Shifting Gears

Shifting Gears – Picnic

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Shifting Gears – Picnic
  • IMDb: link

“Picnic” focuses on the rivalry between Matt (Tim Allen) and Eve (Jenna Elfman) when Riley’s (Kat Dennings) boss adds a picnic table to the shared alley. The bickering between the pair never really escalates to anything of note, they eventually come to shared understanding and peace which is broken by a misunderstanding that is discovered but never acting upon. All in all, it’s a pretty lazy episode that also bleeds into the B-story involving both Matt and Riley struggling to give Carter (Maxwell Simkins) the sex talk which, like the main storyline, doesn’t have a real resolution either.

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Shifting Gears – Valentine’s

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Shifting Gears – Valentine’s
  • IMDb: link

On Valentine’s Day, the main storyline involves Matt (Tim Allen) visiting his wife’s grave and making a new friend (Nancy Travis). While the episode doesn’t set up Travis as a romantic interest, the interactions between them (first at the mausoleum and then at the pharmacy) does build on Matt learning how to move on after his wife’s death. Sadly, neither of the B-stories have much to offer in terms of Riley (Kat Dennings) fretting over a dance video which is really just an excuse for Dennings and Seann William Scott to dance badly, and Georgia (Barrett Margolis) getting sick when left alone with Carter (Maxwell Simkins), both feel very much lazy paint-by-number sitcom filler.

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Shifting Gears – Jimmy

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Shifting Gears – Jimmy
  • IMDb: link

“Jimmy” is something of a misfire for Shifting Gears which introduces Lucas Neff as Riley’s (Kat Dennings) husband Jimmy. It’s always tricky when introducing an ex after never showing us an example of the couple together. The show never really sells Riley and Jimmy as a couple who would have stayed together for years other than that Riley appears weak in the knees for the man’s musical talent (which we don’t see a single example of on-screen). Nothing here does anything positive for the Riley character. Arriving in time for Carter’s (Maxwell Simkins) birthday, the premise of the episode moves from Jimmy attempting to win back Riley to instead win back his son’s love. Once transitioning to that aspect, which is something even Matt (Tim Allen) can get behind, the episode works better. However, overall it’s quite hit-and-miss.

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Shifting Gears – Grief

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Shifting Gears – Grief
  • IMDb: link

I’ve watched a couple episodes of the new Hulu sitcom Shifting Gears starring Tim Allen and Kat Dennings as bickering father and daughter who are forced to reconnect after she moves back home with her son following the disillusion of her marriage. The set up allows both to quip, and, at times, do a small bit of introspection. “Grief,” which focuses on Riley’s (Dennings) attempts to get her father to deal with the grief of her mother’s death, is the best of the episodes I watched ,while still firmly nested in the sitcom trappings of the show, which allows the walls between the two characters to come down long enough for some honest discussion of loss.

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