Gear shifting
Tim Allen is no stranger to sitcoms, but the genre itself feels like one these days. Once upon a time, the broadcast sitcom was king of the hill. Show how Friends, Seinfeld AND Home Improvement koli ruled. Even before the broadcast began, that began to change.
First, the nature of the sitcom began to change. The office brought a fresh “mockumentary” style to the genre. Expectations began to change. Premium dramas became more in fashion after the success of shows like The sopranos AND Breaking Bad. Streaming fundamentally changed the way we watch television, with an even greater emphasis on big-budget drama or fantasy, not to mention Netflix’s over-the-top release model. The coveted weekly schedules became irrelevant. People didn’t watch TV like that anymore.
Along with the rise of premium TV, the MCU made superhero movies—and subsequent shows—more popular than ever before. Game Of Thrones made fantasy popular. And reality TV continued to be the cheap and popular TV genre of choice for lower budget programming.
Sitcoms didn’t disappear, but their heyday was long gone. Modern sitcom adjacent shows like The Good Place removed the traces of laughter. The setting was also moved. There’s a sense in most classic series that everything is on a soundstage, whether it’s Frasier’s apartment in Seattle, the Bundys’ suburban Chicago home from married with children or the offices of blush magazine from Just shoot me! In modern sitcoms like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, while he spends a lot of time in the police department, most of the show takes place outdoors and in various locations around the city. The Good Place develops into a colorful afterlife. Characters no longer make introductions tailored to a joke and a laugh track.
Gear shifting works as a title for Tim Allen’s new show on multiple levels, and I can’t help but think that one of those is the time warp to the classic sitcom days, to something old, familiar, and nostalgic. It’s a little annoying, to be honest, but also kind of nice. Sitcoms never went away, but I haven’t seen any, or at least not this kind of sitcom. I only expect laugh tracks when I watch reruns of much older shows.
“I approached it the same way that on the show Matt Parker modernizes classic cars,” show host Michelle Nader told The Wrap. “I was approaching it by modernizing a classic form. I wanted it to be kind of reinventing the shape, but not losing the parts we love. That’s what I’m really exploring in terms of the sets and how the jokes are done, the laugh track, the music.”
Gear shifting
Allen plays Matt Parker, a widower and auto shop owner whose estranged daughter Riley (Kat Dennings) appears out of sight with her two children in tow. They haven’t really spoken in years and make up for lost time by arguing a lot and blaming each other for the rift – before trying to patch things up. Only one episode has aired so far (first on ABC, but now streaming on Hulu), and it’s very hard to form a verdict based on one pilot. I had fun and I like the chemistry between Allen and Dennings, but I wasn’t immediately drawn in. I wasn’t into sewing. Some of the jokes came through, but many fell flat.
With Allen and Dennings are Seann William Scott (American Pie, Dude Where’s My Car?) as Gabriel (how is Scott 48-year-old, it does not seem), Daryl Mitchell, who fans of Fear of the Walking Dead will be remembered as one of the truck drivers, and Jenna Elfman-also from Fear of the walking dead, but mostly known for her sitcom Dharma & Greg-as well as Maxwell Simkins and Barrett Margolis as Carter and Georgia, Riley’s children. (Allen and Mitchell also starred together in Galaxy Quest).
Matt is a grumpy old Republican who isn’t half as mad at the world as everyone seems to think he is. He is still grieving the loss of his wife, though his grief is mostly flawed. At one point, after he and Riley have a heart-to-heart about the recent death of his wife/her mom, he tells her that’s why he watches the morning news. He’s been all alone and sometimes it’s good to hear a woman’s voice “…even if it’s Nancy Pelosi.” Dennings responds with, and I’m paraphrasing, “Oh yeah, so terrible. She is only trying to save democracy.”
You see, they are from different generations and have wildly different politics, but it’s all very anodyne and unpleasant. Whatever weird conservative jokes Allen makes are softened by the poise Dennings brings to the breakfast table. Matt berates his nephew’s entire generation for being lazy, for not learning to drive because they’d rather Uber: “Jesus didn’t take an Uber,” he says before dropping the punch line: “He took the wheel.” All this for his nephew’s Instagram post as they sit parked in a beautiful vintage Mustang. Later, Carter crashes the car, gently, into the parking lot.
Gear shifting
The truth is, I don’t know what to think Gear shifting still. The family sitcom elements are all here. Riley is back with her kids to beg for a place to stay as she puts her life back together after divorcing her down-on-his-luck bass-playing husband, whom Matt never liked at first. Met begrudgingly puts a roof over her head. From here, they will have to learn how to get along and improve their relationship.
It’s been a tough stretch for Americans in the modern era. The rise of Trump, COVID-19, and all the new ways we can miscommunicate with each other online have conspired to make us more divided than ever. In a way, this show is trying to take that divide and make it a little nicer and gentler than it often is in real life, where many families have seen rifts arise over political differences.
The Republican father and Democratic daughter may have a broken relationship, but they can mend it because family is more important than the name we check at the ballot box — or at least it should be, according to that best version of life that represent most sitcoms. . Divisive politics and a generational divide are just a joke or two away from a happy resolution. And maybe it’s okay to laugh at it all, or at least listen to the laugh track and enjoy some good old fashioned nostalgia 22 minutes at a time.
Gear shifting merges with the new one Frasier on Paramount+ in what could be seen as a bit of a sitcom renaissance, though it’s unclear if these new sitcoms will ever reach the same heights or popularity as the golden age sitcoms. Time will tell if Gear shifting can be fixed in high gear. Never judge a sitcom by its pilot.
And speaking of nostalgia, I’m really enjoying the new one Dexter: Original Sin show on Starz. It very much captures the feel of the original show. You can read my review here.
