Tim Allen and Kat Dennings are both sitcom royalty – he from Home Improvement, she from the surprisingly long-running series 2 Broke Girls. (It’s hardly a classic, but this series made it to 138 episodes. That’s well within syndication!) Bundle with the sitcom “Shifting Gears,” a midseason debut that brings Allen back to ABC primetime The two actors use their powers to found a dynasty and play a father and daughter reunited after more than a decade of estrangement. As they enter, both receive thunderous applause from the half-hour multi-camera studio audience. Most new shows have to sell themselves to a potential audience; “Shifting Gears” enjoys a huge lead to offset its early stumbles.

Allen – also an executive producer – plays Matt, the owner of a vintage car restoration shop. (Dennings also produces.) This shot has proven potential as a workplace comedy, as demonstrated by the success of Shane Gillis’ “Tires” on Netflix. But The two episodes of “Shifting Gears” screened for critics instead focus heavily on family dynamics. When Dennings’ Riley pulls up in Matt’s stolen GTO with her two children in tow, she asks for a place to stay after her divorce. A classic odd couple scenario emerges, except these roommates already share decades of emotional baggage.

“Shifting Gears” was created by husband-and-wife duo Mike Scully and Julie Thacker Scully (“The Simpsons”) and directed by Michelle Nader (who reunited with Dennings after a stint on “2 Broke Girls”). . (Scully and Thacker Scully left the series before it was picked up.) “When I build things, they’re designed to last,” Matt grumbles. “Except for our relationship!” Riley replies. This lack of subtlety extends to obvious attempts at intergenerational humor. Riley’s teenage son Carter (Maxwell Simkins) decides to overhaul Matt’s Instagram presence, while Matt’s granddaughter Georgia (Barrett Margolis), when she announces her intention to become a billionaire, warns her men against having a wife who earns more than she .

As this anecdote suggests, Matt shares Allen’s genuine conservatism, albeit a cozier version with more sanded edges. He idolizes Reagan but doesn’t mention the incumbent president, even when tariffs are in the news; Riley defends Nancy Pelosi, even though a woman who dropped out of college to run off with a bass player seems more of a Bernie type. Matt is supposed to be more of a lovable weirdo, prone to kid-nowadays chatter about school accommodations that quickly dissolves into mutual understanding.

Matt’s irritability seems even more convincing in the context of his relationship with Riley, a case of two stubborn people who have recently lost their long-standing buffer in Matt’s late wife. There’s a bit of bittersweet slapstick in the premiere, where Matt, taken aback by Riley’s display of vulnerability, clumsily pats her foot. The good news is that there’s a lot more to explore in this area for “Shifting Gears”: We still haven’t met Riley’s brother, who could provide more context about her childhood, or her ex-husband, with whom she presumably lives being together becomes co-parenting.

Meanwhile, “Shifting Gears” could integrate Matt’s personal and professional spheres more smoothly. (Riley has vague ambitions to become a lawyer, but it’s Matt’s interests that drive the series from the title.) There’s a forced B-plot in the second episode, in which Riley tries to kill Matt’s employee Gabriel (Seann William Scott). with her high school classmate Caitlyn (Brenda Song), a story arc that exposes the ensemble’s seams, even as it obviously buys time for an extended will-they-won’t-they between Gabriel and Riley. “Shifting Gears” is about a family coming back together. Maybe it’s fitting that it doesn’t feel like a coherent whole yet.

“Shifting Gears” will premiere January 8 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, with remaining episodes airing weekly on Wednesdays.