I watch plenty of tv. I may argue with a straight face that it’s for my job, however actually, deep down, I kinda simply love watching TV. I’d in all probability be consuming virtually as a lot if I labored another random job. It’s not confined to any particular style both. Detective reveals, status dramas, skilled wrestling, actuality competitions, sports activities, edgy comedies, Hallmark romances, sport reveals, it’s all on my DVR, and the factor is, I watch all of them for various causes. Like, for instance, Shifting Gears, which I really like as a result of it seems like a TV present created and executed by sitcom veterans who time-traveled from the 12 months 1994.
I used to be trying to elucidate this to one in all my pals just a few weeks in the past, and he legitimately thought I used to be attempting to roast Tim Allen or mock Shifting Gears. I wasn’t. Final week, I attempted to specific the identical opinion to a special buddy, and she or he requested why I’d think about “feeling dated” to be a constructive high quality. I don’t. That’s not what I used to be attempting to say or what I feel.
I’m not watching Shifting Gears due to some hipster irony factor or as a result of I simply can’t consider a present like this exists in 2025. I’m watching it as a result of it makes me really feel the identical approach watching a sitcom in 1994 made me really feel, and there aren’t many reveals on tv attempting to hit these emotional beats anymore. It’s merely a household sitcom that works for a few of the identical causes many traditional household sitcoms from the early Nineteen Nineties labored.
That begins with the tone. Shifting Gears is about an estranged father and daughter, performed by Tim Allen and Kat Dennings, who reconnect after the mother passes and the daughter’s marriage falls aside. She strikes again in alongside her two children, they usually’re all compelled to regulate to their new actuality in a multi-generational family crammed with completely different personalities and opposing worldviews. The present tackles all the problems you’d count on, however it does so with sincere, but superficial sincerity.
Not each present wants gritty realism. Actually, an amazing majority of tv reveals going for gritty realism suck at it and are far worse off for attempting. Shifting Gears doesn’t strive. As a substitute, it finds that 90s candy spot the place it’s sincere sufficient to acknowledge and handle severe and generally unhappy points, however it doesn’t dwell on them or attempt to examine them from each angle. It has the characters speak about them, join in a heartfelt approach, provide some widespread sense recommendation after which transfer on with a joke or two.
That’s why Shifting Gears may give us an episode the place the A-plot is a few neighboring enterprise placing a picnic bench within the alley and one other episode the place the A-plot is about Kat Dennings’ estranged husband coming again into the image to reconnect together with his children, and it nonetheless seems like the identical present working throughout the identical emotional spectrum. Within the latter, we get to see Tim Allen ship a speech to his son-in-law about how he must step up as a father and as a person, however it’s peppered with simply sufficient jokes and it’s taken effectively sufficient by the son-in-law that it doesn’t really feel too heavy. And that’s what I would like out of this present.
I additionally need constant humor, and Shifting Gears is constantly fairly humorous. I say fairly humorous as a result of it’s not hitting me with jokes that I wish to instantly textual content to my spouse, however it’s intelligent and amusing sufficient that I’ve a half-smile on my face all through like 2/3rds of each episode. When there’s not a type of extra severe plots I outlined above, a lot of the humor is about decrease stake issues like meals or generational stereotypes or how the world is altering, however as soon as once more, that’s what I’m in search of out of this present.
I’m additionally wanting for lots of Tim Allen and Kat Dennings, which the present has no drawback giving. Allen because the curmudgeonly dad which means effectively regardless of his perspective and Dennings because the snarky, different daughter with a pointy tongue is a superb formulation. These two are among the many finest variations of these archetypes you’ll be able to solid, and the present understands that. Virtually each episode is written with a number of prolonged scenes the place they’re capable of play off each other, they usually all the time squeeze essentially the most out of the fabric.
You can say the identical factor about the remainder of the solid too. Shifting Gears is sort of clearly Tim Allen’s present with Kat Dennings because the co-main character and first foil, however the remainder of the supporting solid is very well chosen too. Each of the youngsters are higher than your common sitcom baby actors and have some actual persona to their roles, and the opposite recurrings are, like Allen and Dennings, among the many finest variations of people that play these kinds of roles.
Sean William Scott has made a profession out of enjoying the buddy who’s humorous however type of a jerk but in addition has some layers you don’t count on. He’s solid right here as Tim Allen’s quantity two at work and possibly a attainable love curiosity for Dennings and is clearly improbable. He’s joined by Daryl Mitchell, who performs one other dude at work who simply fires off one-liners. You may keep in mind him because the trainer from 10 Issues I Hate About You, and in case you do not forget that factor, I don’t have to inform you he’s excellent for this. Jenna Elfman can be recurring as a neighbor and competing enterprise proprietor who’s an arch-nemesis but in addition possibly a love curiosity for Allen. As a Dharma and Greg fan, I’m into that. Even visitor stars have been completely chosen too.
Lengthy story brief, I really like Shifting Gears. It’s not a present I obsess about between episodes, however it’s one which delivers precisely what I count on each single time I put it on. Sadly, that’s more and more uncommon. We’re dwelling in an age the place a very excessive share of TV reveals appear to have no concept what they’re good at or why individuals are watching them. Method too a lot of them suppose they should be as severe or as deep as attainable with the intention to enhance themselves. That’s nice for the a dozen or so issues on tv which can be sensible and modern and have distinctive issues to say, however for the remainder of them, it’s usually an annoying detour.
Shifting Gears would have crushed in 1994, even when there have been 15 different reveals on community TV attempting to do precisely this. It’s presently crushing in 2025 when there’s solely a pair others, and in case you put it right into a time capsule and launch into the long run, it’ll crush in 2056 when there won’t be any. The awkward household dynamics sitcom crammed with generational humor and well-intentioned misunderstandings simply works. It won’t be the best elevator pitch to a TV government attempting to win Emmys, however it’s a formulation many people relate to and discover consolation in watching. Shifting Gears is nearly the most effective model of that formulation you’ll ever discover, and that isn’t an insult. It is merely an remark and a purpose why I watch it and like it each single week.