Shifting Gears Season 1 Episode 1 Recap: Restoration

Get ready to meet the loveable yet dysfunctional Parker family.

On Shifting Gears Season 1 Episode 1, “Restoration,” we dive right into the business side of the show and meet the hardworking and close-knit team at Parker Custom Cars, including Gabriel (Seann William Scott), Stitch (Daryl Mitchell), and the owner, Matt (Tim Allen).

Parker Custom Cars is the perfect place for all your car needs. They specialize in resto-mods (restoration and modification) for vintage vehicles. While working on a car with Gabriel, Matt is thrown for a loop when he reunites with his stolen GTO.

What sounds like an emotional moment quickly turns into a dramatic and tense reunion between Matt and the thief of his beloved car… who is also his daughter, Riley (Kat Dennings). Within the first few minutes of their time together on screen, the pair make it extremely clear that they have a broken and horrible father-daughter relationship.

Knowing that this is going to be a bumpy conversation with her dad, Riley quickly throws two buffers into the mix by including her kids, Matt’s grandchildren, Carter (Maxwell Simkins) and Georgia (Barrett Margolis), as part of this surprise reunion.

Realizing that their 15-year catch-up is better done in private, the pair head back to their family home to talk—or rather argue—about why Riley is back in town.

Amid all the yelling and emotional digs at each other, Riley reveals that she left her parents’ house after becoming pregnant, dropping out of college, and running away to marry a bass player named James. The last time she saw her dad was at her mother’s funeral, where the two still refused to speak to each other.

It’s fair to say that these two have many unresolved problems and tensions. But like most daughters, Riley knows when to admit she needs her father’s help.

She tells her dad that after leaving for a tour and traveling the world, James cheats on her, and now they’re getting a divorce. On top of that, she has no money and desperately needs a place for her and the kids to stay until she can get back on her feet.

Despite being mad at his daughter, Matt opens his arms and the family home to Riley and the kids. He hopes it will only take them a few weeks to get their lives back in order, which at this point in the season, seems highly unlikely.

The pair constantly butt heads about rules and the way families work. For example, Riley raises her kids with the rule that meals are a screen-free time, meaning no phones, tablets, or TV. She explains that family meals are the only time in a day to fully talk to each other and ask about life.

But of course, Matt has the opposite rule, where mealtime is the perfect time to watch the news and complain about the world being a horrible place. While it seems like he does this to get on Riley’s nerves, she also considers that ever since her mother passed away from a heart attack, her father has lived alone and doesn’t have anyone to talk to during meals.

Throughout the episode, Riley and Matt have multiple arguments and disagreements, but when they find her mother’s old flour sifter, that she uses to bake with, Riley and Matt realize they share common ground in their grief over her loss.

Despite grieving in different ways, the father-daughter duo make a deal to try to mend their relationship and be part of each other’s lives again. Only time will tell how this journey goes for the pair.

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What did you think of this episode of Shifting Gears? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Shifting Gears airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

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