{"id":2597453,"date":"2026-05-01T05:49:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/steve-carells-rooster-vision-of-the-university-is-a-lie\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T05:55:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:55:56","slug":"steve-carells-rooster-vision-of-the-university-is-a-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/steve-carells-rooster-vision-of-the-university-is-a-lie\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Carell&#8217;s &#8216;Rooster&#8217; vision of the university is a lie"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsteve-carells-rooster-vision-of-the-university-is-a-lie%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2597453&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The piece argues that HBO\u2019s new campus comedy-drama, *Rooster*, leans on Steve Carell\u2019s long-running \u201cclueless schlub\u201d persona, but ultimately offers an overly tidy, unrealistic version of college life and \u201cwoke\u201d culture. Carell plays greg Russo, a bestselling novelist brought to Ludlow College as a visiting writer, were his work and personal interactions-especially entanglements involving faculty and students-highlight his social cluelessness and bad judgment.<\/p>\n<p>While the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >article acknowledges standout performances<\/a> (notably John C. mcginley) and some moments of humor, it criticizes how the show treats political nonconformity and ideological conflict as harmless quirks rather than somthing with real consequences. the critic claims the series caricatures debates around topics like sexism and cultural appropriation, sanitizes academic power dynamics, and therefore fails to capture the complexity of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/23-conservative-movies-that-defy-the-hollywood-trend\/\" title=\"23 Conservative Movies That Defy The Hollywood Trend\">modern university life<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p>Here\u2019s a crazy casting idea: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/politics\/1841015\/laughing-on-the-inside\/\">Steve Carell<\/a> as a clueless blunderer unable to grasp even the most rudimentary of social cues. Sure, the former star of <em>The 40-Year-Old Virgin<\/em>, <em>Dinner for Schmucks<\/em>, and a dozen other variations on the theme has been playing that type for more than 20 years, but supply is still barely keeping up with demand. If, as memory insists, the America of my <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/children\/\">childhood<\/a> saw itself as <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/892728\/lucasfilm-president-says-indiana-jones-will-never-be-recast\/\">Indiana Jones<\/a>, cracking whips until the nations fell in line, the anxious generation\u2019s avatar of choice is unquestionably <em>The Office<\/em>\u2019s Michael Scott.<\/p>\n<p>Carell\u2019s latest schlub is Greg Russo, protagonist of <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/hbo\/\">HBO<\/a>\u2019s new campus dramedy, <em>Rooster<\/em>. A popular novelist in the James Patterson vein, Greg writes the kind of books in which \u201cthe characters you like have sex, [while] the ones you don\u2019t get shot in the face.\u201d As the series opens, our hero is guest-lecturing at <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/new-england\/\">New England<\/a>\u2019s Ludlow College, a liberal-arts institution where his daughter, Katie (Charly Clive), teaches. There, persuaded by flaky president Walter Mann (John C. McGinley) to stay on, Greg settles down to a term as visiting writer, unofficial campus mascot, and general meddler in others\u2019 affairs.<\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4548985\/amazon-reboot-the-apprentice-trump-jr\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Amazon mulling reboot of The Apprentice with Trump Jr. as possible host: Report<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4547783\/assassination-culture-embraced-by-left-joe-concha\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>\u2018Assassination culture is now being embraced by the Left\u2019: Joe Concha<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4445227\/animal-farm-filmmakers-push-back-on-anti-capitalist-movie-criticism\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Animal Farm filmmakers push back on \u2018anti-capitalist\u2019 movie criticism<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>In typical <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/colleges-and-universities\/\">college-campus fashion<\/a>, these dealings comprise a curious mix of the professional and the personal. Annoyed by Mann\u2019s insistence that Ludlow\u2019s poetry magazine move online, English professor Dylan Shepard (Danielle Deadwyler) salves her feelings by attempting to seduce Greg. Employed alongside her husband, Archie (Phil Dunster), Katie must navigate both the practical and emotional consequences of his infidelity with a student (Lauren Tsai). In these and other moments, Carell\u2019s character says the wrong thing as confidently as others stroll across the quad, extolling, for instance, the virtues of \u201cdill pickle-flavored Corn Nuts\u201d during what is meant to be a father-daughter heart-to-heart. Even the trans-Atlantic literary scene is a mystery to our bestselling lead. Confronted with Zadie Smith\u2019s famous name, Greg professes to \u201cabsolutely love him. Or her. Or they.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Steve Carell and John C. McGinley in \u201cRooster.