Jiohotstar spotlights mixed reviews for Steve Carell’s HBO comedy ‘Rooster’

Steve Carell’s new HBO sitcom “Rooster” is drawing sharply different reactions from critics, who agree on the setup—Carell plays novelist Greg Russo at the prestigious (fictional) Ludlow College—but diverge on whether the comedy’s campus reinvention story lands. As of Saturday at 11: 22 a. m. ET, early reviews frame “Rooster” as a familiar Bill Lawrence vehicle to some, and a dated, uninspired slog to others, putting the show’s tone and humor at the center of the conversation. The debate has also turned on how much the series uses academia as a setting versus a subject.

Jiohotstar and “Rooster” frame Greg Russo’s Ludlow College reset

In “Rooster, ” Greg Russo arrives at Ludlow College as a best-selling author of what one review calls “trashy beach reads, ” a description echoed by the character himself when he tells a faculty member that his books are meant to be “read at the beach. ” Greg’s trip to campus is tied to his daughter, Katie (Charly Clive), a young professor whose marriage is falling apart after her husband’s affair with a graduate student.

While at Ludlow, Greg is offered a role as the school’s writer in residence, a position that doubles as personal recognition and a source of discomfort. One review describes him as uneasy rather than validated by the idea of being welcomed into a more rarefied literary environment, even though he has already found commercial success. That discomfort becomes part of the show’s engine: Greg is portrayed as trying to get “back in the game” after a divorce from his high-powered wife (Connie Britton) five years earlier.

The show also connects Greg’s personal insecurity to his own fictional creation: the protagonist of his novels, Rooster, who is depicted as confident, self-assured, and sexy—qualities Greg feels he lacks. A student’s line about college reinvention is used to underline the premise that Ludlow offers Greg a chance to decide who he wants to be.

Bill Lawrence, Matt Tarses, and the “Ted Lasso for academia” comparison

One critical take positions “Rooster” as a close cousin to Bill Lawrence’s prior work, explicitly likening the new series to “Ted Lasso for academia. ” Lawrence created “Rooster” with longtime collaborator Matt Tarses, and one review argues that even in a new setting, the result is still recognizably a Bill Lawrence show—one that makes only limited concessions to its campus backdrop.

Instead of leaning into detailed “Ivory Tower” politics, that review says the series uses the college largely as a pretext to keep Greg near Katie and to facilitate fish-out-of-water jokes. Examples cited include name-dropping moments such as gags about Zadie Smith and a seminar in “the poetry of Bad Bunny, ” alongside a running gag in which Greg repeatedly offends students described as hyperbolically thin-skinned.

A frequently cited sequence involves Greg using a “Moby Dick” reference—calling a young woman his “white whale”—and being accused of body-shaming. In the more favorable framing, that kind of moment is part of the show’s comedic rhythm and its portrait of a middle-aged man stumbling through new rules and sensibilities. That said, even the friendlier review notes that Carell is operating in familiar territory, playing a morose middle-aged character in search of missing mojo, without being pushed into notably new performance ground.

Danielle Deadwyler, John C. McGinley, and criticism of stale jokes

A harsher review calls “Rooster” dated and uninspired, arguing that what “should be a witty examination of a father/daughter bond” instead dissolves into stale jokes and plot points that feel pulled from a different era. That critique also says several iterations of the underlying story have been seen before, and contends that the show does not deliver on its most promising emotional relationship: Greg and Katie.

Specific story details highlighted include Greg agreeing to a campus invitation connected to Professor Dylan Shepard (Danielle Deadwyler), with the review describing an opening setup in which he has been asked to speak to Dylan’s class about his latest book. Ludlow’s President Walter Mann (John C. McGinley) offers Greg a semester-long writer-in-residence position, which Greg reluctantly accepts, motivated in part by a desire to be closer to Katie.

That review also spells out the strain inside Katie’s marriage: her husband, Archie (Phil Dunster), a Russian historian, leaves her for a graduate student named Sunny (Lauren Tsai). Across a 10-episode first season—critics received six episodes for review—Greg is described as chasing the college experience he missed, bonding with Dylan, exploring a new romantic relationship, and trying to support Katie without smothering her.

Still, the same critique calls the Archie-Katie back-and-forth exhausting and says the academic politics depicted—budget changes and a revolving door of faculty and staff—play as dull. It also points to broader comedic choices it finds indefensible, describing a turn in Episode 3 involving Greg tripping during class and breaking his fall on a student’s breasts. The review argues that the series’ quips feel recycled and indecorous, and it singles out student-centered gags as the point where the show “tumbles downhill. ”

For now, the next confirmed marker for viewers is the show’s season structure: “Rooster” has a 10-episode first season, and critics’ assessments so far are based on the six episodes provided for review as of 11: 22 a. m. ET Saturday.