Shifting Gears Season 2: Tim Allen’s Character Redeemed

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The second season of Shifting Gears is hitting its stride, refining Tim Allen’s familiar, down-to-earth character. The show is improving by adjusting its focus, as building a traditional sitcom around a story of loss is a difficult task.

At the start of the series, Allen’s character, Matt Parker, was a lonely widower with a strained relationship with his daughter and had never met his grandchildren. Throughout Shifting Gears, Matt has formed connections with the other characters, which has helped him become more grounded and less abrasive – a change that critics noted after the first season.

The fourth episode of Season 2 focuses on the relationship between Matt and his 16-year-old grandson, Carter, who hasn’t been featured with Matt before. Carter’s gentle nature is a stark contrast to Matt’s more forceful personality, but their time together allows Matt to gain a new understanding of his own father – Carter’s great-grandfather – and adds depth to Matt’s character.

Matt’s Heart-To-Heart With Grandson Carter Adds More Dimension To Tim Allen’s Character

Photo: ABC via MovieStillsDB

Tim Allen often plays a somewhat grumpy character, as seen in shows like Home Improvement and Last Man Standing. However, for his role in Shifting Gears, the character of Matt Parker needed more complexity to feel believable in 2025. The fourth episode of Shifting Gears‘ second season does this effectively by exploring how Matt’s past experiences have affected him and adding emotional depth to his character.

I’ve been thinking about this scene with Matt and Carter, and it really hit me. Matt keeps pushing Carter to just deal with this raccoon, but when Carter gets scared and can’t, Matt gets angry. It’s more than just the raccoon, though. Their argument – Carter saying effort counts, while Matt believes in only results – really highlights how different their generations are. You can feel Carter desperately trying to prove himself to his grandfather, feeling like he doesn’t measure up to some idea of what a ‘man’ should be.

Carter helps Matt realize how his father’s harsh upbringing hurt him. Matt understands that his constant need to make others ‘toughen up’ comes from a father who wouldn’t allow him to be vulnerable or share his feelings. For once, Matt looks inward and apologizes, vowing to do things differently. This small but meaningful change allows Allen’s character in Shifting Gears to grow from a grumpy, one-dimensional person into someone who is learning to be compassionate – to those around him and to himself.

Shifting Gears Needed To Recalibrate The Writing (Though Not Allen’s Performance) For 2025

Photo: ABC via MovieStillsDB

Season 2 of Shifting Gears feels like a fresh start, adjusting both the character of Matt and the show’s general mood. Tim Allen still delivers his familiar performance as a straightforward, traditional, and somewhat conservative guy – a role he’s played since 1991 – but the writing is now much improved.

The show has evolved to focus on Matt’s relationships, like those with his daughter Riley and girlfriend Eve, which are pushing him to change and become more open. This shifts Shifting Gears from a comedy about a man stuck in his ways to one about a man trying, even if reluctantly, to adapt to the world, all because of the people he loves.

I’ve always been a huge Tim Allen fan – the first season of Shifting Gears was a massive hit! But I think even he knew he needed to update his on-screen image to connect with today’s audiences. There’s this really interesting moment where his character, Matt, talks about how the idea of a male role model has changed. He points out how guys like Clint Eastwood and John Wayne used to be the standard, but now it feels like someone like Timothée Chalamet represents what a lot of people look up to – a more open and sensitive type of masculinity.

This perfectly captures the new direction of Shifting Gears: it playfully pokes fun at Allen’s old-fashioned beliefs, but also allows his character to adapt to modern life without losing his lovable, grumpy personality.

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2025-10-24 17:38