Jonathan Krisel treats peculiar behaviour with a straight face and gives comic actors room to work. We rate that restraint, but Rooster is a reminder that appealing performers still need sharper writing.
Fi1m perspective
Steve Carell's awkwardness gives Rooster (2026) its strongest reason to keep watching. We warmed to him because he remains appealing when the jokes around him are familiar. Jonathan Krisel prefers to build a comedy around what its actors can do, leaving them room rather than imposing a conspicuous visual style. We value that patience. But this campus comedy also exposes a limit: its leading man cannot do all the work of an underwritten father-daughter relationship.
Krisel's early work with Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim took him through animation, producing and editing before directing. Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job (2007) helped establish that collaborative way of working with experimental comedy. With Portlandia (2011), which he co-created and largely directed, the emphasis was on character-led satire. His loose, improvised framework treats sketches with the naturalistic pacing of independent film. The useful part is his willingness to take mundane behaviour seriously and give performers time to find what is funny about it.
Baskets (2016), which he co-created with Zach Galifianakis, brought clown performance and family drama together. As its primary director, Krisel made room for emotional scenes alongside absurd comedy, a combination well suited to his preference for treating strange behaviour matter-of-factly. His attention to performers gives that approach a practical basis: the actor has space to find something beyond the written joke. We are more interested in those decisions about pace and performance than in a recognisable set of camera tricks.
In Rooster, created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses, Krisel directs within somebody else's series. The cast give Carell good company, but we found too little in the central relationship to make the familiar humour worth recommending. Those are problems with the writing, and it would be unfair to assign them all to a director of individual episodes. His presence is not a reason to overlook them, either. Try it for Carell if his awkwardness appeals; keep expectations for the family story modest.
Biography
Jonathan Krisel (born 4 January 1979) is an American director, producer, writer and editor. He began working with the comedy duo Tim & Eric on Tom Goes to the Mayor and later directed episodes of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule.
Krisel co-created the IFC sketch series Portlandia (2011–2018), directing and co-writing the majority of its episodes. He co-created the FX series Baskets (2016–2019) with Louis C.K. and Zach Galifianakis, serving as executive producer and primary director. His other directing credits include episodes of Kroll Show, Man Seeking Woman, Ghosted, Moonbase 8, English Teacher and Rooster (2026). He is the grandson of child actress Virginia Weidler.
