Network TV Shows I Am Looking Forward To This Fall, Part 4: Reaper

The show on today's docket: Reaper. (Side note: I've liked Ray Wise ever since Twin Peaks, and as misused as he was in 24 a couple of seasons ago, I think he is completely in his element in this one).



From Time Magazine:

The Show: Reaper, CW

The Premise: Sam (Bret Harrison, The Loop), a college dropout working in a big-box store (trend alert: also the setting for Chuck), is turning 21, and his parents have a big birthday surprise for him. The Devil (Ray Wise) conned them into selling Sam's soul before he was born, and today that soul is forfeit. The deal: he must capture escaped souls and return them to Hell, for the rest of his life. With his friend Sock (Tyler Labine, serial comic-relief sidekick) he goes after his first quarry, with the aid of a Satanic hand-vac.

First Impressions: So these aren't reviews, but I don't think the CW will mind my saying that I loved this pilot. Produced by Kevin Smith (who directed the pilot), it's consistently funny and actually more focused in its humor than, say, a Kevin Smith movie. The casting is excellent: Harrison as good-natured, lazy Sam, Ray Wise as an appeallingly smarmy Satan and Nikki Reed (Thirteen) as Sam's love/like interest. Not to jinx Reaper with high expectations, but there's something Buffy-like about the mix of humor, low-fi action scenes and character: at heart, there's a real story here, about Sam's finally having to accept a challenge he's not allowed to quit. I'm not saying this show will become Buffy, but I don't think I would have said that about Buffy after its pilot either.

Will I Watch Another One? Hell, yes.