TV review: Ted Lasso creators' new show Rooster is TV therapy

Rooster has the elements that made Ted Lasso good — and Steve Carrell

Steve Carell is back on our screens in Rooster

Rooster (Sky Comedy and Now) has loads of potential. Steve Carrell as the lead character Greg Russo, and it’s made by the people who brought us Ted Lasso.

These things are often a let-down — not this one.

Rooster is a shot of joy, just like Ted Lasso. If you think Steve Carrell can only play one kind of comedy, as he did in The Office, then think again. Here he is a totally believable sweet man in his late 50s, consoling his daughter Katie after she’s been dumped by her husband and colleague, Archie.

It’s set in a liberal arts college in the United States. That’s usually a recipe for disaster because the writers can’t resist making the dialogue whip-smart, to show how clever everyone is, when it’s really showing how clever the writers are.

There is none of that here. The characters talk like human beings. Archie is played by Phil Dunster, who played lovable gobshite Jamie Tartt in Ted Lasso. Here he is more of a gobshite, as Archie dumps Katie for one of his students.

John C McGinley plays college president Walter Mann, stealing scenes with his ridiculous notions, announcing that 15 minutes in the sauna gets rid of brown fat, whatever that is. 

There’s a useless cop and a will-they won’t-they love interest for Greg, but the real trick here is that everyone is at least a bit loveable. Even Archie, who covers for Katie after she burns his house down.

This is TV as therapy. None of it really matters. I don’t really care if Greg gets it together with his love interest, female professor Dylan. All I care about is the
enjoyment in every scene. There is foolishness for the sake of it and people being nice to each other in a very funny way. 

The key relationship is the father-daughter one, Greg and Katie, and I’m buying it. They come across as two people who’ve known each other forever, flaws and all.

This makes the comedy funnier. A line in your standard American comedy, where everything is heightened and nothing feels real, can raise a very small smile.

The same line coming from these characters is a chuckler because you’re in the scene with them as actual human beings.

This is what made Ted Lasso great. No one was good or bad all the time, but they were good more than they were bad. If all that isn’t enough, episode two marks the arrival of Mark Ruck, the guy who played Connor in Succession. I laughed before he opened his mouth. And I kept laughing.