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Rooster<\/a><\/p>\n Episode 2<\/p>\n \n Season 1<\/p>\n Episode 2\n <\/p>\n \n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n 3 stars<\/p>\n ***\n <\/p>\n \n Greg\u2019s baggage as a parent and husband causes him to meddle in Katie\u2019s life. The second installment of Rooster is more scattered than the first one, as the run time is spent rapidly checking in with multiple supporting characters, resulting in a fractured focus. Honestly, no shade at all to the rest of the cast here, because they\u2019re all truly great, but whenever Steve Carell isn\u2019t on screen, my brain is just incessantly asking when he\u2019s coming back. I\u2019m sure the ensemble characters will eventually be captivating in their own right, but as for now, I just want him on my screen at all times. There\u2019s a reason that the coveted Ludlow weathervane has a rooster on it, am I right?<\/p>\n A lot is going on this week. Greg works to get Katie to stay at Ludlow because he doesn\u2019t want her to be a quitter like him. Archie has a no-good, very-bad day, and Dylan goes to bat for her students. We also meet the Dean of Ludlow, played by Alan Ruck, who clearly relishes taking on the role of entitled asshole. When we first meet him, he does a quick walk-and-talk with Dylan and mainsplains why poetry isn\u2019t important to the overall health of the college. The way he sarcastically compares it to rooting for a sports team, jabbing at the back of an imaginary jersey, and shouting \u201cE.E. Cummings!\u201d is pretty funny. (FWIW, my poetry jersey would read \u201cAlfred Loyd Tennyson!\u201d) I seriously cannot wait for Ruck to chew some scenery with Carell.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with Katie and Greg, the ostensible heart of the show. As the episode opens, Greg rallies his depressed daughter to come to the police station so she can make her statement about the fire. She insists that she doesn\u2019t have to practice her statement as long as she\u2019s telling the truth, and she does tell the truth, but she\u2019s also kind of a petulant brat about everything. When Archie tells her that he\u2019s already forgiven her for setting fire to both his most prized possession (intentional) and his house (accidental), she becomes irate, punching him in the face. Girl, I get that you\u2019re mad about the affair and the baby, but you burned everything the man owned to the ground! And he\u2019s choosing to forgive you! A little self-reflection here is warranted.<\/p>\n As Katie and Greg walk home from the disastrous meeting with the police, they wander past a year-round Christmas shop that serves amazing hot chocolate with whimsical peppermint straws. (I want it now. Gimmie it.) They also chat about a time-honored tradition of a professor stealing a weathervane, hiding it on campus, and giving all the students the day off when it\u2019s found. It\u2019s only a matter of time before Greg gets himself a hot chocolate and steals the weathervane in the name of getting Katie to stay and fight for her job and her marriage.<\/p>\n You see, Greg regrets a lot of things in his life. Chiefly, he regrets how his marriage ended. According to Katie, he ran away to Florida to \u201chide\u201d five years ago when his ex-wife cheated on him, and he hasn\u2019t been the same since. Now that the pattern is repeating in his daughter\u2019s life, he sees an opportunity to right the wrong and teach her to stand and fight instead of giving up as he did. However, there\u2019s a problem with this logic. Elsewhere in this episode, Greg also tells Dylan that he\u2019s been a \u201cswooper\u201d \u2014 code for \u201chelicopter parent\u201d \u2014 throughout Katie\u2019s life, making the hard things go away before she faced any sort of adversity. And he\u2019s doing the same exact thing now, holding her hand and fighting her battles every step of the way. He\u2019s become a Super Swooper.<\/p>\n We see Greg go to the police station with Katie, but he also goes to talk to Walt, not once but twice, on her behalf. We\u2019ve never once seen Katie speak to this man \u2014 she even resigns via email (which we see in comically large font on Walt\u2019s computer screen) \u2014 but Greg has been all up in his business since he stepped on campus. Both times, Greg is begging for his daughter\u2019s job back even though she has told him, in no uncertain terms, that she\u2019s done. Granted, the show doesn\u2019t exist if both Greg and Katie don\u2019t stick around on campus, but the man is running a marathon to manifest his own needs through his daughter\u2019s life. Men will literally take a writer-in-residence gig instead of going to therapy.