The first official trailer for Netflix’s The Crew was released on Friday, and the boy looks bad. The show, which will debut on the streaming app on February 15, follows a NASCAR racing team, while the team leader retires and places his young daughter at the helm of the operation. Obviously, there will be plenty of room in this show for the lowest common denominator humor, perhaps including the derision of a young woman working in an old boys’ club.
Clearly, they want to get a King of Queens atmosphere with random NASCAR shit in the background to look semi interesting. Look at this, an unassembled Goodyear, a welding machine and a lifty-majigger engine. Wow, it’s like we’re in a real NASCAR store. Look at this, NASCAR is right on the wall!
I don’t want to be too down with Kevin James. After a recurring supporting character in 8 episodes in Everybody Loves Raymond, he managed to split that tiny character into nine seasons, near the top of the list on the CBS sitcom. It was printed as a nice comedy jester and he continues to take on the roles because they pay well. He’s Larry the Cable Guy for the thinking man. Which is a shame, because he was fantastic as a killer neo-Nazi which catches the head running a lawn mower into the the independent film of 2020 Becky.
Again, he has a habit of acting in projects that frequently use sexism and homophobia as hit points. Obviously, there is a much bigger problem the size of Hollywood, but if the shoe fits, I guess.
The premise of the show, based on the trailer, seems to be that a group of team members have to work together to somehow stop the ambitious young woman who takes over the position of team leader. Kevin James’ character is apparently the head of the crew or something, which makes him the head of this apparent revolt. The new team leader comes in a team that fails (which does not have the ability to finish the season in the top 20) looking to make changes to make it more successful. For some reason, the people on that team don’t want to be more successful, do they? And for some reason, they want to stay with a driver who crashed because he was distracted by a cloud that looked like Abraham Lincoln.
With NASCAR working diligently to rehabilitate its old image as inhospitable to women and minorities, I’m curious how this show will prevent any of these stereotypes. I’m afraid it will only serve to exacerbate the tropes surrounding NASCAR and its fans.
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If your hilarious idea is a minority character to eat a stone or a city girl out of water out of water, accidentally shooting a baby deer or several bastards of premature ejaculation jokes or one of the leaders of a massive motorsport operation who doesn’t understand how technology works, then this show is absolutely for you. If you’re like me and your ears bleed when any performance is a song fucking laugh, then you can expect.
Based on the trailer, I can only hope that this show qualifies for 43rd place for the Daytona 500, runs three laps behind the package and returns back to the garage to collect its participation trophy. It’s the same show that Kevin James has always done, but wrapped in one NASCAR facade. Many times I don’t have roots for things to fail, but this seems to be a tie for equality. the largest on a restricted track.