Netflix has no qualms about being in the Shane Gillis business. His recent comedy special on the streamer was so popular that Saturday night live Gillis, who was fired as a cast member shortly after being added to the cast, hosted one episode. And they seem so impressed with their new comedy that they’ve already picked up a second season.
TIRES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Initial shot: Workers open the back of a truck full of tires.
The essence: Will (Steve Gerben), manager of the Valley Forge Automotive Center, leaves a long message for his father, owner of the mini chain, about his recent order for about 500 tires, which is too many for any shop. But he believes he’s making progress in the two months he’s been in charge, despite seeing scenes in which both his employees and his customers think that whatever he’s doing “stinks,” as his cousin and better mechanic, Shane, tells him. (Shane Gillis). .
One of Will’s ideas is a new “women’s initiative”; Since women are traditionally uncomfortable with pigs like Shane in auto shops, Will feels that making them comfortable will open up a new customer base for them. So he puts up pink signs and makes sure Kilah (Kilah Fox), who sits at the front desk, is seen doing the same job as the boys. Of course, that backfires on him when one of the other mechanics, Cal (Chris O’Connor), drops a tire on Kilah’s foot.
But Will still needs Kilah at the helm, because he’s inviting a reporter from the local newspaper to the store to do a “story” on the women’s initiative. Of course, things go completely wrong when the journalist arrives. Kilah tells the journalist that she is forced to work despite having an injured foot. Then, when the reporter wants to talk to a mechanic, Shane comes out and the two almost get into a fight.
While the journalist waits for his car’s oil to be changed for free, he prepares to write a story that will not be trivial. Meanwhile, Will receives a call from another cousin, Dave (Stavros Halkias), who is in charge of the Ardmore location, stating that Will’s father is “pissed off” about the excessive tire purchasing, the women’s initiative, and pretty much everything else Will is doing. Shane offers to fix everything, but Schultz (Andrew Schulz) and Tommy (Tommy Pope), his friends from the sales lot next door, come and ruin it with photos of his new receptionist.
What shows will it remind you of? Tires is a workplace comedy along the lines of The office but it certainly bears the apparently improvised style of It’s always sunny in Philadelphia.
Our opinion: Gillis and Gerben, along with John McKeever, wrote Tires and McKeever directs it in a low-budget style (which makes sense, since Gillis financed the first season himself) that evokes the early seasons of always sunny. It’s somehow raunchier than the venerable FX comedy, and much of that raunchiness is assigned to Gillis, at least in the first episode.
The show doesn’t do well in the first episode, mainly because the idiotic side of Gillis’ character is what is emphasized more than anything else. Add that to some clunky exposition at the beginning of the episode in the form of a voicemail from Will to his father, and you get a first episode that almost immediately puts the viewer off.
But even in that first episode, even during one of its most daring moments, there are bits of character development that tell us what this show could be. While Will gushes over Dave on the phone, Shane tries to distract him by pretending to perform a sex act on him. Instead of shooing his cousin away, Will starts laughing. It’s a sign that, even though Shane is a constant annoyance to Will as his boss, the two always got along as cousins and friends.
The second episode shows more of this, when Dave tells Will that because of the delay in business, he will lose Shane and move to another location in the chain. Shane doesn’t want to go and Will doesn’t want him to go. But when Shane runs into an old high school football teammate who offers him a job selling windows, he too considers leaving altogether.
Yes, Gillis is still more or less a jerk in this episode, but we also see that there’s a glimmer that he wants more out of his life than just skating in the store. The more Gillis, Gerben and McKeever can do this with all the characters in Tiresthe better the show will be.
Sex and skin: We mentioned the pantomime sexual act above. Otherwise, these are all just words.
Parting Shot: Dave hangs up on Will while Will explains why he had to buy huge ads in the newspaper to remove the store’s negative profile.
Sleeping star: It’s hard to say here, because Gerben and Gillis dominate the first episode so much. Although we do like the subplot in episode 2 where Kilah can’t go out to smoke because the owner of the restaurant next door constantly comes out and complains about the kids who work for him.
Most pilot line: When Shane and Call ask Will what the worst day would be, Will immediately starts searching for a Holocaust reference. Shane backs him off by saying, “I was talking about Monday…Garfield.”
Our call: SKIP IT. Although we think there is room for Tires To become a decent, moderately funny workplace comedy, we don’t think there’ll be much of that growth over a six-episode first season. We may see a better show during the second season, which Netflix has already picked up.
Joel Keller@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but make no mistake: he’s a couch potato. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and other places.