Tim Allen and Kat Dennings Hearth on All Cylinders in ABC’s “Shifting Gears” | TV/Streaming

Having grown up watching Tim Allen in “Dwelling Enchancment,” I went into ABC’s “Shifting Gears” with some skepticism. It’s not a lot that I don’t just like the man as I had a tough time imagining his abilities translating to 2025. However “Shifting Gears” gained me over simply. Was I tearing up already within the first episode? Did I snigger out loud? It feels a bit foolish to confess, however I did.

Allen’s Matt is a beleaguered widower, lonely after his spouse’s current passing. He runs an auto store that fixes up outdated automobiles (the person can by no means be too removed from a software chest), which he retains pristinely clear and arranged, similar to his dwelling.

Then his daughter, Riley (Kat Dennings), comes again on the town together with her two children (Maxwell Simkins as anxious high-schooler Carter and Barrett Margolis because the precocious youthful sister Georgia) in tow. They want a spot to remain whereas Riley will get a divorce. She received pregnant as a teen and ran away together with her musician boyfriend. Center-aged now, she’s realized that selecting a life path to piss off her father has left her adrift and unfulfilled.

Reunited with out the mom because the bridge, Matt and Riley have a troublesome time of it. They’re two large personalities who a supporting character aptly refers to as tornadoes about to type a hurricane.

It’s a ripe set-up, and Dennings and Allen ship, touchdown their jokes and a few heartwarming moments. Now, this can be a traditional sitcom, carried out in entrance of a stay studio viewers and beaming to our screens with its snigger observe. Exhibits like these eschew realism, giving us extra of a theater vibe. The characters pause to let the viewers’s response subside, and everybody’s all the time dishonest out to verify the viewers can see them.

Realism this isn’t. However “Shifting Gears” nonetheless captures one thing true about household, love, and forgiveness–whereas being humorous, too. Allen principally makes use of phrases to land his jokes, solely resorting to his signature grunts/noises as soon as within the two episodes given to critics to display. This gentle contact works, letting him leverage his comedic chops with out descending into pure schtick.

And Dennings is aware of methods to work an viewers too. Her high-pitched voice might use some stress-free however she delivers as a grown girl taking laborious knocks for her high-school selections. As such, Riley and Matt have interaction in traditional intergenerational battle, about whether or not grandson Carter ought to get “lodging” for his nervousness (and even simply what lodging are), to not point out screentime, driving, and extra.

They discover a technique to make it work, supported by a solid of colourful characters. Seann William Scott as Gabriel is the good-looking hometown boy who seems to exist as a foil for Riley’s deadbeat musician husband (my cash is on Gabriel turning into Riley’s eventual love curiosity). Brenda Tune, as the highschool’s neurotic vice principal, is delightfully unhinged. And Daryl Mitchell, as one of many different mechanics in Matt’s store, drops knowledge and jokes like sitcoms of ages previous.

Largely, although, “Shifting Gears” works as a result of Allen and Dennings are plausible as an estranged father-daughter pairtrying to work it out. There’s humor there, however there’s additionally actual emotion. Many years of damage and misunderstanding are underlaid with begrudging love. These are two individuals who genuinely need one of the best for one another however are so completely different that they’ve been unable to assist one another in ways in which truly work.

As grown-ups now, they’ve one other probability. And whereas they might spar over Nancy Pelosi, their private quirks, and ambitions, they’re additionally discovering methods to construct a brand new relationship. And that emotional core makes the entire thing work, powered by the laughs alongside the best way.

Two episodes screened for assessment. Premieres on ABC tonight, January eighth.