Steve Carell gets his ‘Ted Lasso’ lite in ‘Rooster’ – review

Steve Carell is in his lovable goofball era, and he should lean right in.

The comedian and star best known for being the world’s worst boss for seven seasons of NBC’s beloved sitcom “The Office,” has run the gamut in his long career from hero to cartoon villain, from a cringey “40-Year-Old Virgin” to a creepy TV host on Apple’s “The Morning Show.” But at this point in his tenure on our screens, Carell is unmistakably at his best when he’s the underdog you can root for.

That’s why the actor is so well matched to his new HBO comedy, “Rooster” (Sundays, 10 ET/PT, ★★★ out of four). A twee take on the quirky community on a modern college campus, “Rooster” casts Carell as an adorable and adoring dad to an adult daughter going through a rough time. Created by the king of optimism Bill Lawrence, “Rooster” has same the kind of glass-half-full tone as his celebrated comedies “Ted Lasso” and “Shrinking.” Whether it can rise to the popularity and success of those two remains to be seen.

The show takes its poultry title from Carell’s character, Greg Russo, a self-proclaimed “beach read” novelist whose airport bookstore bestsellers are about a detective called “Rooster.” We meet this unassuming, bumbling man in his 60s visiting the campus of a liberal arts school, where the savvy students talk circles around his old-fashioned sensibilities and insecurities. He’s really there, however, for his daughter Katie (Charly Clive), a professor who is going through a messy divorce after her ex Archie (Phil Dunster, aka Jamie Tartt of “Lasso”), a fellow professor in this tiny community, has an affair with a post-grad student.

Katie doesn’t want her dad’s advice or help, but Greg is the kind of guy who just can’t leave her to misery all alone. Fresh off a divorce himself, he does everything in his limited power to help Katie, even if sometimes he makes things worse. He eventually takes a job at the school pushed by cold-plunging dude-bro college president Walter (John C. McGinley, alum of Lawrence’s “Scrubs”), keeping him and Katie in the same circles indefinitely.

There are a multitude of absurd high jinks and shenanigans (really the only words applicable here) that lead to Greg’s decision to stay and inevitably fill each episode. He fumbles over almost everything in his new life, from parenting a grown-up daughter to surprise flirtation to walking up a steep hill in new shoes. Carell, now a “silver fox” as the characters describe him at home in tweed and making “kids these days” jokes, is deeply endearing. It’s all the sweet parts of Michael Scott with none of the incompetence, idiocy or casual cruelty (ok, Greg is sometimes a bit incompetent).

It’s a good look for Carell, who has taken on some rather unpleasant characters in recent outings like Netflix’s “The Four Seasons” and HBO’s film “Mountainhead.” The actor is so naturally appealing it’s almost relieving for him to have a character to match. The eccentric cast of characters around him match his energy nicely, particularly McGinley’s genuinely bizarre Walter, whose manic energy is a frequent source of humor. Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”) is also a comedic standout as a beleaguered lit professor trying to keep her head above water in the ever-changing and contracting world of academia.

However, like Lawrence’s “Shrinking,” moments of “Rooster” ring unexpectedly hollow, perhaps as the heightened world of the show, in which police officers ignore assault and arson and lose their guns in cold plunge tubs, gets a little too unrealistic at moments. It’s all too whimsical, wishful and weird, from the accidental house fires to the Gen Z stereotypes: It’s an uncanny valley of emotions.

But you can (mostly) forgive those moments of unease as the cast gels together, and Carell yucks it up so charmingly in his tweed blazers and too-slippery shoes. When the show turns on the charm it can hook you.

Everyone needs something this sweet to cuddle up with at the end of the day. “Rooster” might as well be a big teddy bear you got at a carnival. Somewhat artificial, but still soft, comforting and there for you. And sometimes that’s all you need your TV show to be.