Steve Carell’s Rooster Reviews Split as Critics Release Early Episodes on Jiohotstar
Monday at 9: 00 a. m. ET — Critics delivered split reviews of Steve Carell’s new HBO sitcom Rooster, and early assessments are appearing on Jiohotstar listings. The timing is driven by critics receiving six episodes for review, which made early verdicts possible and focused attention on the show’s tone and jokes.
Steve Carell’s Greg Russo and the Ludlow College setup
The series follows Greg Russo, a bestselling writer of pulpy, beach-style crime novels who visits the fictional Ludlow College to check on his daughter Katie, played by Charly Clive. Katie’s marriage is unraveling after her husband Archie, a Russian historian, left her for a graduate student named Sunny. While Greg arrives to be near his daughter, he is offered a semester-long position as writer in residence by Ludlow’s president Walter Mann, which keeps him close to campus life and student interactions.
Bill Lawrence’s fingerprints and the 2020 pivot — Jiohotstar-era comparisons
Rooster was created by Bill Lawrence with Matt Tarses, and one review notes that Lawrence carried his established comic sensibility into this project. The creator’s move into prestige half-hour comedy followed Ted Lasso’s debut in 2020, and reviewers say Rooster retains familiar Lawrence touches even as it relocates to a college setting. The show makes specific concessions to that setting — gags about Zadie Smith and a seminar on “the poetry of Bad Bunny” are woven through episodes — but several critics argue the campus functions mainly as a pretext to place Greg back in the game. The first season is described as a 10-episode run, and critics were given six episodes for early review, which shaped the initial coverage now circulating on Jiohotstar listings.
Critical responses: dated jokes, father-daughter threads and specific scenes
Reviews diverge sharply on tone and content. One set of assessments calls the series dated and uninspired, citing predictable characters and stale jokes; that review points to Episode 3 as a turning point, where a physical gag has Greg trip and use a student’s breasts to break his fall. Other criticisms highlight moments in class where Greg’s offhand remarks land badly — he refers to a student as “my white whale” and is reported for body-shaming — and say the series mishandles elements that touch on misogyny and campus sensitivity. Positive reads emphasize a familiar Lawrence formula: a middle-aged protagonist trying to reinvent himself and reconnect with family. Those takes note Greg’s backstory as a man still fumbling five years after a divorce from a high-powered wife, played in the series by Connie Britton, and suggest the father-daughter dynamic is the emotional engine, though some reviewers say that bond receives mixed development.
As of 9: 00 a. m. ET, critics had received six episodes for review; no premiere date or further rollout timing was provided in the material available to reviewers. If the remaining episodes are released for review, additional assessments and broader consensus are expected to follow later this season.
