Tim Allen's sitcom just for his fans

The best thing I can say about Shifting Gears, the new ABC sitcom about Tim Allen ranting about woke things he hates, is that I thought it was going to be a lot worse than it is is.

Yes, eight years after the network canceled his last sitcom in the same genre, Last Man Standing (later acquired by Fox, where it ran until 2021), Allen is back at ABC. And instead of playing an overwrought patriarch who works at an outdoor company and fights with his wife and daughters, he’s an overwrought patriarch who owns a vintage car shop and fights a daughter, played by Kat Dennings. So different!

“Gears” (Wednesdays, 8 EST/PST, ★½ out of four), created by Mike Scully and Julie Thacker-Scully (“The Simpsons”), is neither original nor exciting; It’s an unchallenged and unfunny package of generational stereotypes and heated banter between Allen and Dennings. The two episodes provided for review contain dialogue so boring it could have been written by AI. They lack excitement in any way, but aren’t so terribly awful that they offend the senses. And considering both Allen’s track record and the recent spate of deeply disappointing multi-camera sitcoms on television, that’s actually an achievement. Expectations are everything.

In this series, Allen plays Matt, a widower, everyman and owner of Fox News opinions. His quiet life is turned upside down (a must-see sitcom) when his daughter Riley (Dennings) moves back with her two children after a costly divorce. Now he has to deal with these meek kids who would rather Uber than drive and his rebellious, free-thinking daughter, all while running his shop run by his rogue mechanics Stitch (Daryl “Chill” Mitchell) and Gabriel (Seann William). Scott). . How much can a man handle?

It’s all very predictable and designed for lowest common denominator humor and confirmation bias. The kids (Barrett Margolis and Maxwell Simkins) act like “kids these days” with their screens and made-up fears. Dennings’ Riley sounds like a teenager even though she’s in her 30s. Matt may be wrong about some things, but he always maintains the moral high ground. This is not a man who is ready to learn something new. And the show even manages to make the joke (more than once!) that Riley and Matt are mistaken for a couple. You will tremble with disgust.

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Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how good or bad “Gears” is, because it’s a Tim Allen series. There are two camps: those who like Allen and follow him to any series that can string two sets together; and those who loathe it and wouldn’t bother checking out “Gears” even if it were an Emmy-winning triumph. I have to admit that Allen isn’t my cup of tea, but some doses of the actor are fine while others can be downright toxic. A “Santa Clause” TV show? Impossible to sit through. A mediocre sitcom? Kind of tasty.

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Tim Allen’s sitcom just for his fans

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