Rooster, an HBO comedy starring Steve Carell, is a show that struggles to find its identity. Despite a stellar cast, including Charly Clive, Phil Dunster, Danielle Deadwyler, Lauren Tsai, and John C. McGinley, the show is a mess of underdeveloped identities and a poorly fused story. The narrative is a bit all over the place, with multiple potential storylines, but none of them are fully explored. The show's humor is hit or miss, with some moments being appealing and others being desperately hacky. The main character, Greg Russo, is a pulp fiction author who gets a job as a writer-in-residence at a small New England college. The show's setting is academically amorphous, with no clear idea of what the college is like or what the students are like. The humor leans heavily on the idea that things that were appropriate a decade ago can now get you in trouble, but it's not as well-executed as it could be. The show's attempts at humor are often flailing and creepy, and the characters are not given enough depth to be truly engaging. The cast is full of talented actors, but they are not given enough to work with to truly shine. Overall, Rooster is a show that is still trying to find its story and resolve its discordant pieces. It's a show that has the potential to be charming and more, but it's not there yet.
