By Josh Nason
Bill Lawrence is having a pretty nice 2026.
The creator of Scrubs just saw its revival return earlier this year in addition to the latest season of Shrinking, the impending return of mega hit Ted Lasso, production on season two of Bad Monkey, and then his new show, Rooster on HBO Max.
It’s a tried and true formula for Lawrence: big star, great supporting cast, laughs. Rinse, lather, repeat. Here, Steve Carell enters the role as the big star, playing a famous author who heads to the college that his daughter teaches at amid a bit of a personal crisis with her husband. Warm wackiness ensues.
Are you interested in shows that give you the warm and fuzzies? Maybe not? Let me help you decide in this edition of Should You Watch.
Should You Watch Rooster (HBO Max)?
How many seasons?
One with a second season renewal.
How many episodes?
10.
What type of show is it?
Comedy.
What year(s)?
2026.
Where can I currently find it?
HBO Max.
Who is it for?
Those who enjoy light-hearted comedies they don’t have to think about too much afterward but make them feel good in the moment.
What’s the commit level?
Chalk one up for the half-hour crew. Total runtime is 314 minutes, so 5.2 hours. If you take out the two minutes per episode of ‘previously on’ and credits, that brings you to a very tidy five hours total.
Is there a bailout episode?
The first one.
Any interesting background in the show’s creation?
Not a ton. It got a straight-to-series order in 2024. Lawrence told People Magazine that similar to Lasso, they pitched the story with a beginning, middle and an end.
Are there actors the average TV watcher would recognize?
Steve Carell, Danielle Deadwyler, Phil Dunster, John C. McGinley, Rory Scovel, Scott MacArthur, Alan Ruck, Connie Britton, Nancy Carell, Jim O’Heir, Brenda Strong.
What’s the reaction been?
Overwhelmingly positive with a 68 (generally favorable) on Metacritic with an 89 critic/74 fan split on Rotten Tomatoes. As of this writing, it’s too early for award nominations.
In terms of viewership, it’s a massive hit. The first season averaged nearly six million viewers an episode and was HBO’s most watched comedy in ten years which I’m told is a decade.
What’s the main plot in a sentence?
A famous dad heads to a private college in an effort to help his somewhat disgraced daughter and finds an extended family along with the way, helping solve everyone’s issues.
What’s the rewatch factor?
Low, but this could have a decent rewatch life if WBD (or Paramount whenever you’re reading this) puts it on TBS or TNT someday.
If you like these shows or movies, you’ll like this:
Scrubs, Ted Lasso, Shrinking, The Office, The Holdovers
Is this a first or second screen show?
First with some trending toward the second as the season goes on.
Should you watch Rooster?
Overall, I really enjoyed Rooster but this could have benefited from being six or seven episodes vs. a full ten. The season got a little more repetitive as it went along — still worth the watch but it definitely became more second screen by the end.
Carell knows what he is doing and parts like this put him in the right spot: a likable middle aged guy figuring out his life around similar likable people figuring out theirs. He’s like the Shohei Ohtani of half hour feel-good comedies, just without the illegal sports bookie.
Those likable people include Lawrence favorites Dunster (Jamie Tart from Ted Lasso), McGinley (Scrubs, Office Space, freakin’ Point Break and Seven!) and some guest appearances sprinkled in from Britton, Ruck, O’Heir, and even Carell’s wife, Nancy. And then, there’s Deadwyler (outstanding in Station Eleven) and Charley Clive (who plays Carell’s daughter) who both are great in their own story arcs as well as interacting with Carrel’s Greg Russo. I was 100% unfamiliar with Clive going into this, but she and some of the other supporting actors become known entities by the end.
While Rooster isn’t Rodney Dangerfield’s Back to School, those that like their TV and movies set on college campuses will enjoy the idyllic small town college setting that provides a great visual and actual world for the characters to exist and interact with. The story doesn’t give a reason to leave campus and the surrounding town is its own character (forgive me for sounding like an uppity critic or snobby Redditor but that’s the best way I can describe it).
All that said, I think Rooster is worth your watch if you like some of the shows listed above. Yes, it could be a few less episodes and if you’re not into syrupy-sweet TV, this probably isn’t for you. But if you are…cock-a-doodle-doo with Rooster. I hate myself for writing that line, too.
