TL;DR – While I am not sure it quite got its hooks into me in this first outing, it was more than enough to make me want to see where this goes from a character’s trainwreck perspective.

Disclosure – I paid for the HBO Max service that viewed this series.

Rooster Review Introduction –

Today, we dive into the third Bill Lawrence-associated series to come out in 2026 [and yes, we will also look at Season 4 of Ted Lasso later in the year]. I was intrigued about this show, because the promos were not letting much out, but I do find comedies set in colleges that are not focused on the students can be real gems. But something about the presentation did give me a pause to be concerned. If I should be is what we will examine today.

So, to set the scene, Greg Russo (Steve Carell) is a novel writer who focuses on more pulp productions, fun to read on a holiday, but not that deep. Which is why he is nervous about being asked to go to a college to present his work to a classroom by Dylan Shepard (Danielle Deadwyler). But present he does, and is profoundly destroyed by the students. However, there might have been a slight ulterior motive for him coming to this college, because his daughter Katie (Charly Clive) works there and is going through a scandal as her estranged husband Archie (Phil Dunster) decided to have an affair with a grad student. And that is only the start of a very bad day for both of them. Now, from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

The Set Up

As far as setups go for a new season, I think this did a serviceable job of introducing all the major elements that will be important going forward. Every encounter at the college is as awkward as it needs to be, to clearly land the fish out of water feel to it. On that front, John C. McGinley is pulling in triple duty in uncomfortable land as he leaves nothing behind in his performance. They get through all the major plot points with a sense of charm that you never feel that you are sitting through an exposition dump. There is a truly funny scene where Greg and Katie, hiding in a bush away from the estranged husband, goes on a beat too long, and it becomes bad for all.

Then there are those narrative hooks that do start to pull you in by the end. The scandal of a professor dating/impregnating one of his grad students, which probably would get you fired even with tenure in most universities these days. Multiple people’s failed marriages, a twice-spurned invitation, a concerned police officer, and a college professor who is way more open than he probably should be there. It was all fine, even engaging at moments, but you can feel it doing a lot of heavy lifting to get people in place for future shenanigans.

The Hook

I’ll be honest, I was not quite sure about this show until two hooks caught me and made me very interested to see where they go from here. The first was anything that Danielle Deadwyler was doing in the episode. If you have seen her work before, you know just how good she is, and she captivated in every moment she was on screen. The second is how they ended the episode with two bombshell moments. The first explosion was with the announcement that Sunny (Lauren Tsai) was pregnant. Then we get chaos when Katie responds to that announcement by accidentally burning down Archie’s house. Which I know was a slight overreaction, but you would be lying if you said you didn’t want to see the fallout from that.    

Recommendation

In the end, do we recommend Rooster: Release the Brown Fat? Well, while it was contextually appropriate, that is a wild episode title to start your show on. I would say for most of the episode I was pleasantly entertained, before I was intrigued, but the ramp-up in the last five minutes. If they can take that energy and build on it, well, you can count me in. If they don’t, I am not sure I will be sticking around for the full season. Have you seen Rooster yet? Let us know what you thought in the comments below.   

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Feel free to share this review on social media and check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Rooster
Directed by – Jonathan Krisel
Written by – Bill Lawrence & Matt Tarses
Created by – Bill Lawrence & Matt Tarses
Production/Distribution Companies – Two Soups Production, Doozer, Warner Bros Television & HBO Max
Starring – Steve Carell, Danielle Deadwyler, Phil Dunster, Charly Clive, Lauren Tsai, & John C. McGinley
With – Annie Mumolo, Rory Scovel, & David Gridley
And – Cece Abbey, Xavier Beloved, Noah Grismer, Madison Hu, Evan Jachelski, Grace Lu, Sophia Macy, Apple Martin, Myles Perez, Maximo Salas, & Fiona Tarses