You don’t have to watch a minute of Kevin James’ new series on Netflix, “The Crew,” to find out exactly what the show looks like. From showrunner Jeff Lowell (“The Ranch”), the workplace comedy stars James as Kevin, the bumbling team leader of an average Nascar racing team, whose job becomes much more complicated after the team owner retires and puts his millennial daughter Catherine (Jillian Mueller) in charge.
Like most of James’ characters, Kevin is a self-deprecating son of a man who loves old school values, cheap beer and protecting the status quo, making it a challenge to listen to his new progressive boss. A Stanford graduate who has been successful in Silicon Valley, Catherine has little in common with her new employees, but brings to the table a number of strategic and innovative ideas on how the team could get out of its routine and become real competitors in the races. However, no crew member has any interest in listening to Catherine, and most of the season is spent with Kevin leading the charge to undermine Catherine at every turn, with Kevin preferring to allow mediocrity instead of striving for the higher levels. of success (a feeling that can also talk about James’ apparent approach to his career).
A consistent cross-section in James’s television work is the consideration of a man struggling to understand that the world in which he grew up, including his perception of masculinity and gender roles, is becoming obsolete. But while the world has evolved in the 14 years since “The King of Queens” went offline, it seems that James’ perspective on these issues has not changed. In addition to Catherine, “The Crew” features a young competitor, Jessie (Paris Berelec), as a rival to the team’s current driver, Jake (Freddie Stroma). While Jake is a brainless idiot whose compulsion to hit all the women in sight (including his new boss) is presented as a laughable quirk rather than a harassment, Jessie is focused, responsible and ready for any task ahead of her. Still, after one of Jessie’s races, Kevin dismisses fans lined up to meet her as nothing more than “old guys wanting to hit on her”, which is just one of the many ways that women’s success is consistently diminished and ridiculed on the show.
The overarching theme of “The Crew” is men getting angry at how unfair it is to be forced to listen or share space with young women. And when Kevin starts to recognize his own prejudices, it’s nothing more than an empty gesture that somehow still frames him as the show’s moral hero. While watching “The Crew”, it’s hard not to imagine how much more interesting the comedy would have been if it had been told from Catherine’s perspective and explored the experiences of a woman sailing in this old school boys club and discovering her unexplored passion for the sport . Perhaps then the show could have helped Nascar to expand its fan base and attract a younger generation. Instead, the program assumes that viewers will firmly identify with Kevin, whose fight against obviously needed improvements makes him a difficult character to root for, despite James’ innate charisma and comedic timing.
If there is a bright spot in “The Crew”, it is Sarah Stiles, who plays the team’s office manager, Beth, and the clear interest that they will not love for Kevin. Like Beth, Stiles is bubbling with energy and charm, and seeing her make the most of the lackluster scripts in “The Crew” makes a person excited to see what she would do if she received better material. Completing the cast are Gary Anthony Williams and Dan Ahdoot, who enter into some good conversations as members of the Chuck and Amir team, respectively, but whose characters remain largely underdeveloped and reside firmly on the periphery of the series.
One thing that gets the star treatment in “The Crew” is product placement. While there are times when promotions make sense contextually, such as when Jake yells at all of his sponsors in an interview, others are so notorious that they would be laughable if you weren’t wincing at the amount of money presumably being made by the business. The series premiere still features a placement of Dunkin ‘Donuts so heavy that it makes Ben Affleck’s love for the brand seem understated.
Not long ago, “The Crew” would have looked like a conventional sitcom. But now, it looks like a relic from an era that we were lucky to leave behind. While the half-hour comedy has evolved far beyond the plan “The Crew” is following, there will always be a market for traditional multi-camera sitcoms that prefer wide-ranging humor to scathing comments or grounded pathos. But there is no reason for these series to sacrifice quality or rely on lazy misogynistic jokes to succeed.
“The Crew” debuted on February 15 on Netflix.