Steve Carell gets his 'Ted Lasso' moment in 'Rooster' – Review

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Steve Carell is in his lovable goofball era, and he should lean right in.

The comedian and star best known for being the world's worst boss for seven seasons of NBC's beloved sitcom "The Office," has run the gamut in his long career from hero to cartoon villain, from a cringey "40-Year-Old Virgin" to a creepy TV host on Apple's "The Morning Show." But at this point in his tenure on our screens, Carell is unmistakably at his best when he's the underdog you can root for.

That's why the actor is so well matched to his new HBO comedy, "Rooster" (Sundays, 10 ET/PT, ★★★ out of four). A twee take on the quirky community on a modern college campus, "Rooster" casts Carell as an adorable and adoring dad to an adult daughter going through a rough time. Created by the king of optimism Bill Lawrence, "Rooster" has same the kind of glass-half-full tone as his celebrated comedies "Ted Lasso" and "Shrinking." Whether it can rise to the popularity and success of those two remains to be seen.

The show takes its poultry title from Carell's character, Greg Russo, a self-proclaimed "beach read" novelist whose airport bookstore bestsellers are about a detective called "Rooster." We meet this unassuming, bumbling man in his 60s visiting the campus of a liberal arts school, where the savvy students talk circles around his old-fashioned sensibilities and insecurities. He's really there, however, for his daughter Katie (Charly Clive), a professor who is going through a messy divorce after her ex Archie (Phil Dunster, aka Jamie Tartt of "Lasso"), a fellow professor in this tiny community, has an affair with a post-grad student.

Katie doesn't want her dad's advice or help, but Greg is the kind of guy who just can't leave her to misery all alone. Fresh off a divorce himself, he does everything in his limited power to help Katie, even if sometimes he makes things worse. He eventually takes a job at the school pushed by cold-plunging dude-bro college president Walter (John C. McGinley, alum of Lawrence's "Scrubs"), keeping him and Katie in the same circles indefinitely.