Critic Reviews

The punchlines fly thick, fast and pointed in Kevin Can Wait, and enough of them land to make it a diverting, if unenlightening, experience.

Kevin Can Wait is neither as bad as you may have feared nor as good as you may have hoped. It’s squarely and innocuously in the middle.

The larger issue here is that James and Hayes are pretty much all Kevin has.

Based on the pilot, Kevin Can Wait is a serviceably funny show that works best if the audience already accepts Kevin’s worldview.

Kevin Can Wait is basically Kevin James 101.

Predictability ensues, of course, but that’s why people tune in to James. ... There is acceptable, if not quite credible, chemistry between James and Hayes, the laugh track is annoying but expected, Spreitler is also what you’d expect her to be, and the only tiny pinprick of creativity can be seen in the character of Chale and Cartwright’s performance.

Kevin Can Wait is the most ordinary of dumb-dad sitcoms. James, though, is so winning I wouldn't blame anyone for wanting to hang with him.

This is a throwback to mediocrities like “Still Standing” that gave us chubby hubbies acting like big kids and pretty wives who have to boss them around.

There’s still room for a modest comedy of this sort on CBS, but even in its limited ambitions, the premiere stumbles on undercooked dialogue and the garbled perspective of its protagonist.

For all its straightforward sincerity, James can’t provide anything new with his new show.