\u201d(Katrina Marcinowski\/HBO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Like most of this decade\u2019s campus productions, <em>Rooster<\/em> has much to say about the worried woke. A scene in which Greg reads aloud from his latest novel features undergraduate pushback of such plausibility \u2014 \u201cWhy do you hate women?\u201d \u2014 that only a gloss of <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/antisemitism\/\">antisemitism<\/a> seems missing. A midseason art-history seminar doesn\u2019t devolve into a man-hating rant; it is that from the start. The problem with these setpieces is that <em>Rooster<\/em> plainly sees woke thinking as harmlessly eccentric, a human foible akin to Greg\u2019s inability to walk up a hill without tripping. For those of us who know better, the dissonance is jarring. If a coordinated assault on Western civilization is going to be reconceived as comedy, it had better be funnier than this. <\/p>\n<p>Consider, for example, the confusion attending the show\u2019s treatment of its political nonconformists. Caught inadvertently \u201cwalk[ing] like an <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/egypt\/\">Egyptian<\/a>,\u201d Greg comes to the attention of a college disciplinary board on the prowl for cultural appropriation. He brings coffee to the hearing, and everything turns out just fine. Something similar occurs when smarmy administrator Vincent Riggs (Alan Ruck) declares an alleged ADHD sufferer to be \u201cjust lazy and a little dumb,\u201d a judgment that would, in the world progressives have created, damage even a brilliant academic career. That Vincent\u2019s colleagues greet his remark with little more than a sigh is in keeping with <em>Rooster<\/em>\u2019s lighter-than-puff-pastry tone. It is also fundamentally dishonest. Whatever victories against thought-policing the Right has won in recent years, we haven\u2019t yet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/counting-down-the-7-worst-contracts-in-mlb-history\/\" title=\"Counting Down The 7 Worst Contracts In MLB History\">battled back<\/a> that far.<\/p>\n<p>This is not to say that every campus-wokeness script must necessarily be dour. Luca Guadagnino\u2019s <em>After the Hunt<\/em> did masterful work in that register just last year, but Netflix\u2019s <em>The Chair<\/em> (2021) struck a different balance, having its goofy fun even as it cast a gimlet eye on the realities of American academic decline. What both of these productions had in common was an interest in human beings in all their complicated fullness, living in a world approximately like the one we know. Even <em>The Office<\/em> possessed as much in its finest moments. <em>Rooster<\/em> doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/4531253\/miniature-wife-peacock-tv-review-womens-rights\/\">HONEY, I SHRUNK WOMEN\u2019S RIGHTS<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Instead, the series treads clumsily the same ground that Apple TV\u2019s <em>Ted Lasso<\/em> strode with style: a bubblegum lane in which all problems are trivial and ideological ratchets never turn. Veteran producer Bill Lawrence co-created both programs. I suppose this is what passes for feel-good television these days: treacly make-believe dressed up in adult garments. Decency porn for the hoi polloi. But, reader, I have been on and around college campuses for the last 28 years. <em>Rooster\u2019s<\/em> vision of the university is a lie. Though one could overstate the threat, the fact remains that sane Americans have adversaries there. They are voracious. They will not be mollified with a smile. <\/p>\n<p>For those who disagree, HBO\u2019s latest has its share of pleasures. McGinley, so good on NBC\u2019s <em>Scrubs<\/em>, shines as a college president beset by dissatisfactions on all sides. Comedian Rory Scovel earns a few laughs as a bumbling but well-meaning campus police officer. Fans of Carell\u2019s familiar shtick will be wowed anew: The 63-year-old has learned nothing and still can\u2019t follow the social plot. Yet, may I be forgiven for liking his dramatic roles best? One thinks of Hulu\u2019s <em>The Patient<\/em> (2022), for instance, in which Carell played a therapist held prisoner by a deranged man. Say what you will about the melodramatic stakes. At least that fellow knew he had an enemy.<\/p>\n<p><em>Graham Hillard is the TV critic for the <\/em>Washington Examiner <em>magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crazy idea: Steve Carell as a clueless blunderer who can\u2019t grasp social cues-he\u2019s played this role for 20+ years, but the supply still can\u2019t meet demand<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":956,"featured_media":2597454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/LA.TV_.Rooster.050626.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[32189,78916,78915,78917],"class_list":["post-2597453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-higher-education","tag-rooster","tag-steve-carell","tag-university-critique"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/LA.TV_.Rooster.050626.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/956"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2597453"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2597457,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597453\/revisions\/2597457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2597454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2597453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2597453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2597453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}