Commentary: ‘Tires’ May Be Following A Similar Trajectory As ‘The Office’

It’s hard to perfectly nail a workplace sitcom right out of the gate. There are so many characters that it’s difficult to make audiences resonate with them and invest in their journeys. Furthermore, casts and crews are often just starting to work together. They still need to find a groove and their particular style that works well. Many shows have a mediocre first season or even struggle because of this. Even great shows that survived many seasons with critical acclaim, like The Office, took a while to get going, and now that Tires has launched its second season on Netflix, it feels like it might be on a similar trajectory.

The series is about a chain of mechanic shops in Pennsylvania called Valley Forge Auto. The branch the show focuses on is run by Will (Steve Gerben), whose father owns the entire company. His cousin, Shane (Shane Gillis), works as a mechanic at the shop and is torn between just living his life and living up to Will’s ambitions for him. Shane eventually tries to blossom a romance with a woman named Kelly (Veronika Slowikowska), and hi-jinks ensues as Will attempts to grow the business against his father’s wishes.

There’s a lot of differences between Tires and The Office, both in terms of production and style. However, at their core they are both about branches of a larger business trying to succeed while being filled with a crazy cast of characters. The Office was met with both fan and critical acclaim, but this was hardly inevitable based on the show’s first season. It had a limited number of episodes and wasn’t up to the quality of later seasons. Tires also had a short first season that was extended for a second season. The newer episodes also have a lot funnier moments as well as characterization. It feels as if the show’s second season might be finding a groove that it didn’t have in the first, so the similarities to The Office may prove to be correct.

Tires is now streaming on Netflix.