The premiere of Rooster, Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses’ new HBO comedy, saw famous author Greg Russo (Carell) head to Ludlow College campus to check on his daughter Katie (Charly Clive). After Katie’s husband and fellow professor Archie (Phil Dunster) cheated on her with a grad student named Sunny (Lauren Tsai), Greg gave him a stern talking to, and Katie accidentally burnt his house down. In Episode 2, “Trousers,” the father and daughter turn to physical violence to get their feelings across…
Early in the episode, Katie punches Archie, leaving him with a black eye. And later, after Greg learns that Archie got Sunny pregnant, he storms to Archie’s hotel room, interrupts his virtual interview about Russian sanctions, and whoops his ass with a ladle live on BBC News. Oh, and did we mention Archie wasn’t wearing any trousers, because they were covered in coffee stains? Perfection!
Photo: HBO
After barging into Archie’s room and screaming “YOU GOT HER PREGNANT?!” Greg beats a pants-less Archie down to the floor. Archie’s laptop falls with them, offering a perfect view of the two men on struggling to grab hold of the ladle. When Greg secures his grasp on the makeshift weapon, Archie desperately crawls onto his bed in hopes of escaping, but he’s not fast enough. Greg beats his butt with the kitchen tool, then tackles him so hard that the bed frame breaks.
When breaking down the fight scene for DECIDER, Dunster revealed that the hilarious bed break was entirely unexpected! “The funny thing was that the bed wasn’t supposed to break,” Dunster told DECIDER over Zoom. “That was a very, very happy accident.”
