Season 2 of Shane Gillis’s sitcom Tires returned to Netflix on June 5, 2025, and it should already be renamed Tired. Or Tiresome. The crass, crude, and unfunny amateur (half) hour desperately attempts, without success, to channel the raunchiness of FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but grossly lacks the creativity, rich characterizations, acting talent, and ability to reinvent itself time and again.
By doubling up to 12 episodes in Season 2 instead of six in Season 1, Tires exposes itself as a flat, directionless hub of hot air that contracts rather than expands. A few minor laughs here and there, the show feels too slight, underdeveloped, cheaply made, and frankly, pointless beyond its efforts to push back against perceived woke political correctness. Unlike It’s Always Sunny, there’s no chance of Tires lasting for 20 years.
Tires’ Flat Premise, Explained
With little structure, fewer funny jokes, and almost zero dramatic conflict to compel viewers, Tires is a throwback-style sitcom set at Valley Forge Auto Shop. The setup is simple. A group of moronic, immature mechanics and sales reps do as little as possible at work, slack off, take advantage of unwitting customers, and poke constant fun at the goofy yet well-meaning manager Will (Steve Gerben). It’s raunchy and repellent for the sake of being offensive and off-putting, without any clever (or even interesting) commentary.
That’s it. The basic conceit allows internet comedian Shane Gillis and his friends to flex their brand of faux-tough-guy humor, leaning into the offensive, toxic masculinity that has been under fire for the past decade or so. Whether firing off lazy racial and homophobic stereotypes, doing cocaine and trying to have sex at work, poking fun at microaggressions, insulting customers in their faces and behind their backs, the Valley Forge employees are petty, repulsive slackers with no redeeming value whatsoever. But that’s the point.
Such odious examples include Dave (Stavros Halkias), a slimy sexual pervert who harasses his colleagues and customers; Schulz (Andrew Schulz) and Tommy (Tommy Pope), rival mechanics who don’t even attempt to play anything other than their real-life counterparts; and other instantly forgettable characters that add little humor. Not even comedy stalwarts Jon Lovitz and Thomas Haden Church can save Tires from rolling off the cliff in Season 2.
‘Tires’ Will Never Forge a Legacy Like ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’
Soon to debut its 17th season on FX, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia remains one of the longest-running sitcoms in history. Unlike most sitcoms, it has not worn out its welcome. Instead, it has stayed fresh since 2005 by constantly reinventing itself, maintaining a standard of quality for 20 years. A rare feat indeed, the time, care, and craft put into each seasonal arc, characterizations, outlandish plotting, and tangential directions it takes are what allow the raunchy aspects of the show to work.
The powerful alchemy of Charlie (Charlie Day), Mac (Rob McElhenney), Dee (Kaitlin Olson), Dennis (Glenn Howerton), and Frank (Danny DeVito) is a huge part of the show’s winning magical formula. It’s Always Sunny can afford to be raunchy, offensive, and tasteless at times because of how three-dimensional the characters and their interactions are.
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Unlike Tires, where every character is joyfully juvenile and monotonously mean-spirited, the beloved characters in It’s Always Sunny have expressed every emotion and shown every color possible during its 179 episodes. Warts and all, the flaws are what make the gang relatable as humans, something that Sunny wholeheartedly embraces, and Tires foolishly laughs at.
Far from a single writer’s opinion, the critical appraisals of each show tell the same story. It’s Always Sunny holds an 8.8 IMDb rating and is ranked #56 on IMDb’s Top 250 TV Shows. The show has a 94% Tomato Meter score and a 91% Popcorn Meter score on Rotten Tomatoes. By contrast, Tires holds a mediocre 55% Tomato Meter score and a 90% Popcorn Meter rating. In every conceivable measure, Tires falls short of the kind of show it wants to be.
‘Tires’ Must Improve Production Quality If the Show Wants To Last
While it’s easy to knock the lame jokes Tires perpetuates and the so-called edgy humor it thinks it has going in its favor, the biggest issue lies in the amateurish production qualities and lack of creativity across the board. If the show wants to last even half as long as It’s Always Sunny, it must improve the writing, direction, casting, character development, editing, music, and performances.
After all, humor is subjective, and the jokes Tires makes will appeal to many. However, the production quality is objectively subpar for any sitcom, much less one that desperately wants to live in the same irreverent, boundary-pushing universe as It’s Always Sunny. Tires‘ creator, John McKeever, has never directed a sitcom before, and it shows. His only previous credits are the internet web series he made with Gillis, including the sketch comedy show Gilly & Keeves.
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For as funny as Shane Gillis can be in real life, Tires isn’t the best showcase of his talent. If he wants Tires to be remembered in the long run, efforts must be made to improve its overall quality. As it is, Tires feels cheap, lazy, unfunny, and poorly made – the opposite of what It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has built its reputation on for 20 years.
Tires is available to stream on Netflix
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
