While watching the first few episodes of Rooster, the new HBO comedy show starring Steve Carell, I found myself thinking about Your Friends and Neighbors.
If you’re not familiar with that one, it’s a highly pleasing Apple TV show about a formerly rich guy who takes to robbing his rich neighbors to maintain the lifestyle with which he’s become accustomed.
Jon Hamm has been in lots of TV shows and movies since his iconic run as Don Draper on Mad Men, and he’s always at least really good. But his role as Andrew “Coop” Cooper on Your Friends and Neighbors is the one that best optimizes for his comedic and dramatic strengths post-graduation from his Sterling Cooper days.
As you’re likely guessing, this brings us to Rooster. Carell has roughly the same large-ish footprint on our modern entertainment scene as Hamm (and indeed, both of them were on the started-off-decent-ended-up-train-wreck-y The Morning Show), and of course is best known as the daffy yet lovable Michael Scott from the U.S. version of The Office.
As main character Greg Russo – a renowned author who is lured to teach at the same college where his daughter Katie (Charly Clive) is a professor – Carell gets to show off his unique charisma that comes across as effortlessly likable and funny while staying nicely grounded within a setting that feels as comfortable as a favorite sweater from the jump.
Beyond Carell’s many talents, Rooster doesn’t come across as I’ve described by accident. It’s boosted tremendously by Bill Lawrence’s involvement as co-showrunner (along with Matt Tarses, also a creative partner on the excellent Bad Monkey). Lawrence has been on an all-time television run for decades now, dating back to Spin City and Scrubs (the latter of which has just begun a successful reboot), and then continuing with the likes of Cougar Town (a show far superior to what the title implies), COVID-era superstar Ted Lasso, Shrinking, and the aforementioned Bad Monkey.*
* It should be noted that Bad Monkey places Vince Vaughn in what might be his most winning role dating all the way back to Swingers.
Comedies with strong characters and the right dusting of drama to ground the proceedings is among the hardest things on TV to pull off well, and Bill Lawrence is the form’s modern era master craftsman.
And here’s another unfair advantage that Rooster brings to bear: a genuinely incredible new Michael Stipe song – performed with Andrew Watt – that fronts the show. It has a vintage late-era R.E.M. vibe to it, and Stipe’s voice sounds as stunning as ever.