Shane Gillis’ Blue-Collar Netflix Sitcom Is Vastly Improved Thanks to Big Laughs and Thomas Haden Church

Netflix’s loosely structured yet highly successful workplace comedy, Tires, has returned with a second season that definitely improves upon the first. Created by co-stars Shane Gillis and Steve Gerben alongside director John McKeever, the sitcom once again plays like a less-polished, far more vulgar blue-collar spin on The Office. It bears a significant stylistic resemblance to NBC’s perennial favorite and is likely to appeal to the demographic that’s kept one of the most iconic sitcoms alive on streaming platforms for years after it ended. If that description makes it sound like something you’d potentially enjoy, it’s surprisingly easy to recommend Tires Season 2 as a breezy summer diversion.

What Is ‘Tires’ Season 2 About?

Tires Season 2 isn’t about much, actually. That’s part of the point and appeal. The minimal plot once again unfolds at Valley Forge Automotive Center, where manager Will (Gerben) is still struggling to lord over slacker cousin Shane (Gillis) and their other team members, Cal (Chris O’Connor), Kilah (Kilah Fox), and Dave (Stavros Halkias). Picking up where the previous batch of episodes left off, Tires’ return explores more small-business strife and small-town, low-stakes Pennsylvania drama. There’s a company-wide HR meeting that, unsurprisingly, goes to hell. The co-workers panic for a while about the potential effects of a black mold breakout. Will loses a game of P.I.G., and is therefore made to wear a ladies’ wig in the workplace for a day. Valley Forge has a soft relaunch with staff in Revolutionary War garb.

New additions to the cast this time around include, most crucially, a deadpan Thomas Haden Church as Shane’s wealthy father, Phil, who arrives full of ideas for Valley Forge’s business and his son’s love life. Shane pursues a romance with charming caterer Kelly (Veronika Slowikowska). Jon Lovitz appears early on as one of Valley Forge’s seemingly innumerable scorned customers, and Vince Vaughn has a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo halfway through the season as a day drinker who gives Shane a professional nudge at the Tri-City Mid-Market Tire Expo. The funniest newcomer is likely Ryan (Ryan Farrell), a hunky and well-meaning, occasionally oblivious rival salesperson who forges a bromance with Will.

It’s not really an oversimplification to assert that assessing a show like Tires really comes down to one simple, crucial metric: Is this show funny? Will this show make you laugh? The second season of Tires is inconsistent, and didn’t really need to be double the length of the first, but yeah, it’s often funny and sometimes flat-out hilarious. It’s relentlessly meandering, and ultimately strains under its 12-episode length, but the reality is that Tires is designed for easy-viewing bingeing in a way that echoes The Office’s years-spanning streamability. It wouldn’t make much sense to judge it as anything beyond that, and it would be a mistake not to embrace its simple pleasures.

While there’s perhaps no need to overhype a show with such modest ambitions, it’s pretty important not to undersell Tires and how refreshing it is, especially within the context of modern television. Tires doesn’t aim to revolutionize the sitcom, and if anything, that’s a strength. Undeniably talented and appealing comedic performers acting and talking the way blue-collar workers actually communicate is a commercial hook. The show doesn’t need to be more than that. It’s almost unfathomable that this won’t find a significant audience among a starved demographic, especially considering the size of Gillis’ and supporting actor Andrew Schulz’ respective fanbases. Like both of these comedians’ respective bodies of work, Tires doesn’t care if it offends you — though it isn’t provocative, confrontational, or weighty, and it certainly isn’t designed to even push buttons.

Arriving almost exactly one year after the surprisingly leggy success of the premiere season, the latest round of Tires has a marked increase in confidence, and the likable performances are more energetic this time around. A light cough would blow this all away, but it would feel pointless, bordering on misanthropic, to find too much fault in a show that finds a lot of fun, and a smattering of very big laughs, within its simple premise.

Tires Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.