ABC Family is rolling out sexier, edgier show to draw in a younger demographic and they are giving office life this twist with their upcoming comedy, Kevin From Work.
The title character Kevin (Noah Reid) has fared reasonably well at the faceless food-supply company at which he toils, but he’s jumped at the opportunity to work in Italy. No, it’s not because of his crazy boss (Amy Sedaris) or eccentric co-workers, but rather due to the fact that spending every day within a few feet of Audrey (Paige Spara) — whom he sees encircled by animated birds and animals, like a Disney princess — has become too much to take, since she happens to have physically imposing boyfriend.
After too many drinks at a farewell party, Kevin writes Audrey a letter — he rules out drunk dialing, to his credit — spilling out his feelings, only to discover (because this is a series, not a one-off) that the new job’s not going to happen. Faced with the terror of working alongside her if she reads the note, Kevin focuses over the rest of the premiere — in comically escalating fashion — on halting its delivery, while the fallout spills into the next half-hour and the series going forward.
The show’s creator, Barbara Adler, worked on “How I Met Your Mother,” which is a good clue into the overall feel of the show. There are ancillary elements, who together come close to stealing the pilot right out from under the main character, that are far bawdier than anything “Mother’s” Barney could conjure. They include Audrey’s overwhelming roommate Patti (Punam Patel), who Kevin has to sweet talk hoping to access their mail, and who actually manages to make the act of stalking pretty funny, as well as the aforementioned boss and boyfriend.
In the end, the show manages to hang together because Reid is just vulnerable and stammering enough as Kevin, and his starry-eyed view of Audrey helps soften the cartoon-like aspects that permeate the show elsewhere, inasmuch as this is ultimately a Kevin-centric look at the world, with Audrey as the center of the universe.
“You’ll never see any of us ever again,” one of Kevin’s co-workers says when everyone still thinks he’s leaving, a line that will surely echo through subsequent episodes.
