• Network: ABC
  • Series Premiere Date: Jan 8, 2025
Season #: 2, 1
Metascore
51

Mixed or average reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 13
  2. Negative: 3 out of 13

Critic Reviews

  1. Reviewed by: Kelly Lawler
    Jan 8, 2025
    37
    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.
  2. Reviewed by: Ben Travers
    Jan 8, 2025
    33
    This early in the run of a multi-cam sitcom, a lack of chemistry is understandable, as are redundant exposition dumps meant to help the traditional TV audience keep up with what’s happening across 22 fleeting minutes of story. But it’s less tolerable not to finish those stories, instead tacking on a feel-good moment completely disconnected from the episode’s central issue, and these emotional gulfs are made all the more obvious when the jokes around them are this lazy and poorly delivered.
  3. Reviewed by: Jesse Hassenger
    Jan 8, 2025
    30
    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.