Expectations are always high for a new TV show, especially so when it has the creative pedigree of NBC’s “Believe” — which is co-created by Oscar-winner Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity”) and produced by sci-fi master J.J. Abrams (“Alias,” “Lost”).
In the drama, premiering Monday at 10 p.m. — with subsequent episodes Sundays at 9 p.m. — Jake McLaughlin plays Tate, a wrongfully imprisoned death-row inmate who’s sprung from prison and finds himself the unlikely protector of Bo (Johnny Sequoyah), a 10-year-old girl with special powers.
After her foster parents are killed in a car accident, Bo becomes the kidnap target of Skouras (Kyle MacLachlan), who wants to control her powers of levitation, telekinesis and ability to see the future. To elude the threat, she and Tate set off on a cat-and-mouse trek, running from city to city (though the series is filmed in New York) to avoid being captured by Skouras.
Both Cuarón (who also directs the premiere) and Abrams have been very hands-on with “Believe” despite their busy schedules, according to McLaughlin.
But it was Tate’s relationship with Bo that most attracted him to the series, he says.
“I loved that I wasn’t coddling the kid and doing that cheesy, hokey thing with kids that most shows do on television,” McLaughlin, 31, tells The Post. “It had a much more realistic, tough-love aspect to it that rang true with me.
“It’s kind of a cool thing to have the relationship not already established with these two characters but to have it just be starting out in a really unusual way and having it be able to go somewhere.”
In the premiere, Tate is clearly annoyed by Bo — she’s nosy, asks a lot of questions and runs off without warning — though there’s a twist at the end of Monday’s night’s premiere that promises to impact their relationship. Over the course of the season, McLaughlin says the two will slowly begin to trust each other, though it’s not an easy transition.
“There’s still who I am in the character that’s going to come through a little bit no matter what,” he says. “It’s a struggle for me to change. But it’s definitely something I’m putting a concerted effort toward doing.”
McLaughlin has plenty of real-life experience to draw on acting opposite the 11-year-old Sequoyah — he has a daughter the same age, as well as a 7-year-old son, and his wife is expecting their second daughter next week.
“Believe” is the first network TV lead role for McLaughlin, who prior to becoming an actor served in the US Army, where he spent time in Iraq. He was doing concrete work back home in Chino, Calif., and had $200 in his bank account when he got a call that Paul Haggis was auditioning veterans for his 2007 film “In the Valley of Elah.” The part turned out to be his big break, and he moved to LA for a year — away from his family — to fill out his resume with small TV guest spots, which led to roles in the Starz series “Crash” and 2012 film “Savages.”
McLaughlin’s Army background has proved useful during production, especially for helping the California native endure 14-hour days shooting outside in New York’s brutal winter.
“The military, especially, teaches you mind over matter, to not think about those things,” he says.
It also aided with the physicality of the role (Tate engages in frequent fight scenes) and the emotional intensity he brings to it.
“My military experience . . . I can recall so many different emotions from that,” he says.
“As far as I’m concerned, the best acting class is life.”