“Kevin (Probably) Saves the World” (8 p.m. Eastern Tuesdays on ABC) is both the most original show of the fall TV slate and very familiar. Let me explain: On one hand, there’s nothing else like it on TV now. On the other hand, it has many forebearers in the genre of supernatural beings influencing a normal person’s actions. Or sometimes the main character is a supernatural being but appears to be normal.
“Kevin” belongs to the former category, which also includes the cult favorite “Joan of Arcadia” (2003-05), where Joan receives instructions from God, who takes the form of random strangers. Other entries in this broad genre include “Touched by an Angel” (the most cited example in write-ups about “Kevin”), “Dead Like Me,” “Wonderfalls” and two versions of “Cupid.” But “Joan” jumps to mind because the titular Kevin, Jason Ritter, played Joan’s brother – coincidentally also named Kevin. Now it’s Ritter’s character who is receiving instructions from God, albeit through messenger Yvette (Kimberly Hebert Gregory).
Ritter and JoAnna Garcia Swisher (“Privileged”), who plays Kevin’s twin sister Amy, are the reasons to tune in, as they are two of the most immediately likable faces on TV. We’re told that Kevin is not a nice guy, and since Ritter looks scruffy and unkempt, I guess I’ll go with it, although I don’t really believe it.
He also tried to kill himself for some reason, which gains him some sympathy from Amy but not so much from Amy’s sullen teenage daughter, Reese (Chloe East). There are also suggestions that he’s rich, owing to a stock-market job that he hated. In the pilot’s most saccharine scene, Kevin randomly gives a deaf guy at the airport a bunch of Benjamins.
A lot about the pilot episode of “Kevin” – created by Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas, a duo whose most impressive credit is “Dollhouse” – is clunky. Amy is a world-class scientist who gets whisked away in a helicopter by the Department of Defense when a bunch of meteors fall to Earth. A more down-to-Earth (pun intended) job might’ve grounded this show better.
Kevin and Reese check out the meteor that hits near Amy’s country home, where Kevin is zapped and becomes one of the “Righteous,” with visits from Yvette, whom only he can see. She notes that he’s now the last of the Righteous (for some reason), although there used to be a full roster of 36.
Reese acts like a too-cool teenager, but then she tracks down her uncle at the airport. It turns out she dropped soccer because it was something she did with her late father, and she really could benefit from Kevin living with them. There’s good chemistry between Kevin, Amy and Reese.
Additionally, there’s excellent cuteness potential between Kevin and Kristin (India de Beaufort), a local schoolteacher who is taken aback by Kevin’s apparent awkwardness (he’s actually talking to Yvette) but is still smitten with him. The funniest moment of the pilot – and the best crystallization of the character – is when Kristin mentions Reese’s struggles and Kevin changes the subject to ask if Kristin if she’s single (to Yvette’s annoyance, of course). Most other times, the joke of other people not being able to see Yvette falls flat, and it could grow tiresome if the writers don’t find a way around this internal cliche.
The rules Kevin must follow and the tasks he must complete now that he’s “Righteous” are ill-explained, although previews for next week show Kevin going around asking strangers if they need help with anything, which has good humor potential. The concept that Kevin can both feel good and be irked that he feels good, and that he can intend to say one thing but actually say another, is similar to the Jim Carrey movie “Liar Liar.” This weird situation is portrayed clearly by Ritter, but it makes it hard to relate to Kevin’s situation, since such a thing can’t happen in reality.
I like Amy’s country home, with its surrounding fields of wheat and the autumn breezes rustling the curtains. It’s a relaxing setting, yet the town with the school and a city with an airport are not far away, so “Kevin” should have flexibility in its locations.
Garcia and Ritter and the innocent likability of the show will bring me back for episode two, but “Kevin” would do well to more crisply define its premise and move beyond the “only Kevin can see Yvette” gags.