Rooster: Season 1 - Review 

Rating: 5 out of 5

HBO’S Rooster deservedly became the most-watched new comedy debut in over a decade.

It’s an irresistibly sweet-natured affair about the daily struggles and turmoil experienced by a group of educators and students at a top US college, often descending into cringe-inducing comedy without over-doing it on anything too mean.

Rather, it offers up believably flawed characters whose repeated efforts to do the right thing and make good choices are scuppered by circumstance or personal fallibility.

Primary among these are Steve Carell’s Greg Russo, a successful author of genre fiction, who is invited to give a talk to the English students at the college where his daughter, Katie (Charly Clive), teaches.

Although initially reluctant, and still suffering the trauma of his own not so recent marriage breakdown, he is aware that Katie is experiencing her own marriage crisis, given that her husband, Archie (Phil Dunster), is having an affair with one of his students, who has subsequently fallen pregnant.

Katie is initially resistant to her dad’s return, while struggling with her own emotions over her betrayal: she’s torn between wanting Archie back and moving on with her own life, just as the self-obsessed Archie is divided between his ongoing love for Katie and for his student.

Thrown into the mix is also the college president, Walter Mann (John C McGinley, recalling his Scrubs character at his most acerbic as well as someone more sensitive and compassionate); a struggling student (Maximo Salas), who quickly adopts Greg as a father figure and mentor; and ambitious poetry professor Dylan (Danielle Deadwyler), who is a fierce advocate for change despite having little faith in her ability to promote it.

Given the size of the ensemble, it’s a tribute to the writing team (which includes Scrubs and Shrinking veteran Bill Lawrence, who also co-created it) that everyone gets to shine and a strong balance is maintained throughout between the drama and the humour.

Rooster is both very funny and occasionally quite moving. It treats its audience as adults but isn’t afraid to indulge in the odd juvenile joke (mostly involving Carell’s attempts to fit in with his students or appear cool), and it gets the mix just right.

It’s the type of comedy-drama (or dramedy) that you look forward to catching up with because you know it’ll consistently hit all the right notes.

Carell is on top form, endearing to a fault, even when putting his foot into almost every good deed he attempts to pull off. There’s an excruciating quality to some of his antics but, unlike his Office persona, his Greg is a warm, hugely likeable character who you consistently root for.

Likewise, his daughter Katie, beautifully played by Clive as someone who is equal parts vulnerable and brokenhearted, as well as determined to put on a brave face.

Both Carell and Clive show a tremendous capacity for self-deprecating humour that only adds to their appeal.

In contrast, Dunster’s egotistical Archie deserves everything coming his way, while still somehow remaining pathetically charming.

The most notable thing about Rooster, however, is how well it plays to viewers of all ages. For parents, especially, it embraces the lifelong struggles of parenting in a realistic way, finding comedy in that struggle, yet also relatability. Greg just wants to do right by his daughter, even if it means being the bad guy at times.

While for teens/students/young adults there’s a savvy sense of learning as you fail; of thinking you know better and of often having to discover the hard way that you don’t - all while attempting to stay afloat amid society’s high expectations.

For all, it's about how you pick yourself up after falling down - no matter how hard, or humiliating the fall. And for every character in Rooster, there are a multitude of falls.

This is particularly the case for Salas’ student - a serial struggler who is desperate to impress. It’s a nicely judged performance - one that enjoys several touching moments between him and Carell, as well as some unexpectedly spidey ones, stemming from one of the seasons biggest surprises - that his mum is Mann’s secretary, with whom Greg starts sleeping with.

But then Rooster quite often succeeds in wrong footing viewers, thriving in the way that it makes its characters unpredictable.

And therein lies another of its successes, along with wry observations on the differences between generations - Greg regularly falls foul of being politically correct - and how life has changed. Hence, while sometimes seeming somewhat un-PC, the gags are delivered in such a way so as to be the right side of funny and observant without ever seeming out of touch or tone deaf for the moment.

But then Rooster just about hits all of its targets: the primary one of which is to massively entertain.

It’s a consistently enjoyable, emotionally engaging and utterly charming crowd-pleaser of a series that leaves you with a very warm glow. It’s great news that a second season is on the way.

Certificate: 15

Episodes: 10