New Delhi, March 25 -- It takes a while to understand what Rooster is about. Or why this HBO series - streaming in India on JioHotstar- even exists. In the show, a man who writes "airport reads" has been offered the job of writer-in-residence at a University, but by the time the first episode ends, he hasn't taken it up, or found reason to. The paperback writer, played by the endlessly interesting Steve Carell, has no real reason to stick around, yet there's something charming about his confusion, enough for us to hang around and meet campus characters till, halfway down episode 2, he takes up the gig. This is relaxed storytelling, and feels like anathema to these cliffhanger-loving times.

The show's creator Bill Lawrence has always gone...