Great Couple: The Baxters

While still honoring his Home Improvement roots, Tim Allen makes a subtle shift regarding the husband-wife relationship in Last Man Standing. 

The relationship in Home Improvement is somewhat adversarial: man versus woman. There is nothing particularly wrong with this approach. As Dominic states in KJ Charles's A Subversive Affair to his ex-lover, "You want an ally. I prefer a challenge." 

Vanessa is an ally. Though just as opinionated and independent and strong-willed as Jill, she also has the facility to let things go. When neighbor Helen Potts, played by Patricia Richardson, shows up for the first time, Mike and Helen get into an argument about the plumbing. Vanessa throws up her hands and says, "It's just water!" 

I am not one who believes that Tim's character in Home Improvement was unfairly portrayed as a dumb male. I am continually astonished by the failure of movie and television reviewers to take visuals into account. Tim Allen runs Home Improvement as effectively as he runs Last Man Standing. He is visually at the center as are all his reactions. This is not wrong. It is a directing and producing choice. 

In a very funny scene in Last Man Standing, Vanessa and her two oldest girls psychoanalyze Mike's behavior re: his daughters. He is chivalrous. He wants to be a protector. He doesn't want to have to pay for weddings. Tim Allen as Mike sits at the table with a nonplussed expression on his face. Eve sits next to him, looking utterly indifferent. 

Mike is the patriarch of the house but not in the way that angry people castigate that term. His patriarchy hails back to Bellisario and others who wanted their men to be tough and responsible and able to take it and their women to be...tough and responsible and able to take it. 

Vanessa is. 

Consequently, she and Mike are allies. 

My favorite example of their companionship is when they go to hear Eve's "band." When the other members of the horrible band bail, Eve goes on. 

Vanessa (alarmed): She was only supposed to get 1/3 of the humiliation. 

Mike: I'm going to fake a heart attack. Look concerned. 

Eve proves a success. As they sit at the table, Mike and Vanessa exchange a glance that says everything: how surprised and pleased and touched they are by their remarkable daughter. 

My other favorite scene occurs early on. Vanessa tells Mike some gossip. He passes it on to his neighbor.  When Vanessa argues that Mike shouldn't have passed on something she told him in confidence, he doesn't argue--as so many sitcom couples do--that she shouldn't have told him in the first place. He agrees. She ought to be able to confide in him anything she pleases. They are a team.

All the bombast and silly puns and vlogs on Last Man Standing come back to this: a husband and wife who can rely on each other.