Rooster Is Mac and Cheese For Our Weary Doomscrolling Souls

May 2026

 

Why do we like Rooster?...

 

Because it’s like comfort food..

Mac and cheese for our weary doomscrolling souls...

 

You don’t have to think too much...

Because the plot doesn’t matter ...

 

The characters are all likeable...

And quirky enough to be interesting...

 

Because this is a Bill Lawrence series...

(See also Scrubs, Ted Lasso, Shrinking...)

A man who has mastered casting for an ensemble show...

 

So we get John McGinley...

Who you may remember as Dr. Cox from Scrubs...

 

As the president of the college...

Who never met a boundary he wouldn’t cross...

 

Robby Hoffman...

Who is also now on Hacks...

As the acerbic roommate with no filter...

 

Phil Dunster...

Another of those Children of Ted Lasso...

Who are now showing up everywhere...

 

And who is once again a character who is too handsome for his own good

And too often clueless...

 

And an incompetent policeman...

A drunk hockey coach...

And assortment of frat boy bro students...

 

Who all circulate around Steve Carell...

Like pilot fish...

 

Now everyone in this cast of characters is so mid...

You don’t get too invested in anything they do...

Because none of them do much of anything...

 

So you just enjoy the ride...

 

Which is all set in one of those lovely, leafy college campuses...

 

Which are now an endangered species...

Because it is estimated that a third of them will be gone in the next ten years...

 

But since Lawrence went to one of those schools...William and Mary

Rooster waxes nostalgically about this world...

 

And much like the other shows set in a similar environ...

(The Chair, Lucky Hank..)

There is plenty of departmental politicking...

 

But little intrusion of the very real crisis that is killing small liberal arts colleges... everywhere...

As they face declining enrollment, rising costs, and plummeting bond ratings...

 

Now Ludlow College...

Has its share of woke scolds...

 

But they are presented in a light hearted way...

 

Like little gnats...

Who are annoying...

But harmless...

 

Even if Steve Carell’s Russo keeps getting hauled before their committees...

Because he is clueless about what you can and cannot say on campus these days...

 

Because...

 

He never went to college...

And is just there because he wants to keep an eye on his daughter during a crisis...

 

Because... of course...

This is a Bill Lawrence show...

So it has to be about a dad...

 

And the college wants Russo... because he is a successful author...

So he actually knows how to write....

 

But he writes pot boilers...

Not War and Peace...

 

So he is a bit of an odd duck in academia...

 

Who goes out drinking with his students...

Dates one’s mother...

 

And in general, doesn’t care a wit about being molded into a tweed coat wearing ivory tower cliché...

 

Which makes him fun to be around...

 

For everyone...

 

And for us...

 

But I am a little worried...

 

Because the one character in this series...

Who is not mid...

Is the formidable ex-wife...

 

And she is going to play a significant role in campus life next season...

And when I learned that in the series finale...

 

My heart sank...

 

Because there is one thing Bill Lawrence knows how to do...

Besides put together a great ensemble series...

 

Is how to screw it up...

 

Which is the topic of my upcoming review of Shrinking...

 

So I fear our comfort food...

 

Is about to be traded in for boiled brussel sprouts and steamed tofu ...

 

​

 

​

 

​

 

​

​

 

​

 

​

​

 

​

​

​

​​

 

​

​

​

​

 

                                                      

 

​

 

​​

​​

​​

​

​

 

​

 

​

 

​

 

​

​

​

​

 

​

 

​

​

 

​

 

​

​

 

​

​​

 

​

​

​

​

​

 

​

​

​

​

​

​​

​

​

 

​

​

​

 

​

 

​

​

 

​

 

​

​​

​

 

​

 

​

 

​

 

​​

 

​

​

​

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​​

 

​

 

​

​

​

 

​

 

 

 

 

​

 

​

 

​

​

​

 

​

​

​

​

​

​​