I'M FAIRLY sure the folks who are bringing us "Saved," a somewhat promising new drama about a troubled and troubling paramedic, have seen both "Rescue Me" and all the forensic shows on television.

You can tell because the show, which airs Mondays at 10 starting tomorrow night, has some moments that come straight out of them.

First, there's the show's central character, Wyatt Cole (Tom Everett Scott), who's as troubled as he is brilliant.

The son of a famous surgeon in his Portland hometown, Cole was on the preordained path to follow in his famous father's footsteps when he bailed out after two years.

As the opening episode explains, Cole hung out in Hawaii for a year or two to lick his wounds, then came home and took a job as a paramedic.

Like Denis Leary's character in "Rescue Me," this character has so many problems, it's hard to say where to start.

First, he's got a gambling addiction. Second, he's convinced no one in life is truly safe, a belief that his job reinforces each day. Because of this, things like commitment and trust aren't high on his list of useful skills.

Stuck between the doctor he could be and the paramedic who leaves his father and others in his life convinced he's just settling, Cole tries to carve out a niche he can feel happy in.

Ahh, but there's more. Not only does he have to face his disappointed father at every turn, there's a girl, a beautiful E.R. doctor named Alice (Elizabeth Reaser), whom Cole went to school with and was in love with.

She dumped him, because of both his gambling addiction and his aversion to commitment.

That she's about to move in with one of the by-the-book doctors Cole swears he can't stand makes his character all the more tragic, in a self-imposed sort of way.