Last Man Standing returns to huge ratings, important family message

Tim Allen’s hit sitcom Last Man Standing, premiered on Fox last week to an audience of 8 million viewers. The show had previously had a six season run on ABC before being cancelled in 2017.

Spoiler alert 

In the return episode, Allen’s son-in-law is so fed up with President Trump that he wants to move his family (Allen’s daughter and grandson) to Canada. The family disapproves. During the episode, Allen’s grandson Boyd turns up missing.

In spite of all of the arguing and disagreement, they all unite to find Boyd (who had wandered to his grandfather’s store to work on a project).

I do appreciate shows that do take a sincere look at the unity that we need. The political divide in our nation is extreme.

Relationships and friendships have ended and families have been divided just because of differences of opinion.

It’s one thing to have strong opinions on politics, but the division that can happen gives the role of politics an unnecessarily high priority in our lives. Yes these things matter. But so does faith, family, friendships, and unity.

Before Roseanne was cancelled, that was stated as one of the goals for the return of that show.

With Last Man Standing, I do hope that the show can continue to be a voice for the importance of love of family in spite of differences. It’s an important conversation that I think the entertainment industry largely ignores. It can have a tendency to get too caught up in wanting to make its own political statements rather than addressing the overarching political conversations we’re having in this country.

Many were critical of the cancellation given that Tim Allen (and his character Mike Baxter) is conservative and paints conservative politics in a positive light. The show was still popular and fans thought that the cancellation was politically motivated.

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