How Last Man Standing perfectly encapsulates the 2010s and the rise of Trump

Vox

Having been revived on Fox, Last Man Standing is "almost as fascinating as it’s ever been" after a year-and-a-half off following its cancelation on ABC, says Todd VanDerWerff. "The Tim Allen vehicle started out as a mostly innocuous family sitcom when it launched in 2011, a somewhat dated show about an archetypal manly man leading a household full of women," he says. "But as it evolved into a series about an older white man’s continued feelings of grievance, it unexpectedly became one of the pop culture artifacts that best predicted the rise of Donald Trump. Last Man Standing was one of the few shows on television to feature a politically conservative character as its protagonist. Though the views of Mike Baxter, Allen’s character, were more centrist than those of the man who played him, its depiction of intergenerational conflict between Mike and his daughters (and sons-in-law) got at something compelling about a generational divide between (mostly white) parents and children — a divide that few other TV shows even attempted to tackle." Last Man Standing isn't a "political" show, as Allen keeps insisting. But, this season, "there are moments when it really does feel as if Last Man Standing is attempting to confront what it means to be someone who is glad Trump is president but also starting to realize how much that scares other people in your family," says VanDerWerff, adding: "There’s also a clear willingness to delve back into the show’s original premise and confront the ways in which it comes up short. Last Man Standing is still interested in the rituals of male bonding and the ways that guys shoot the shit when they’re alone together. But there’s also a growing sense that Mike might be more of a softy than he lets on, or that the character is becoming aware of his responsibility to the larger world."

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• Last Man Standing's premiere balanced its Dad-jabs at the left with a general message of "can’t we all just get along?"
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• Conservatives deserve better than the "hopelessly mediocre" Last Man Standing
• Twitter users welcomed Last Man Standing back as if it was comfort food
• Tim Allen jokes that the two recastings aren't as "traumatic" as Darren on Bewitched