The TV thread

When I heard about the premise I was immediately disinterested. Would have been much funnier and interesting if Allen played a Boomer who lost his retirement in Crypto or some Trump financial nonsense and had to move in with Dennings. But Allen being the "I told you so" guy again? Hard pass.

 

How else will liberals get through the next four year if not deluding/pacifying themselves that the Bartlett Administration is real. I think its kind of funny that the West Wing cast still are called in to provide emotional support to campaign volunteers. Thought it was kind of neat that the Bidens held an event for them on the programs 25th anniversary.

 

It won't be on long -- my wife has it on her list and bascially everything on the major networks she watches never makes it past a second season, let along the first.

 

Then Tim Allen can complain again that his show was cancelled because Hollywood is too woke.

 

Someone on Instagram made the comment that Allen has basically played the same character in the last five sitcoms he's been in.

 

See also, Danza, Tony. McEntire, Reba. and I'm sure there are others.

 

"Shifting Gears" looks like the kind of sitcom a much smarter show would have in the background as a running joke about awful sitcoms, right down to the title. Every joke in those commercials are ones that were old tropes by 1988.

 

‘Shifting Gears’ Is Tim Allen’s Worst Show Yet—a Low Bar

 

If not for the classic Galaxy Quest, Allen's entire output would be a hard pass.

 

I think he's fine in The Santa Clause, a weirdly dark B- kind of Christmas movie. And he's good in voicework. But he's clearly a guy who's first question to his agent when presented a project is "how much?"

It's more confusing to see Kat Dennings as second on the call sheet, but I'm guessing she doesn't mind cashing a check from time to time either. She also already did her kind of "passion project" sitcom, Dollface, which I liked but had any momentum killed by Covid. (Renewed in January 2020 for S2, didn't come back until February 2022.) After being a finalist for the lead role in Fury Road, it feels like she's mostly been not challenged or used more since then, between starring in 2 Broke Girls and being a non-superhero in Marvel movies.

 

I liked Dollface as well.

 

That's interesting; I hadn't thought about our "track record." But we seem to target shows that stick around for a while, or at least a while in today's terms. I'm not sure if that means we're a good judge of TV shows, or a victim of groupthink.

I do get that it's a paycheck, but I hoped better for Kat Dennings than to be playing second fiddle behind Tim Allen.