Plot and characters
The show revolves around the everyday happenings of the Spencer family. Kevin himself is a 16-year-old, sociopathic juvenile delinquent addicted to alcohol, cough syrup and tobacco. He lives with his parents, whom he often shows ambivalence towards. Kevin is also a student at a local high school, although he rarely attends school. It is demonstrated many times throughout the series that Kevin is mentally unstable, as he is prone to random outbursts of violence, even towards himself, shows signs of insanity, and has a complete disregard for life, including his own. It is also shown that Kevin is probably intellectually disabled, as he often has difficulties with performing the simplest of tasks, such as making himself a bowl of cereal, forgetting what he was talking about the instant after saying something, or even realizing that he was hungry, yet at times throughout the series, makes very well-articulated statements about certain aspects of society, culture, politics, and education, possibly indicating Kevin is a savant. Throughout the series, Kevin almost never speaks, aside from during dream sequences and occasional one-sentenced outbursts that the viewer only sees as speech or thought balloons. Instead, the show's narrator (voiced by Lawrence) speaks for Kevin; that is, he describes what Kevin is saying, thinking, and how Kevin reacts to the world around him. Kevin finally does speak in Season 2, Episode 17 (Dreamland), but only in his dreams, and he has a noticeably female-sounding voice. At the end of Season 4’s finale “Beach Blanket Bloodbath” he screams “FUCK OFF!!”, and he also says “Goodbye Allen” in the series finale, although we only see Kevin’s mouth moving and the narrator actually says it.
His parents, Anastasia (voiced by Thomasin Langlands) and Percy (voiced by Lawrence), are also alcoholic chain-smokers. Both are crude, stupid people who live off of welfare. Both parents neglect or otherwise use Kevin for their own selfish gains, and both show clear signs of sociopathic tendencies. Neither parent is faithful to the other, and Anastasia in particular is highly promiscuous. Their antics usually involve attempting to gain money or alcohol through illegal acts, which quite randomly succeed or fail. While both parents primarily show hatred and disgust towards one another, both occasionally demonstrate a small degree of lust for each other, though these moments rarely last longer than a scene of an episode.
Another frequent character in the show is Kevin's imaginary friend, Allen the Magic Goose (voiced by Mike Wetmore). Allen often encourages Kevin's sociopathic nature, normally asking him to do illegal, indecent, and/or dangerous things simply for the sake of the thrill or for vengeance. However, Kevin often shows ambivalence towards Allen, sometimes threatening or intimidating the bird. During such times, Allen often reminds Kevin of the futility of these outbursts, since Kevin is simply imagining Allen's existence. However, in Season 2, Episode 12 (The Potted Goose), Kevin and Allen have a falling out and go their separate ways, and it's revealed that Allen and other "imaginary" friends can leave their hosts and "find another head to live in". Allen tries living in the heads of other humans (during which time Kevin can no longer see Allen), including Percy, one of Kevin's teachers, Charlie Plunt, and the Widow Coulson. Meanwhile, Kevin tries out new imaginary friends, including Hacky the Cigar-Smoking Rollerskating Monkey, Zoltron (a robot that doesn't know the difference between a transformer and a transvestite), and a pimple-faced nerd who's new to the imaginary friend game. Neither Kevin nor Allen can find a suitable replacement, and reconcile at the end of the episode.
Charlie Plunt (voiced by Mike Wetmore) is Percy's friend, a truck driving cowboy wannabe. Skinny with a handlebar mustache, sporting a belt buckle thicker than canned ham. He was abandoned as an infant by his pagan mother, offering Plunt as a sacrifice to her idol at the site of a mountain. A blind hermit would find the infant Plunt, and raise him as his own son. After dying from a fire set in their cabin, Plunt moved on to meet and be indoctrinated into a cult. Plunt was tasked with moving weapons, until he fled their campsite just in time to avoid the vast slaughter of the remaining members by local authorities. Plunt later took up disco dancing as a hobby in the 1970s, frequenting bars, and discotheques. It was this fading passion that led him to cross paths with local juvenile delinquent, and alcoholic, Percival B. Spencer. The two formed a punk rock band during the early 1980s. Both played heavy metal guitars as the only band members. Every time Percy was incarcerated, Charlie shacked up with Anastasia, while insulting and making fun of both Percy and Kevin at the same time. After countless setbacks, Plunt managed to pull through in receiving his grade 10 education. An amateur country music artist, and a “truckstop Casanova”. Plunt was believed to be Kevin's biological father, though this was disproven later on. The nerve of Plunt was inhuman. It wasn't enough for Charlie to attempt to wed Anastasia, but he would also mock Kevin, and drink Percy's personal liquor. Charlie would overcharge Percy for selling drugs. Percy often viewed Charlie as a freeloader, with a drug habit.
Another frequent character is Shauna (voiced by Tori Hammond); Shauna is Kevin’s love interest. Throughout the series, we see her slowly become more and more sociopathic and violent, eventually killing her mother.
Bradley DePalma is Kevin Spencer's brother that was adopted by the DePalma family after Percy and Anastasia chose Kevin to be their only child since he didn't make a sound, unlike Bradley. He appears in the very first episode as a baby, then is never mentioned again until “Homunculus” 3 seasons and 7 episodes later.
In the final episode, it is revealed that the entire series is actually just a delusion created by Allen himself, and he has been seeking therapy to become sane again.
