ABC’s new sitcom, Shifting Gears, is pretty damn good.

Allen is in “Last Man Standing” mode as a conservative crank but what makes “Gears” work is his sparring with Dennings, who holds her own against the sitcom veteran and gives as good as she gets.

Tim Allen and Kat Dennings make an entertainingly feisty duo as father and daughter in ABC’s new family sitcom Shifting Gears.

“Shifting Gears” plays into the hands of audiences who loved its two stars. Neither goes too far afield from the personalities they helped create. While Dennings often seems like she’s on an uphill climb, Allen seems to be idling.

Lack of subtlety extends to obvious attempts at intergenerational humor. .... “Shifting Gears” is about a family stitching itself back together. Perhaps it’s fitting that it doesn’t yet feel like a cohesive whole.

It's an unchallenging and not very funny package of generational stereotypes and grating banter between Allen and Dennings. The two episodes made available for review feature dialogue so bland it could have been written by AI.

The show is not merely unfunny; it features punchlines that should embarrass anyone who’s ever had a quick scroll of Facebook. .... The only surprises Shifting Gears can offer early on are a few non-comic moments where Allen and Dennings inhabit the genuine moments of dumbstruck grief they feel over losing a wife and mother, respectively.