I came to ‘Rooster’ because of Steve Carell, only to discover a nuanced comedy with perfect-pitch acting from all major characters (very few spoilers).
Review originally posted in Counter Arts on Medium on May 17, 2026
Rooster is set on the campus of a fictional liberal arts college in Massachusetts called Ludlow, and where various campus movies are noisy and full of hormones, this one is toned down and more mature. The barbs and laughs are there, and there are some visual gags, but the humor is mostly droll rather than hilarious, though it does have its laugh-out-loud moments. The comedy is also blended with some drama, of the kind that doesn’t weigh down the humor but boosts it in a refined way.
The main storyline of Season 1 concerns Greg Russo (Steve Carell) — author of commercial books around a character named Rooster — and his daughter Katie (Charly Clive). Rooster comes to campus to visit Katie and is offered a gig as writer-in-residence. He self-characterizes himself as rather gauche, and he does, indeed, make quite a few blunders in class, which has him weather dressing-downs from a university committee. They are some of the funniest bits in the first part of this series.
Katie is a thirtysomething professor of art history who suffers over her husband Archie (Phil Dunster). Archie had an affair with a graduate student, Sunny (Lauren Tsai), and got her pregnant. Katie is much-loved by her students, and they strive to give her their support, but Katie is still in love with Archie — and she is also uncomfortable discussing her love life with her students.
Archie is a typical cad who is trying to decide whom he loves best. He comes across as someone who has feelings for both women. In fact, however, he seems most in love with putting on a show as a professor of Russian history and working on a very large book about some topic in his field. His behavior is not endearing, but his acting surely is. He is completely in the skin of his character.
Dylan Shepherd as Danielle Deadwyler is also lovely to see on screen. She is in charge of the campus literary magazine and later becomes the Dean of Faculty. She mostly interacts with the President of the college and Russo. The President of Ludlow, Walter Mann, is portrayed by John C. McGinley in a superb fashion. I don’t recall seeing him in other movies, even though he is seventy-seven years old, but I’m learning he’s also in Scrubs, so now I’ll have to watch that series too.
Annie Mumolo, as Chrisle, is Mann’s assistant. She doesn’t get much screen time, but she makes the absolute most of every scene she’s in.
Rory Scovel as Officer Donnie Mullins is terribly comedic every single time.
Then there are others, including Russo’s wife, Elizabeth (Connie Britton), but I’ll let you discover them yourself. Every single actor of the principal cast is beautiful in this series.
The creators of Rooster are Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses.
Enjoy!
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To a happier, healthier life,
Mira
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