Tires season 1 (2024) review

Here comes a show that’s a throwback to the adult comedy series from the 90s and 2000s. It’s a bunch of guys making off-colour jokes, being just plain dumb and having a good time. Tires, smartly, takes place in a traditionally male-dominant workplace, an auto repair shop where women are scarce. And boys run free pulling each other’s pants down in front of strangers, because it’s amusing to them.

Borne out of the collaboration between Shane Gillis, John McKeever and Steve Gerben like their hit YouTube channel, Tires stars Steve Gerben as Will. The owner’s son, Will is responsible of running one of Valley Forge Automotive’s branches. Will lacks experience or expertise, having worked there for only a few months but he has ideas. He has Shane (Shane Gillis), his cousin and the second lead, to help him through his day or rather, sabotage his every initiative to improve the business.

The show begins with Will buying an amount of tires that’s unheard of in the business. Increasing the overhead cost, he needs the business to improve and improve fast. He comes up with a few ideas like the one to attract women to the shop and make them feel comfortable there, however, beyond the good intentions, Will has nothing structured around the strategy. He is also easily misled by Shane to pivot into unprofessional avenues.

Will doesn’t need Shane to pour water over his ideas always though as he is completely capable of ruining things on his own. He’s soft and bitter, a terrible combination, along with this misconception that he has good ideas that can blossom into a flourishing business. If it weren’t for his father, he’d have a hard time securing a job at McDonald’s. He gets no respect from the employees who are mostly unmotivated even to push a pencil across a desk, much less work based on the commitments promised by Will to customers. On the other hand, Shane’s only ambition is to be a cool guy to hang with. Maybe he had other ambitions but this is the only one he has shown any dedication towards. 

The supporting cast is colourful with enough distinction to keep things moving such as Kilah, the sole female employee at the shop and a lazy front-desk operator; and Cal, the mechanic with a super cool zen-like vibe but isn’t the brightest bulb in the room. The district manager Dave, played by Stavros Halkias, wants to show Will the ropes of management but Will is too rogue to pay attention.

It’s just got 6, roughly 20-minute-long episodes and it’s easy to binge. The show has several comedic setups within its short length like every time Will interacts with a woman or when Will hires a web designer to build a PowerPoint presentation to show his father his new business idea. But its finer moments come from Shane and Will’s playful, brotherly camaraderie. They may not be the most productive lot but they have created a place they can call work, which is fun and, surprising to say, supportive.

Tires is directed well by McKeever. The show looks cheap but in a good way, as it adds to the naturalistic vibe of the show. The acting throughout the show is satisfactory with improvised moments of sheer fun. Gillis gets to exhibit his comedic range here. He shows the potential to be a successful TV or movie star. Gerben as Will seems a bit exaggerated but again he’s playing a role that is a cornerstone of comedy on American TV and there isn’t much left to mine in these rocks.

Tires hits the right note between silly and sweet like The Inbetweeners or Trailer Park Boys. Already optioned for a second season by Netflix, these funny comedians have set the stage for their antics in this season. Think of it as The Bear minus the anxiety, and a lot of laughs.