Shifting Gears: Tim Allen returns for more of the same

Photo: ABC

It’s been over a decade since Tim Allen first returned to the world of sitcoms. Back in the halcyon days of 2011, the idea of Allen playing a conservative “alpha male” constantly whining about how things used to be seemed novel enough to anchor a show. Although, if you’ve been unfortunate enough to catch an episode of Last Man Standing, you’d know that it doesn’t exactly work. That didn’t stop the show from being popular though, running for 9 seasons between two networks. Now, ABC is returning to the well.

Shifting Gears focuses on Matt Parker (Allen), a widowed auto shop owner introduced complaining about how nobody “makes things” in America anymore. His life changes when his estranged daughter, Riley (Kat Dennings), returns looking for a place to stay. Riley is going through a divorce and she brings her two children, along with her dad’s old car with her. The circumstances of the divorce are both uninteresting and unfunny, but rest assured they come up often.

The show clearly wants to center on the comedic sparring between Allen and Dennings, but their verbal battles have zero energy. It doesn’t help that Allen seems to be the only one playing a defined character. One he has been playing off and on for over 3 decades, but a character still. Everyone else in the cast exists to deliver stale jokes. Dennings seems bored from the moment she appears on screen. The less said about the child actors, the better. Even the lively presence of Seann William Scott turns listless almost immediately.

The cast aren’t the only ones running on autopilot. With jokes and plotlines that were already prosaic during the Bush administration, Shifting Gears feels retrograde even by the standard of multi-cam sitcoms. The writing is so lazy that some episodes seem to lack actual conclusions. Instead, the show settles for a half-hearted appeal to our emotions, reminding us of Matt’s deceased wife. This would normally be a splendid chance for Allen to show off his dramatic range, but he doesn’t seem to buy it either.

Odds are, you already know what you’re going to get with Shifting Gears before you read this. This is a Tim Allen sitcom after all. The show quickly discards any lesson learned. All in pursuit of creating a program to put on in the background. A viewing experience perfect for waiting rooms and 12-hour blocks on cable. There may be nothing new under this show’s hood, but it will probably keep running for years to come.

Shifting Gears airs Wednesdays on ABC and streams on Hulu.

Final Verdict: Tune Out

The Pitt: A refreshing spin on the medical drama

Photo: Warner Bros Discovery/Max

There aren’t many TV shows set in my hometown of Pittsburgh. Honestly, it makes sense. There are about 67 cities in the country bigger than the ‘Burgh and if you’re looking for a place in PA, Philly is usually the safe choice. It’s okay though, we’ve still got Mr. Rogers, My So-Called Life, and the flashbacks on This is Us. I say all of this because there is a new program in town and it is appealing to our base desires by including half of the city’s name in the title.

The Pitt is a medical drama that looks and feels like E.R. Which might be because of the creator R. Scott Gemmill, who worked on that series. It could also be the series lead Noah Wyle who famously played E.R.’s John Carter. Most likely, though, it’s the all-but-confirmed rumor that this is a reworked version of a sequel series.

Despite the throwback feel, The Pitt is more committed to realism than the medical dramas of yesteryear. No helicopters crushing anyone in this show. The basic concept is that each episode follows an hour in the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital. By season’s end, we’ll have experienced a single 15-hour shift. It’s a fun concept that creates some interesting ways to break up the usual medical drama formula.

The show’s structure takes the usual “case of the week” and divides it into pieces. Each episode contains parts of each case, all unfolding at different rates throughout the hour. It’s a tricky balancing act, but one the show pulls off remarkably well. Where it gets clunkier is in the doling out of backstory. It’s a necessary part of writing. You need to understand and relate to these characters and that’s tough to pull off when you can’t show us what they do off the clock. Instead, the program falls back on scenes where characters share a lot of information with one another immediately. The success or failure of these scenes largely depends on the actors involved, but there have been more than a few clunkers in the episodes I’ve seen.

