Kiss Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor goodbye. The second season premiere of “Last Man Standing” finds the once-dopey “Home Improvement” Tim Allen settled into the more controversial character, Mike Baxter. Baxter, a loud-mouth suburban dad outnumbered in a female-dominated house, is notorious for his trivial rants and nonsensical barking as his three daughters and wife. But this season, as the show begs for higher ratings, the leading man stirs up real controversy with his political views. To convince his daughters to support Mitt Romney, Baxter spewed out punch lines like “You voted for a guy from Kenya” for an entire 30 minutes. Yet, as he went on, the only thing present was shock factor and fake laughs from the studio audience. Controversy grabs attention but substance maintains it.  Depicting Tim Allen as a bigot is engaging, but it has to be done better. 

Grade: C-