Rooster, Episode 1.8: Are Rooster and Tommy boyfriends or father-son? Is Eli having a gay romance with a girl? With Jonah's backside and Noah's d*ck

 

Link to the n*de dudes

I've been watching Rooster on MAX, with Steve Carrel (left) as a trashy novelist who becomes Writer in Residence at a snooty private college -- to see if there's any development in the gay-subtext buddy bond between Rooster and his writing student, Tommy (Maximo Salas, right) 

And any more appearances from the extremely cute Eli (Jonah Beckett, n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).   

I'm reviewing Episode 1.8, "Nobody Spook It," which is not about Halloween.  But I'll skip the numerous plot threads that aren't about hot guys.

Scene 1: Rooster and Daughter watching tv.  She starts crying because the show is so sad -- it's Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  

Back Story: She was up for tenure in art history, until she was fired for accidentally burned down the house of her boyfriend Archie, a professor of Russian Literature, when he dumped her for a student, who turned out to be pregnant.  It goes on like that.

Cut to the President asking Rooster about his Thanksgiving.  "My Daughter was sad about something, but she wouldn't tell me what it was."  You watched a friggin' Christmas movie. Of course she was sad. 

Next up: the Dean's Secretary, Sidekick Tommy's mother, whom Rooster had an affair with, to the discomfort of all parties.  She's quitting, but she has a list of rules to endure their last eight days together: "no tight-fitting khakis," and so on.  His bulge would be too tempting?

Scene 2: In creative writing class, Rooster complains that his students' rough drafts aren't "page turners."  As an example, he cites a letter the fictional Rooster receives from an old flame.  They scoff: "Who writes letters these days?"  

Sidekick Tommy has returned after dropping out due to the trauma of discovering Rooster dating his mom. "My therapist is helping me imagine you with no stuff down there."  Yes, that would work to decreae your attraction to him.  

Wait -- a c*ck is a male chicken, a rooster.  I just got it.  The guy is named after his p*nis! No wonder Tommy likes him so much!  (Technically Rooster is the name of the character, but that's how Tommy always refers to him).

After class, Rooster offers to help Sidekick Tommy get back up to speed with his other classes.  "My office, 3:00 pm sharp?"  

It's very difficult to get screenshots of these two.  They're always separated by a vast blank space.  Maybe to highlight their trouble making an emotional connection?  After all, you meet a guy through a discussion of doing bedroom stuff with him, move in, and suddenly he starts seeing your Mom.  That's bound to raise issues. 

Wait -- Tommy's chapter is covered with red marks and statements: "Explore further.  Do more with this." And no grade.  His buddy got a check plus.  Why is Rooster so critical of his work?

Scene 3: At the President's sauna.  No beefcake.  He's advising the Pregnant Ex-Girlfriend that if the dad doesn't want to be invested in their baby's life, she should take the job at Biotech and move away.  

Cut to hockey player JD (Noah Grismer, not shown) telling his buds, Spooner (Evan Jachelski, left) and George (Xavier Beloved, right) that they should all wear bucket hats.  It could be their thing. 

They see through his obvious attempt to get them to drop the nickname Pig T*ts (because he has extra nipples).  No dice: "You'll always be Pig T*ts to us."

Rooster drops by to ask where Sidekick Tommy went.  He didn't make their 3:00 meeting, and he skipped Econ.  They don't know.

Scene 4: A lady who teaches the gay poet Garcia Lorca wants to talk to Eli's Girlfriend about her poem, "Cherry Pop."  She explains: "Eli is the cherry, and I'm the one who popped..."  

Whoops, Eli is right there. "You don't need to tell everyone that I was a virgin before you pegged me" (topped him).  She orders him to wait outside.

Lorca Lady loves the poem, and wants to publish it in The Review.  "It just needs a little tweaking."

"Sure, I'll go microdose my balls off and get busy."  You got metaphorical balls, and you're a top.  That's quite a homo*rotic relationship, for a boy and a girl.

More after the break

Scene 5: Time for Russian Studies class, taught by Archie (Phil Dunster, n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends), the ex-husband of Rooster's daughter, remember?  He promises some purloined letters and a cameo from the Greeks, and a lover's quarrel between Tito and Stalin over Yugoslavia.  I thought he taught literature.  The girls compete over who can get a bigger complement from the hunk.

Scene 6: Rooster discovers that Sidekick Tommy is dropping out of college, and visits him at work (the coffee shop) to ask  why. 

"I just enrolled because my Mom works at the college, so I could get free tuition.  But my grades are terrible."

"Grades are everything," Buddy George points out. Spooner chimes in with a story about his dad marrying a girl his age; "and she's hot!!!!"  Isn't the eight episode a little late to be identifying as heterosexual?  And what was the point?  No one was talking about gay stuff.

Sidekick Tommy has another reason for dropping out; "You never went to college, Boyfriend...um, I mean Mentor Rooster, and you're a famous writer!"