<\/p>\n Yes, Greg takes a deal with Walt. The deal includes Katie writing a letter blaming her actions on her \u201cwoman troubles\u201d (okay, sure, fine, let \u201cwomen troubles\u201d be a get-out-of-jail-free card for once), and Greg taking the position as writer-in-residence at Ludlow. Walt wants a shiny, known author to trot in front of prospective donors and students, and Greg wants Katie to keep her job. In exchange, Walt will also make the fire situation go away. Win-win-win<\/a>, right? Greg begrudgingly accepts the position and goes to help Katie with her letter. But, in a moment of contrived secrecy, we find out that Katie has yet to inform her father that Archie\u2019s lover is pregnant. As soon as he finds out, he scrambles to fight his daughter\u2019s battles yet again by breaking into Archie\u2019s hotel room and beating him with the ladle that the hotel\u2019s skeleton key is attached to. Oh, and Archie is live on the BBC as this is all happening. The live-TV-fail of it all is good for some laughs, even though the idea of Greg physically attacking Archie is kind of icky.<\/p>\n Archie is having a terrible time in this episode, marking him as the resident punching bag of Rooster. He gets coffee spilled all over his only surviving pair of trousers, gets unfairly punched in the face, learns that Sunny is choosing to keep a baby that he definitely does not want, and has Greg burst into his hotel room and beat him senseless with a utensil while the entire world watches. Normally, I wouldn\u2019t feel too bad for Archie \u2014 he\u2019s a cheater with serious avoidant attachment issues \u2014 but the show is also making him a relatively decent guy (if overly forgiving and kind) who just seems to have lost his way. How much punishment can one man take?! On top of all that, it seems that he thinks fatherhood is [checks notes] driving to Costco to get rotisserie chicken? I mean, he\u2019s not totally wrong, but there\u2019s a little more to it than that! Also, Costco is delightful! Have you tried the mini chocolate-chip cookies, Archie?! They\u2019ll heal your battered ego and your broken soul.<\/p>\n Speaking of impending parenthood, we finally get to know Sunny. We not only get to see what \u201cmakes her so special\u201d \u2014 under that casual pony and baggy hoodie, she\u2019s a secret hottie \u2014 but this episode actually gives her some dialogue. She wants to keep the baby (perplexing, but okay) but she also somehow believes that her still-married lover will be all-in on raising this child with her. The heart speaks louder than the brain sometimes, but Sunny is a literal neuroscientist! A fact that she reminds us of in this very conversation! Archie is giving Sunny very clear signals that he\u2019s not fully on board with this decision, and I just don\u2019t want her to get her pregnant heart broken; it\u2019s not good for the baby.<\/p>\n When Sunny helps Archie apply a little foundation to cover his black eye \u2014 she also wants to give him a \u201cbold lip,\u201d but he sadly declines \u2014 she asks him to move in with her. He initially balks at the idea, but once Greg gains access to his room because they\u2019re in the same boutique hotel with questionable ladle-based security, he moves in with her. And, what do we find when Sunny opens the door? Robby Hoffman! The reveal comes complete with her exasperated groan at having to share space with a self-involved man. We feel you, roomie.<\/p>\n \u2022 Greg gets me every time with his gentle but genuine reactions to all of Walt\u2019s eccentricities. The character he\u2019s reminding me of most in this series is his sweet and bumbling Andy Stitzer from The 40-Year-Old Virgin. His line reading of \u201cWow. That is large font!\u201d got a big laugh out of me. It was some very large font, indeed.<\/p>\n \u2022 When Walt tells Dylan that Ludlow has to move the Ludlow Review online as a cost-cutting measure, I was a bit incredulous. How much can a few hundred copies of a poetry magazine cost, anyway? But print media is, indeed, dying, so I can\u2019t blame Walt. But I can blame Dylan for giving up so easily. Sell ads to the parents! Hold a bake sale! Do something, lady! Don\u2019t just set your dream down to die.<\/p>\n \u2022 There\u2019s an unnamed student in Dylan\u2019s poetry class who killed me with her relaxed attitude to sex. She calls a fellow student, Eli, out, asking him in front of the whole class if he wants to get pegged, and when he says he has asthma, she immediately volleys back, \u201cWell, bring your nebulizer.\u201d The payoff to this setup doesn\u2019t come until later, when Eli is snoozing, naked, in bed next to her while she watches Archie\u2019s BBC appearance explode. I guess Eli did want to get pegged, after all.<\/p>\n \u2022 Whenever Rory Scoville is on screen, I\u2019m laughing. His character\u2019s inability to keep track of his gun is certainly going to end in a Chekov-like situation later on, but I\u2019m betting it will be hilarious.<\/p>\n \u2022 Where can I get a hot chocolate with a peppermint straw? I searched and didn\u2019t find any shops that offer it near me, but I did find these pricey peppermint straws <\/a>on Amazon. Will I buy them and make my own? Watch this space.<\/p>\n Sign Up for the Vulture Newsletter<\/p>\n Entertainment news, for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n
\n Photo: HBO\n <\/p>\n