By and large, The Pitt introduces us to a diverse and engaging cast of characters in a short amount of time. Noah Wyle as Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch is the glue that holds the entire show together. There is a weariness to Robby that you only see in his brief moments of downtime. He is a man barely holding on, but still trying to do his best for those in need. Wyle sells you on every bit of it. Other standout performances include Taylor Dearden as the awkward but charming Dr. Mel King and Gerran Howell as medical student Dennis Whitaker. It’s Dennis who gets the first lesson in how quickly things can go south in a hospital, and Howell imbues that moment with incredible emotion.

Not every plot beat or character moment lands, but just wait, there’s another right around the corner. The pace keeps you on your feet just like the show’s medical professionals. The Pitt proves to be a refreshing take on the standard medical drama thanks to making the most of its premise. It borrows from the classics but still manages to be unique. The results are hard to argue with.

The Pitt is currently streaming on Max. New episodes release on Thursday.

Final Verdict: Tune In

Missing You: A mystery begging to be forgotten

Photo: Netflix

It’s a testament to Netflix’s vaunted algorithm that I just discovered the service’s years-long collaboration with Harlan Coben. A popular mystery writer, Coben has had a deal with the streaming service since 2018 that has produced 9 shows in multiple languages. I was aware of a grand total of 0 of them until a week ago. The algorithm is so strong that I wasn’t even seeing the discussion of these shows online! That is true power right there.

Jokes aside, Missing You is my first foray into the mysterious and twist-heavy world of Harlan Coben. An adaptation of his novel of the same name, Missing You follows detective Kat Donovan who discovers her missing fiancé on a dating app and soon uncovers a vast conspiracy full of dark secrets, murder and dog breeding. The last part might seem like an odd addition, but it’s honestly the most original thing in the show.

Villainous dog breeders are just one part of the rich tapestry Missing You weaves. We have a police chief who is hiding something, a best friend who is hiding something. We even have Kat’s mother who, you guessed it, is hiding something. There are so many twists and turns packed into these 5 episodes that you become numb to them. How many secrets can one person have?

Maybe the plot twists would work better if these characters actually felt real. Instead, the show’s cast mainly consists of people waiting to give Kat, and by extension the viewer, plot information or recap her complicated backstory. That we so rarely leave our heroine’s perspective only makes this flaw more obvious. Everybody exists only when Kat is in the room with them.

Rosalind Eleazar’s performance as Kat is the show’s bright spot. Donovan is the type of hyper-capable detective you’ve seen a million times before. Eleazar imbues her with enough vulnerability to make her someone worth rooting for, even when the writing falters. Kat’s overly complicated backstory is essential to the show’s mystery, but it prevents us from ever truly getting to know our protagonist. This, coupled with the insistence of the writing to tell us how good Kat is at her job rather than show us, holds her back from being an interesting character.

Missing You isn’t a terrible show. Instead, it commits a worse sin: it’s forgettable. That must be why there are so many scenes where viewers learn the same information they uncovered a few scenes before. I get it. Attention spans are rapidly shrinking, but shouldn’t we have a little more faith in the audience? Especially when they can rewind with a few clicks! For a program like this, though, that refresher might be necessary. Even then, I doubt you’ll remember much once you’re done.

Final Verdict: Tune Out

Dexter: Original Sin focuses too much on the past to offer anything exciting

Paramount+ with Showtime

Somehow, despite the best efforts of everyone involved, Dexter has become a franchise. The original series dragged its bleeding body across the finish line over a decade ago, but America’s favorite serial killer refused to die. Even a years-later sequel series aiming to end the story couldn’t hold him down. Divine intervention and, presumably, a truck full of cash has brought our killer of killers back again. However, before we get to Dexter’s resurrection (coming this summer!) we must first look at his past.

Dexter: Original Sin is a prequel series looking back on the murderous beginnings of Miami’s premier forensics technician. All your favorites are here and decidedly younger! The cast features Dexter, his father Harry, his sister Debra, and his teammates Angel, Masuka, and LaGuerta. It’s hard to believe there’s room for any characters not part of the original series. I can only assume we’re a few seasons away from a doe-eyed Doakes joining the force and giving Dexter a rousing “surprise motherfucker!”

Original Sin is in the tricky position of having to add interesting plot beats to a history clearly filled in during the original series. The prequel often struggles to provide meaningful details about Dexter’s past. Instead, the show adds in layers of flashbacks like a very lazy nesting doll.

