{"id":329403,"date":"2026-03-09T06:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T06:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/329403\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T06:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T06:10:09","slug":"rooster-series-premiere-recap-release-the-brown-fat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/329403\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Rooster\u2019 Series-Premiere Recap: \u2018Release the Brown Fat\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Rooster<\/a><\/p>\n

Release the Brown Fat<\/p>\n

\n Season 1<\/p>\n

Episode 1\n <\/p>\n

\n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n

4 stars<\/p>\n

****\n <\/p>\n

\n Steve Carell belongs at the center of an ensemble comedy, and Bill Lawrence\u2019s latest about a divorced dad and author gives him the perfect platform.
\n Photo: Patrick Wymore\/HBO\n <\/p>\n

Steve Carell is a gift. In Rooster, the new comedy series from HBO, he plays Greg Russo, divorced dad and author of a popular series of \u201cbeach reads\u201d featuring a character named \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 Rooster. Carell is in nearly every scene of the premiere episode, and he lights up the world of the show like a sun in the center of a comedic universe. The characters in his orbit are quite strong in their own right, but here, as in The Office, Carell\u2019s unflagging comedy prowess provides the energy that powers the narrative into full-on hilarity. After his (fantastic) serious turns in The Patient<\/a> and The Morning Show<\/a>, as well as ensemble work in The Four Seasons<\/a> and Space Force, it\u2019s truly wonderful to have him back in a leading role in a TV comedy. This is where Carell belongs, and Rooster gives him a perfect platform to bring the funny.<\/p>\n

Rooster co-creator Bill Lawrence knows a thing or two about placing a funny-but-conflicted character into the center of a strong ensemble. (See: Jason Sudeikis in Ted Lasso<\/a>, Jason Segel in Shrinking<\/a>, and Vince Vaughn in Bad Monkey<\/a>.) Lawrence has been on a hot streak of creating shows in which people come together in little chocolate-coated clusters of found family; his narratives often present the world as a friendly, accepting place in which every casual encounter could result in a lifelong friendship and where everyone has a shoulder to cry on. That\u2019s a world I want to live in, and Rooster riffs nicely on this formula of building a community full of kindness and curiosity.<\/p>\n

Lawrence co-created the show with Matt Tarses, who also worked with him on Apple TV\u2019s Bad Monkey, a show based on Carl Hiaasen\u2019s popular novel of the same name. According to The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>, when Lawrence and Tarses were working on Bad Monkey, they got the idea for Rooster, loosely basing Carell\u2019s character on Hiaasen himself. As fathers to daughters who are now independent adults, both Lawrence and Tarses wanted to further explore that dynamic. The core concept that drives Rooster is Greg\u2019s desire to swoop in and help his daughter, Katie (Charly Clive), after her husband cheats on her with a younger woman. But, as lovable as he may be, Greg isn\u2019t perfect, and misunderstandings, mischief, and mayhem ensue.<\/p>\n

As the first episode opens, we meet Greg as he steps onto the Ludlow College campus to give a talk about his successful series of novels. In a moment that feels like it might be a hallucination, he spies a half-naked \u201cwet man\u201d waving at him from across the quad. It\u2019s not a hallucination, though; it\u2019s just John C. McGinley, living his life to the fullest. We\u2019ll meet his character later, but as someone who went to a liberal-arts college where students regularly did \u201cnaked walks\u201d on campus, I fully endorse the addition of \u201cwet man\u201d to the Where\u2019s Waldo world-building on this show.<\/p>\n

The cozy liberal-arts-college vibe is very on point here. Turtlenecks and flannels abound, teens vocally question authority at every turn, and a colorful cast of intellectuals pepper the scene. Within minutes of landing on campus, Greg is introduced to Professor Dylan Shepherd, played by Danielle Deadwyler, a professor of poetry who teaches a class on Bad Bunny that I so very badly want to take. Dylan and Greg have an instant chemistry, like I can almost see actual waves of magnetic connection between the two actors whenever they\u2019re onscreen together. The pairing of Deadwyler and Carell could not be more delightful. They share a bunch of screen time in the premiere, and every moment is electric.<\/p>\n

Greg goes to give his talk, but it\u2019s very clear that he doesn\u2019t want to be there and that he devalues his own work. Summarizing his books for Dylan, he says, \u201cThe characters you like have sex, and the ones you don\u2019t get shot in the face.\u201d The lecture gives us a bit of background on Greg\u2019s life. When a student confronts him about the sexual nature of the books, stating that the main female character is mostly a sex object, Greg counters by saying that she\u2019s sexy but also brave and smart, just like his ex-wife, who just happens to be the most famous alumnus of Ludlow College. Greg\u2019s inferiority complex is showing. He\u2019s already giving \u201cdivorced dad,\u201d and we haven\u2019t even met his daughter yet.<\/p>\n

