The Initiative – The first episode begins with Will (Steve Gerben) leaving his father a voicemail, updating him on the progress of the tire shop. He claims that although he’s ordered one too many tires, he got a great discount. Team building is supposedly going well, and the customers are happier than ever. As Will tells his father this, the footage on the screen shows the exact opposite but it ends up not mattering because Will completely screws up the message.

Sometime later that day, Will discusses his plans to make the tire shop more accommodating to women with Shane (Shane Gillis) and Cal (Chris O’Connor). He’s apparently even hired a reporter (Charles Blyzniuk) to write a puff piece. Will soon suspects that Shane and Cal probably aren’t the best employees to enlist in his new initiative and tells them to avoid the reporter altogether. His suspicions are proven true when Shane makes things awkward with a female customer. Will realizes things have only gotten much more complicated when he sees the Wops, Schulz (Andrew Schulz), and Tommy (Tommy Pope), approaching from the parking lot.

After steering them around to the rear entrance, they learn about the visit from the report. Will subtly attempts to tell them to steer clear while the reporter is present. Whether or not they get his hint is unclear, but it’s not long before the discussion returns to women, in particular, a smoking hot secretary-type they just hired at their car lot. This eventually segues into an uncomfortable debate about whether or not Will would sleep with Schulz’s cousin, Claire. After several embarrassing moments of debate, Will finds his attention drawn to the front of the shop where Cal has just apparently dropped a dolly of tires on Kilah’s (Kilah Fox) foot, the shop’s single female employee.

The accident leads to everyone gathering in Will’s office where they evaluate Kilah’s bruised foot. It doesn’t take long to realize that Will wants to use Kilah to gain favor with the reporter. He goes as far as to tell her that she’s used all her sick days and promises to take her to the hospital immediately after the interview is wrapped up.

When the reporter shows up, it’s revealed that he’s having his oil changed while he does the interview. He jokingly accuses Will of bribery when he tells him that there won’t be a charge. Much to Will’s surprise, the reporter wants to interview one of the mechanics for the piece. Despite his best efforts, Will can’t convince him otherwise and they soon find themselves in Will’s office with Shane. Merely minutes into the interview Shane makes the atmosphere in the room uncomfortable. It only gets worse when Will can’t sufficiently answer how he plans to make the shop more female-friendly. Shortly after this, Shane and the reporter are at each other’s throats and the phone is ringing incessantly. Becoming frustrated, Will yells at Kilah, only managing to make himself look even worse in the process.

Left with no other option, Will answers the phone to discover that it is Dave (Steve Halkias) from the Ardmore shop, calling to tell him that Will’s father is extremely upset. Although Will practically hangs up on Dave, it does him little good because the reporter has no desire to continue. When Will later returns the call, he learns that his father is upset over his ordering of 500 extra tires. While they are debating this, restocking fees, and the proper chain of command, Shane interrupts to apologize for blowing the interview.

When the reporter questions Kilah, he is surprised that it was Will’s father who hired her. Not only that but she only got moved to Will’s store because she called a customer a fag. Will only further embarrasses himself when he tries to get the reporter back into his office to resume the interview. Completely exhausted, the reporter tells him to let him know when his car is ready.

With few options left, Will agrees to give Shane a final shot at smoothing things over with the reporter. The reporter appears to be satisfied with Shane’s earnest apology but the Wop’s sudden appearance ruins everything. While trying to convince the reporter to go easy on the shop, the reporter lets it slip that Valley Forge Tire doesn’t even advertise with his paper, so it’s not like he has to kiss his butt. The statement inspires Will to take out 4 months of advertisements. It is Dave who hangs up on him this time when Will shares the news.

 

Tires Review

Being that this was only the first episode, I feel it would be unjust to completely rag on the series, although it wasn’t great. It wasn’t as bad as I expected and my expectations were low. I did find some of the irony and satire enjoyably quirky. Much of the comedy is infantile at best but there are moments when it was slightly enjoyable. I did appreciate the Insane Clown Posse reference. I would have to give the first episode a 4.6 out of 10. If I had to choose between Tires and One More Time, I would choose Tires every time.

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