The opening scene frames the entire show as Dexter looking back on life as he dies, revives, and waits for his next series. The show is technically one big flashback. It’s like Better Call Saul meets Young Sheldon with slightly more murder. We also get flashbacks interspersed throughout each episode of Harry’s past. It’s unclear in the episodes I watched whether this is something Dexter is also remembering or just a lazy way of padding out the runtime. Either way, they don’t add to the proceedings besides giving us a look at Christian Slater in some truly awful de-aging makeup.

To be clear, that isn’t a rag on Slater. His performance as Harry Morgan is one of the show’s bright spots. Probably due to him having actual material to work with. The actual star of the show, outside of Michael C. Hall’s fun narration, is Patrick Gibson. As our Young Dexter, it’s easy to write off Gibson’s performance as simple mimicry. While he does absolutely nail things like Hall’s coy smile. He also adds a level of naivety that feels real to the character at this stage. The show’s best scenes are when Dexter and Harry are together.

Unfortunately, the rest of the cast just isn’t as interesting. Even Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, doesn’t have much to do with her role as Dexter’s certainly doomed boss. It’s poor Debra Morgan who gets the worst of it though. By virtue of being a teenage girl written by people much older, Deb gets saddled with some truly terrible dialogue.

Like many current franchise installments, Dexter: Original Sin feels like it is solely in conversation with itself. Everything builds to moments of fan service and little Easter eggs designed to have you pointing at the screen like DiCaprio. None of it lasts in your mind for long. The show’s prequel nature also means that it can’t go too far outside the established box. There is likely stuff to enjoy if you’re a fan of the original series (I consider myself a fan of the first half.) Taken all together, though, Original Sin feels a bit like Dexter himself, empty inside.

Final Verdict: Tune Out

Knightley and Whishaw make Black Doves a perfect gift

Photo: Netflix

There are few forces as powerful throughout TV history as the duo. From Lucy and Ethel to Niles and Frasier, from Mulder and Scully to every police procedural ever, a good duo is often crucial to the success of a series. Black Doves continues in this rich television tradition by featuring the year’s best new twosome.

Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw star as Helen Webb and Sam Young. Helen is the wife of Britain’s defense secretary and also a spy working for the titular Black Doves organization. Sam is a “trigger man” otherwise known as an assassin, who prefers to work freelance and far away from the UK. He’s brought back to protect Helen from danger in the aftermath of her secret lover’s murder. The plot only gets more complicated from there, with elements from Helen and Sam’s past adding to the intrigue.

While the overall conspiracy plot is interesting, it takes a backseat to the show’s true focus: the relationship, both past and present, between our two leads. Black Doves features copious amounts of flashbacks, a narrative tool that frequently gets overused. Often, flashbacks can feel like an excuse to pad out a story that doesn’t have enough juice. That it works here is a testament to clever writing and the incredible performances from Knightley and Whishaw.

The chemistry between the two is so fun that the show seems to lose energy when they aren’t on screen together. Knightley plays Helen as a woman desperate for revenge but unsure how to go about it without ruining her secret life. She is outgoing and social in front of others, but sad and raging underneath. Whishaw, by comparison, is withdrawn and calculating, using one-liners as a way of coping with his job. The show takes its time revealing our duo’s connection to each other, but the payoff is emotionally satisfying thanks to the character work in the present day scenes.

Set during the holiday season, Black Doves calls back to classic action films (Shane Black movies specifically), with an added level of brutality. Our first action scene ends with our leads splattered in blood. That level of real-world violence certainly won’t be for everyone, but does a fine job of introducing us to the realities of this profession. The show also loves a good close-up shot. At least once an episode, one of our leads stares into the camera. It provides a great excuse to showcase some brilliant face acting.

Black Doves succeeds by blending various genres together, often in the same scene. It’s a spy thriller that deftly handles comedic beats with no tonal dissonance. It can add in elements of political intrigue or romance and still feel true to the world it’s created. This isn’t a grounded show. I’d argue it isn’t even trying to be. This is John Wick meets Guy Ritchie with a dash of holiday cheer for good measure. You can do much worse than that at this time of year.

Final Verdict: Tune In