After Greg gives his semi-disastrous lecture, he heads over to an office where he meets the wet man, er, Walter Mann, a.k.a. the president of Ludlow College. John C. McGinley plays him as a loopy, health-nut bureaucrat who is far more interested in the interpersonal politics of the employees at his college than he is in the students\u2019 general education. Walter loves Greg\u2019s books and is very pleased that he finally accepted his offer to come speak. Greg, on the other hand, has an ulterior motive. He\u2019s come to the college not really to lecture but to check in on his daughter Katie. You see, Katie is an art professor at the college, and she recently had a very public scandal when her husband, Archie (Phil Dunster), a professor of Russian studies, started banging one of the grad students. Walter tells Greg that if the situation had gotten ugly, he would have been forced to choose Archie over Katie because Archie has tenure. This is a big yikes for Poppa Greg.<\/p>\n

When Greg goes to check on Katie, he sneaks in on the very end of her lecture. Don\u2019t you just love it when characters watch other characters teach from afar? Katie illustrates that she has a comfortable, teasing relationship with her dad by telling her students they can have extra time on their papers if they just look him in the eyes and tell him they love him. Only one student is up to the task, and let me say, if I ever had an opportunity to look Steve Carell in the eyes and tell him I love him, I would take it. (Seriously, how is he getting both funnier and hotter? Discuss in the comments, please.)<\/p>\n

Much like with Deadwyler, Carell has an unmistakable chemistry with Clive as well, only this vibe is strictly paternal. The two effortlessly riff off of one another, elevating the scene where they spy on her ex and his new girlfriend from sad to slapstick. The stinger on the scene, where Katie flees and Greg mistakenly gets caught peeping on two girls smooching, is good for some giggles. Later, Katie goes to spy on Archie some more at their old house and gets caught up in a tree, a lit cigarette in hand. She\u2019s a little sweet, a little dangerous, and I adore her so much.<\/p>\n

Unable to find a way to help his daughter, Greg tries to drown his sorrows with a few drinks at the local bar. Coincidentally, Dylan is also there, and she\u2019s very into Greg, so she plies him with tequila and warm nuts. She gives him some advice, telling him that he should go see Archie and tell him to \u201cman the fuck up.\u201d She also shares that she\u2019s lived a very lonely life, dating on and off, and even telling one person she loved them but then taking it back. That\u2019s cold, Dylan! But not as cold as the rejection she gets from Greg when he walks her home. To his great surprise, she invites him in, and he stammers at her door for a bit, genuinely gobsmacked that this beautiful, brilliant, luminous woman would choose him. After some back and forth, he gently turns her down. Her key doesn\u2019t work, so she ends up smashing her window to get away from the sting of rejection.<\/p>\n

Even though Greg doesn\u2019t sleep with Dylan, he does heed her advice and goes to see Archie. Archie has a terrible haircut and a lot of regret over what he\u2019s done to his marriage. Greg is angry that this man has hurt his daughter, but he also has experience with the situation; we eventually learn that his wife cheated on him before they separated. He harbors a lot of regret over how he handled it, and he tries to impart his learned wisdom to both his son-in-law and his daughter. It does not go well.<\/p>\n

While Katie heads over to chat with Archie, Greg meets up with Walter. If you thought Greg was going to get out of dodge without hopping in Walter\u2019s \u201cHot House,\u201d you were dead wrong. Greg\u2019s game-but-miserable reaction to the sauna, and then the cold plunge, is predictably hilarious. But the real hot house is over at Archie\u2019s, where Katie professes her love for her husband before he\u00a0has a chance to speak. He also claims that he still loves her \u2026 but not before telling her that his girlfriend is now pregnant. Katie goes nuclear, kicking Archie out of his house and tossing his beloved first edition of War and Peace into the fireplace. She isn\u2019t thinking clearly enough to check the flue before lighting the tome ablaze, and so the floating embers quickly multiply, burning the entire house down. Oops.<\/p>\n

Greg sees the smoke from afar and finds Katie standing in front of the wreckage. She tells him to tell the cop that they were together all morning, and he dutifully does, only to have her tell the cop the truth. He\u2019s a good dad, and she\u2019s a good kid. But, oh, what a pickle they\u2019re in now.<\/p>\n

\u2022 One thing about Bill Lawrence: He\u2019s going to soundtrack his shows with oodles of classic rock. Shout out to the excellent use of the Violent Femmes\u2019 \u201cKiss Off\u201d when Katie lights Archie\u2019s book on fire.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The cast on this show is very on point. In addition to the main cast of characters, the hilarious Annie Mumolo pops up as Walter\u2019s droll and exasperated assistant, and Rory Scovel is the bumbling, small-town cop. I love it all.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Walter\u2019s sauna has a lot of rules listed on a wooden board he carved himself. The two best are: \u201cEntering the sauna is akin to signing an NDA.\u201d (LOL, no it\u2019s not.) And \u201cNo food or drinks in the hot house. Even watermelon!\u201d<\/p>\n

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