Bill Lawrence makes comedies about people learning to support one another, and we usually enjoy their company. His ensembles can earn the warmth, but Rooster exposes how little a familiar joke does for an underwritten relationship.
Fi1m perspective
Steve Carell is appealingly awkward in Rooster (2026), but the father-daughter relationship around him remains underwritten. That is a recurring risk in Bill Lawrence’s comedy: an agreeable ensemble can keep us watching while the writing leaves their troubles vague. He can make us care about an ensemble, though the jokes do not always repay the attention. The characters need more than a willingness to help one another.
The ensemble is already the attraction in Friends (1994), on which Lawrence has a writing credit. We value its six sharply matched performances without mistaking their work for one writer’s achievement. Co-creating Spin City (1996) with Gary David Goldberg gave him his first showrunning role, and Scrubs (2001) established his blend of broad comedy and emotional stakes. Cougar Town (2009) followed, then a spell of shorter-lived series. Ted Lasso (2020) marked the resurgence.
There, Jason Sudeikis and a responsive ensemble make the programme worth the patience it asks of us. Lawrence shares the writing with Joe Kelly and Brendan Hunt, among others, and the weakness is specific: American enthusiasm meeting British reserve is too often treated as sufficient material for a joke. The programme needs a more particular surprise than another reminder that the two countries behave differently. The weaker stretches offer little comic alternative for anyone unmoved by Ted’s manner.
Rooster makes that reservation harder to overlook. Lawrence and Matt Tarses are among its writers, and the personal troubles never acquire enough detail to justify the wandering stories. We were frustrated by how often another familiar joke took the place of learning something about the father and daughter. With Blake McClure on cinematography and Ali Greer editing, the programme moves breezily enough; we would have preferred to linger over a discovery about somebody.
Shrinking (2023) continues his interest in flawed people dealing with grief and relationships. That gives him plenty to write about, provided each person’s trouble becomes more than a reason for everyone else to be kind. Start with Ted Lasso, and allow for some laboured jokes.
Biography
Bill Lawrence is an American television writer, producer and director. Born on 26 December 1968 in Ridgefield, Connecticut, he studied English at the College of William & Mary.
He created the medical comedy Scrubs (2001) and co-created Spin City (1996), Cougar Town (2009), Ted Lasso (2020), Shrinking (2023) and Rooster (2026). Earlier in his career he wrote episodes of Friends (1994), The Nanny (1993) and Boy Meets World (1993). His production company is called Doozer.
