Amazon Prime's "Movies We Think You'll LIke" this morning is absolutely disgusting. Not only "winning hte girl of your dreams" plots, but the icons are all about breasts. What algorithym could possibly get the idea that a 60-year old gay guy with absolutely no interest in women would want to watch "Sex, Guaranteed" (breasts and three guys) or "The In-Betweeners" (guys staring at breasts) or "State Park" (naked woman leading a group) or "Sorceress" (Franzetta lady butt) Or "Chick Fight" (chicks fighting) or "Use Me" (girl in lingerie) or "100 Girls." Help!
In desperation I moved to Netflix and clicked on the first icon that showed a cute guy: The Crew. No idea what it is about -- maybe the flight crew on an airplane?
Scene 1: No, it's the crew of a race car (the people who perform maintenance, I guess). Will this be comprehensible to someone who has never seen a race?
Standing beside a pile of tires, Bear tries to instruct Jake the Hunk, apparently the driver, on what to do next, but Jake is busy listening to some "sick" tunes. Generational clash? They get into a fight, while the rest of the crew watches. Then the National Anthem starts, and they drop everything.
Scene 2: Establishing shots of a race track. NASCAR is prominently displayed. I don't know what that is. Bear and three other crew members watch the race from a booth. "We've had some bad races," Bear tells them, "But that will all change today." Whoops, their car is immediately disqualified.
Scene 3: They're all preparing for Bobby's 70th birthday party with gifts: squirrel sausage, a statue of a cowboy, two tickets to Hamilton. Bear got him the best gift: the first car he ever won a race in. Suddenly Love Interest -- um, I mean Katherine, Bobby's adult daughter, appears.
Introductions all around: Bear is actually named Kevin; Jake the driver; Beth the snarky office manager; Chuck the grizzled black guy who hunts squirrels; Amir the nerdish engineer; and about 30 background players. Amir is the one who likes musical theater. He must be gay..
Kevin is played by Kevin James, whom I've never seen in anything but recognize from movie trailers, much hotter as a bald, bearded, bear.
Bobby, Rich Texan from The Simpson, a white-bearded cowboy, arrives and announces that he is retiring. Love Interest...um, I mean Katherine..will take over the company, becoming Kevin the Bear's boss.
Scene 4: Kevin the Bear goes to Bobby's office to complain. Bobby can't retire -- he single-handedly built the sport of racing! Katherine can't take over! She has no experience! And she's a...she has no experience!
Scene 5: Kevin the Bear's office. Snarky Beth enters with dish about Katherine: at ler last job, she fired everyone and got a whole new staff. What if she fires all of the crew? Kevin has a girlfriend that he hasn't told Beth about, for some reason. He suggests that "all four of us" get together that night.
He drops the pronouns for Beth's partner? Maybe she's a lesbian.
Scene 6: Kevin gives Katherine a tour of the facilty: accounting, marketing (racers have marketing departments?), the floor where all the mechanical stuff takes place. Uh-oh, a reference to Amir's wife. An effeminate heterosexual.
They haven't had a win in four years, and they haven't even been in the top ten most of the time. Katherine throws around some stats indicating that the team is not performing well. "I don't want to fire anyone, but I'll do what I have to do to win."
Scene 7: Kevin and Beth at the bar, playing darts and waiting for their dates to arrive (Beth's partner is Frank --another gay hint demolished!). Jake the Driver calls. It's an emergency!
Scene 8: Back at the garage. Jake found a photo of Katherine having lunch with another driver -- gulp! So he has to quit before he's fired and unable to get any other job.
Katherine arrives. It's true -- she's giving his seat to the other driver. They argue. Katherine agrees to let the two drivers race to see who gets the seat: fastest lap wins.
Scene 9: The "taking off the helmet to reveal that you're a woman" thing. Jesse the Other Driver finishes in 28 seconds ( 161 miles per hour (off camera). Jake beats her by one second, but then crashes.
Scene 10: Whoops, they forgot their dates at the bar. Kevin's girlfriend shows up to dump him.
Scene 11: Kevin and Beth discuss his breakup. She says that he should hold out for someone who loves racing as much as he does. Uh-oh, Beth is obviously in love with him, so this is boing to be a "Betty or Veronica" thing.
Beefcake: Several hot guys, but nothing comes off.
Gay Characters: Two gay teases. In a later episode, Jake reveals "a secret," but he was flirting with the female driver, so I doubt that he's gay.
Heterosexism: Kevin's love life will be prominent.
Racing: This is completely different from what I thought a race car crew was about. It was rather interesting to peek into an alien world. But I still don't know what NASCAR is.
Will I Keep Watching: Maybe the "Jake's Secret" episode.