Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Shifting Gears’ On ABC, Where Tim Allen And Kat Dennings Play An Estranged Father And Daughter Who Come Back Together

Tim Allen’s comedy has never been subtle. His 1980s “grunting Neanderthal” standup persona brought him a hit sitcom in the early ’90s. But there were times during the 8 year run of Home Improvement where Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor got his comeuppance. Then, during the 9 seasons of Last Man Standing, Allen went from grunting tool guy to ranting sporting goods executive. Again, Mike Baxter always got taken down a notch by his much more sensible wife and daughters. Now, in a new ABC sitcom, Allen is playing someone who is even more ranty than his first two sitcom characters in a Boomers vs. Millennials battle. Will his new ranting character get schooled by his daughter, played by fellow sitcom vet Kat Dennings (Two Broke Girls)?

SHIFTING GEARS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: At a car restoration shop, one of the mechanics talks to a car like it’s a woman.

The Gist: Gabriel (Seann William Scott) and Maxwell (Daryl Mitchell) work in the restoration shop owned by Matt (Tim Allen), who has lots of opinions about the state of the world, and he doesn’t hesitate to give them a loud, grunting voice. “You know what we do make [in the US]? Excuses, quitters and diabetes,” he rants.

A beat-up old GTO rolls into the shop, which Matt recognizes as his old car. Out of it comes the person who took it 17 years prior: His daughter Riley (Kat Dennings), along with her teenage son Carter (Maxwell Simkins) and tween daughter Georgia (Barrett Margolis).

The two have been mostly estranged since Riley got pregnant at 18 and decided to get married to a musician. “He’s not a musician! He’s a bass player!” rants Matt. The last time they saw each other was at the funeral of Matt’s wife/Riley’s mom, and she only gave him a nod. Now she’s divorced and broke, and drove from Vegas to her former California home because she didn’t have anywhere else to turn.

Of course, the two of them go at each other right away, with Riley resisting the most when Matt tells his grandson Carter to learn to drive as a way to be self-sufficient. Matt, of course, thinks Riley coddles her kids too much, just like most kids these days are coddled. Of course, when Carter runs the restored hot rod they were using for practice driving into the garage, Riley gets ticked at Matt for prodding Carter to go behind the wheel.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Tim Allen ranting about things has basically been his sitcom bread-and-butter since Home Improvement premiered 34 (!) years ago. It got progressively more cartoonish in the series Last Man Standing, and it’s even more cartoonish here.

Our Take: Comedy veterans Mike Scully and Julie Thacker-Scully wrote the pilot of Shifting Gears, but they made way for the current showrunner, Michelle Nader, after that first episode (Allen is also an executive producer; Dennings is a producer). In the case of the two episodes we saw, both the Scullys and Nader are trying to attempt something that’s got a high degree of difficulty: combine the very different comedic sensibilities and styles of Allen and Dennings in a way that makes sense, and put emotional moments in each episode that feel earned.

Let’s just say it might take some time to get all of that balanced out. Allen starts out of the gate coming in hot with his “conservative guy complaining that we’re soft” shtick that he perfected in Last Man Standing, almost to the point where all Matt does is rant about the bad new days. Dennings is saying her lines in her usual sardonic way, and there’s a tone mismatch. Scott and Mitchell essentially yell their lines. It’s a cast full of comedy and sitcom veterans who are being given the thinnest of character and material to try to make funny.

But then, there’s a genuine moment in the first episode where Matt and Riley both mourn the fact that Riley’s mother is gone, and you can see where the show may be headed if Nader can straighten things out. There was an emotional connection between the stars that the previous 15 minutes of the show would have never indicated could happen, but it worked and it made the episode more than just a collection of Allen rants and other assorted gags. We’re just not sure if the two sides of this show can be integrated to the point where the emotional moments feel more integrated into the comedic story.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: At breakfast the next morning, Riley tells her family that she made her mother’s biscuit recipe. And it turns out terrible.

Sleeper Star: Brenda Song guest stars in Episode 2; we hope we see more of her character in future episodes. Jenna Elfman will also show up in a recurring role, going back to her sitcom roots after five years of killing zombies.

Most Pilot-y Line: There’s a plot in the second episode where Matt objects to Carter getting accommodations in his class due to his anxiety. Riley has a 504 set up for Carter and everything. It’s a really cringeworthy plot for anyone who has a neurodivergent child and has had to make sure they had accommodations. We didn’t think that plot was balanced well between Matt thinking it’s another way Carter gets coddled and Riley showing him why she’s doing the right thing.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Given how amped up Tim Allen’s “Angry Conservative Guy” persona is in Shifting Gears, and how poorly it plays against Dennings’ comedic style, we’re not sure the show will be able to balance the comedic with the emotional. Then again, it’s a show starring Tim Allen, so it might run well into the 2030s.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.