The actor plays a bestselling author who takes a position at the college where his daughter teaches in HBO's charming campus comedy.
Steve Carell's character in the likable, watchable and even lovable "Rooster" is classic Steve Carell: Self-aware, charming, boyish, incapable of reading a room, sidestepping a faux pas or calculating nuance. He's certainly nicer than Michael Scott ("The Office") and less psychotic than John du Pont ("Foxcatcher"). Think of him as the 57-year-old virgin. Temperamentally speaking.
This is not to imply that author Greg Russo -- creator of the "Rooster" series of action novels (think "Reacher," maybe) -- is ever less than an adult. When we meet him, the very popular writer has returned to his alma mater of Ludlow College to be a guest speaker after many declined invitations, but with an ulterior motive: His daughter, art-history professor Katie (the marvelous Charly Clive), has been abandoned by her husband, Russia expert Archie (Phil Dunster, "Ted Lasso"), for a biotech student, Sunny (Lauren Tsai). Sunny, they all will learn, is also pregnant. Greg thinks his presence at Ludlow will somehow help his daughter. His daughter thinks otherwise. Especially after he accepts an offer to teach full time.
Campus comedies seem to be flourishing, like ivy on Harvard brick, or mold in a bathroom. One can see the attraction for writers: the insular setting, the acceptance of eccentricity, the entrenchment of the otherwise unemployable, and the ease by which one can lampoon social trends. Greg, clueless about just how politically incorrect he can be without even trying, gets chastised several times, though the circumstances are deliberately exaggerated. (He refers to one unreceptive student as his "white whale" and the kids, untutored in Melville, accuse Greg of both racism and body-shaming.) The creators of the series, Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses ("Scrubs"), do slip in more significant criticisms of higher education and its ethics: The hockey coach, for instance (played by Scott MacArthur), is struggling with his sobriety and, when drunk, angrily assaults his players. Any faculty member in a department other than sports would be summarily fired, maybe indicted.
There's also the issue of the radiant Dylan Shepard (the luminous Danielle Deadwyler). When her belligerent, misogynistic chain-smoking colleague (Alan Ruck) has a heart attack, she ascends to the role of (acting) dean of students. It's a job she was made for. Will she keep it? A resolution to that will have to wait for the second season, which seems as inevitable as the eventual but thus-far-stymied romance of Dylan and Greg.
Meanwhile: What helps make "Rooster" so engaging, even as it negotiates familiar territory and Mr. Carell reprises his CV? The supporting characters, not including Mr. Dunster and Ms. Clive, only because they qualify as principals. John C. McGinley, an actor everyone knows (from "Scrubs," among other shows), is the ridiculously buff president of Ludlow, Walter Mann, who subjects everyone to his administrative whims and his infernal, handmade, submarine-shaped sauna. Followed by ice plunge. Robby Hoffman ("Hacks"), who has been carving out her own special place in TV comedy, is Sunny’s roommate, Mo, who treats the pompous Archie with the disdain he deserves. (“Move out!” she bellows, after Arch moves in.) Annie Mumolo puts an original spin on the college secretary, and Phoenix Raei, as Dan the campus cop, keeps catching Greg doing something wrong. Like going out and getting drunk with his students (Maximo Salas, Evan Jachelski, Xavier Beloved). Which is a bad idea any time. But especially when you’re a Steve Carell character. And get away with so little.
Rooster
Begins Sunday, 10 p.m., HBO