In season 2, Tires aims for more than wheel-spinning

The influences on Netflix’s Tires are wide-ranging but always clear: It’s a juvenile, blue-collar little cousin of Eastbound & Down; a portrait of losers courting controversy à la It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia; a sitcom with the insult-laden comedy you might find on Cum Town, a podcast that has featured Tires‘ Shane Gillis (who was fired from SNL for “offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable” remarks only to host the show twice in the years to come) and Stavros Halkias; and a workplace show that, like so many others, uses the aesthetics of The Office to capture its low-stakes banter and gags. 

Lasting six brief episodes, season one of Tires came out of the gate with a flat. The premise was simple: Valley Forge garage manager Will (Steve Gerben) struggles to revive his branch of his dad’s business, which is tanking no thanks to his hopeless leadership and the noncommittal, irreverent douchery of his cousin and underling Shane (Gillis). (Think of the dynamic between the stressed Dante and the liberated loser Randal in Kevin Smith’s Clerks, with just as much cursing.) Perhaps the series was strapped with limited resources, but Tires‘ debut had a frustrating lack of ambition, peppering Gillis’ faux-macho schtick over some turgid sitcom plotting. 

Gillis is a far more gifted performer than Gerben—his Shane sharply riles up his colleagues, preying on insecurities like a bozo who’s delighted with himself—and the latter’s less exciting screen presence is not helped by their character dynamic. Will is so pathetic and emasculated that he reeks of a labored, cringe-inducing effort to tee up Shane as a capable, charismatic counterpart. Even if Shane is more repulsive, he’s much more in control, and Will increasingly feels like a trembling dude whose primary duty is to be the fall guy for alpha dog Shane.

Now, the fact that the second season has 12 episodes, tripling the show’s length, raises some eyebrows: Is Tires going to try to expand its dramatic horizons and become something that isn’t just wheel-spinning fluff? For the most part, yeah. After making profits by selling cheap tires at cost, Will becomes ambitious and wants to secure a loan to go to the big leagues, bringing him into conflict with his long-suffering father/Valley Forge’s owner (played by Peter Reeves). Shane is coasting at work thanks to the tire scheme, but almost sabotages a burgeoning romance with local catering employee Kelly (Veronika Slowikowska) when his immature, domineering dad Phil (Thomas Haden Church) swaggers back into his life. Meanwhile, Dave (Halkias), a bullying supervisor, is threatened by his frequent victims Will and Shane.