Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing Review, If it Ain’t Broke……
Tim Allen is back and he’s taking us back…but you know what? It works. It was just damn refreshing. It seems like the only successful comedies are either young twenty-something’s dating or early thirty-something’s parenting.
This show welcome’s back the family sitcom with enough modern-day references and situations to be relevant. Tim Allen goes from “Tim the Tool Time Taylor” to Mike Baxter who is the marketing director of a sporting goods shop called “Outdoor Man”. You can already see where this is going, but when it’s gets there, it’s not bad. It’s actually good and can get better.
Mike Baxter is married with three daughters. During the first episode he returns from a travel expedition and is told that he will not be traveling any longer which means he will be around more. Each girl has her own unique challenges: The oldest is a single mom, the middle child is your typical teenager, boy liking popularity seeking emotional wreck, and the youngest is a tomboy transitioning into being a girl. Your typical American family.
The interaction is a little stiff, but then again it was only the first two episodes, and there was quite an improvement from episode one to two.
There is no shame in this show’s game. It IS “Home Improvements” period. Instead of boys there are girls. There’s even a venue for Tim to give his personal take on things, sort of like his talks with his neighbor Wilson or how he used to pull things together with a little speech on “Tool Time”. He now has a company website Video Blog.
When asked about the similarities Allen says,
“I just really wanted to investigate what it would be like to be around four women that are intelligent and strong and fun and loving and a family. I have two daughters, a strong wife, and a mom and sisters. And I just love to be able to be in that world consistently, I thought it would be kind of fun literally to flip flop the two shows.”
Flip flop indeed. I think the only place that the show will stumble is in the writing. Personally I love it, I think the male ego-centric jokes are hilarious. However, 12 years later, there might be more people offended then entertained. After taking shots at men who tan and eat pumpkin muffins, and the silliness of “Glee” the show is already taking hits after what some are considered a homophobic joke.
When his eldest daughter on the show talk about taking his grandson, Boyd, to a daycare that teaches “sensitivity and tolerance,” Allen’s character responds: “You know how that ends up: Boyd dancing on a float.”
I think that joke was funny and I’m glad Tim is back.
For all the critics complaining that the male-macho jokes are outdated…THAT’S THE POINT! Let’s just hope that ABC agrees. The show debuted to almost 13 million viewers, that’s a good start.
COSMO
