The first official trailer for Netflix’s The Crew was released on Friday and the boy doesn’t look good. The show, which will premiere on the streaming app on Feb. 15, follows a NASCAR racing team as the team leader retires and places his daughter at the helm of the operation. Viously, obviously, there will be plenty of room in this show for the least common denominator humor, including perhaps the mockery of a young woman working in an old people’s club.
Clearly they’ll be betting on a King of Queens atmosphere with a random NASCAR shit in the background to look semi-interesting. Look at this, an unassembled Goodyear, a welding machine and a lift motor. Wow, it’s like we’re in a real NASCAR store. Look at that, NASCAR says right on the wall.
I don’t want to disregard Kevin too much. After a recurring eight-episode supporting character in Everybody Loves Raymond, managed to air this tiny character in nine seasons near the top of the bill on the CBS sitcom list. It has been published as an affable comedy jester, and he keeps taking on the roles because they pay well. It’s Larry the Cable Guy for the man who thinks. Which is a shame, because he was fantastic as a neo-Nazi assassin who gets the head runover for a mower inside the 2020 independent film Becky.
Again, he has a habit of acting on projects that often use sexism and homophobia as bastards. Obviously, there’s a much bigger Hollywood size issue, but if the shoe fits, I guess.
The premise of the program, based on the trailer, seems to be that a group of team members have to work together to somehow frustrate the ambitious young man who holds the position of team leader. Kevin James’ character is apparently the head of the crew or something, which makes him the protagonist of this apparent riot. The new team leader arrives at a failed team (which does not have the ability to do so) finish the season in the top 20) looking to make changes to be more successful. For some reason, the people on this team don’t want to be more successful, I guess? And for some reason they want to stay with a driver who fell because he was distracted by a cloud that looked like Abraham Lincoln.
With NASCAR working diligently to rehabilitate its old image as unwelcoming to women and minorities, I’m curious how this show will frustrate any of these stereotypes. I’m afraid it only serves to exacerbate the troops surrounding NASCAR and its fan base.
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If your idea of hilarious is one minority character eat a rock, or a city girl out of the water fish accidentally shooting a deer baby, or more shit early ejaculation jokes, or one of the heads of a massive motor sports operation that does not understand how technology works, then this program is absolutely for you. If you’re like me and your ears bleed when any show has a damn laugh, maybe you can sit this one down.
Based on the trailer, I can only hope that this show ranks No. 43 for the Daytona 500, makes three laps in the back of the backpack, and goes back to the garage to pick up its participation trophy. It’s the same show Kevin James has always done, but wrapped in one NASCAR facade. It often doesn’t root for things to fail, but that seems like a shipwreck on the same level the big one on a restriction plate track.