"Yes, but I regret not going, because I never made any friends.  You have lots of friends who depend on you.  So you have to stay in college for them."

"Naw, I live in town.  I can still hang out with them."

Suddenly the Town Cop drops in, looking for the gun he lost yesterday.  Sidekick Tommy always wanted to be a cop!  You need at least an associate's degree, and nowadays usually a bachelor's.

Scene 7: At the hockey arena (Rooster is the Hockey Coach as well as Writer in Residence). He  complains to his Daughter that Sidekick Tommy is doing a ride along with the Town Cop, to see what policing is like!  Aww, he's dumped you for a new guy.

Daughter is suspicious: "Why do you care so much?  Wait -- is this the guy who moved in with you?" The wheels turn, but instead of boyfriends, she concludes that "you secretly wish that he was your son."

Rooster: "It's not a secret."  

To deflect attention, Rooster concludes that his Daughter is also seeing someone.  Nope, but to humor him, she points out her "new guy": Hunter, the hot bartender (David Grimsby, right): "I like him.  He doesn't skimp on the nuts." Har-har.

Rooster insists that she go sit with him, so she awkwardly tries to get him to play along with her charade. 

Uh-oh, the Mascot is bumping into and knocking over players -- on his own team.  Someone stole the Mascot uniform, and is sabotaging them!

Scene 8:  Rooster notices Sidekick Tommy and the Town Cop in the police car, ecstatically singing to Creed, delighting in each other's company. These two can be filmed pressed together with no problem.

Cop wishes that he could show Sidekick Tommy "some action" (tell me more...), but the only outstanding felony is a stolen mascot costume (callback).  But Tommy is having a blast. They used the radar gun to clock his running speed: 8 miles an hour! Not really fast, dude.

When he goes into the coffee shop for some free donuts, Rooster points out that Tommy's Mom really wants him to finish college.

"Well, my Mom wants me to come visit her and her girlfriend Sharon, but that ain't happening."  He quickly clarifies: not because she has a girlfriend, because Sharon is the meanest person on Earth.

But Rooster uses his "Get out of jail free card," so Cop has no choice.  He tells Tommy that police work is the worst.  Sure, you can stop the guy who bullied you in high school over and over, until he gets a lawyer, but you don't make real friends.  The other officers went off to a weekend retreat and didn't invite you, but they invited Sharon!

Tommy is not dissuaded, so Rooster joins them on the ride-along.  Suddenly they see the fake Mascot!  "Nobody spook it!" Cop advises, but it runs.  Tommy jumps out of the car and chases it down.  It's JD from Scene 2!  (The  guy who wanted his friends to wear bucket hats.)

He explains that he stole the uniform and sabotaged the game so no one would call him Pig T*ts anymore.  Tommy points out that stealing a mascot costume won't change things: "It will just be, Pig T*ts stole the mascot uniform."

"I guess I didn't think it through."

Tommy agrees to stop calling him Pig T*ts, and since he's the leader of the friend group, the other guys will stop, too.  He also lets JD get away, claiming that he got the head but didn't see who was wearing the uniform . 

Scene 9: Later, Tommy and Rooster sit on lawn chairs outside (in New England in December), again separated by a vast space.  You're connecting.  It wouldn't hurt to sit within a yard of each other.

Tommy: "I'd be a shitty cop.  I'm too soft-hearted.  I'd let everyone go.  But why did you mark up my paper so much, and leave Spooner's paper blank except for a check plus?"

"Because he'll never be a writer, but you have real potential.  I wanted to challenge you."

Scene 10: The next day, Tommy approaches Rooster's Daughter, notes that he's not dropping out, and tells her "If you ever want to talk..."

Daughter: "You're not really my brother."

Tommy: "I know.  I wish Rooster was my dad.  My real dad doesn't care about me."

This gives Daughter the courage to tell Rooster what's really bothering her.  Except the scene fades out. We don't know what it is.  Darn!  The end.

Beefcake: None in this episode.  I was expecting JD and the guys to strip down, but they didn't, so I posted a beefcake shot of Noah and his boyfriend (below) and probably his p*nis (on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).

Queer Characters: None, or everyone:

Eli and Eva's relationship is very queer coded.  

I don't know how to code Tommy and Rooster: The father-son dynamic makes sense, but then, what is the point of the numerous allusions Tommy's erotic interest?  The other characters thinking that they are a romantic couple?  And what is the point of the endless space between them in most shots?

My Grade:  A little convoluted, and some annoying/disturbing subtexts.  And not enough beefcake.  These are hockey players.  How about some locker room scenes?   B-.

See also: Jonah Beckett: Sean Hayes' godson does bottom stuff, faints, sucks, gets nekkid. And that's just on tv. With his c*ck

Rooster Episode 1.1: Trashy novelist at an elite college, hetero romance problems, a gay sidekick, Dunster d*ck, and the guy from "Scrubs"