael Peyton of IGN calls the series a 10-out-of-10 “Masterpiece,” writing that it’s a “magic trick of a TV show” in how it’s simultaneously elevated in its approach but grounded in its appeal. Peyton explains:
HBO’s Rooster is an acting masterclass, with tour-de-force performances from Steve Carell, Phil Dunster, Danielle Deadwyler, John C. McGinley, and more. It’s at once charming, incisive, and laugh-out-loud funny. The pedigree of both the cast and production team behind the show is top-notch. Rooster is Ted Lasso for the HBO set and well worth a watch.
Belen Edwards of Mashable says it’s fun to watch Steve Carell cut loose as Greg enjoys his first taste of college life. Yet Edwards also says Rooster is at its best when it focuses on Greg and Katie, resulting in a show that “feels like a warm hug,” even if it bears similarities to other Bill Lawrence series. Edwards writes:
It’s hard not to think of Ted Lasso and Shrinking throughout Rooster. Workplace patter-turned-therapy sessions abound, and the often-cheerful Greg is, like Ted and Jimmy, harboring a deeper hurt. … That familiarity risks feeling cloying at times, but the college satire element gives Rooster just enough bite to set itself apart. It’s a charming tale of finding yourself again and helping others along the way, and that’s certainly worth crowing about.
Rooster boasts an impressive ensemble including Danielle Deadwyler, John C. McGinley, Connie Britton and Hacks standout Robby Hoffman, but Nicole Gallucci of Decider agrees it’s the chemistry between former Office cast member Steve Carell and Charly Clive that makes this a winner — no doubt aided by Carell and both co-creators being girl dads:
While the cast features masters of comedic timing, physical comedy, standup, and improv that brilliantly play off each other, it’s hard not to compare Rooster to Lawrence and Carell’s past projects. Though the series strikes the creator’s signature balance of humor and emotional depth, Rooster has yet to rival Shrinking, Ted Lasso, or The Office. … Even if it hasn’t exceeded the soaring expectations set right off the bat, the show is an instant comfort watch with a solid foundation, incredible star power, and real promise.
Daniel Fienberg of THR, however, doesn’t think Rooster has figured out which of Steve Carell’s stories it wants to tell through six episodes. Fienberg says the university setting is also misunderstood and misused. The critic continues:
Despite a tremendous cast and ample, if sporadically utilized, charm, HBO‘s Rooster suffers from a surfeit of loglines and an insufficiency of focus in deciding which one it wants to follow. It’s a show with an excess of underdeveloped identities, rather than a lack of identity, spackling over its poorly fused story elements with a sense of humor that’s sometimes appealing and frequently desperately hacky.
Aramide Tinubu of Variety echoes the strangely outdated humor that Rooster brings, “as if misogyny and the #MeToo Movement are just ideas to laugh at,” and says the series is disappointingly full of predictable characters and circumstances that lead to a lackluster narrative. Tinubu continues:
Rooster should be a witty examination of a father/daughter bond. Regrettably, it dissolves into an uninspired narrative riddled with stale jokes and plot points from a different era. Basically, we’ve already seen several iterations of Rooster before, like Father of the Bride, Fatherhood and even themes from Carell’s most recent work, The Four Seasons.
It sounds like Rooster may need some time to find its footing, but the first half of the series’ inaugural season is promising enough for the majority of critics. It’s “Certified Fresh” with 85% on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing, so if you want to check out the latest Steve Carell dramedy, the first of 10 half-hour episodes will premiere at 10 p.m. ET Sunday, March 8, on HBO and streaming with an HBO Max subscription.