Thursday marks the return of new episodes of one of The Blot’s favorite new shows this season,
Reaper.
Reaper airs on The
CW Thursday nights at 9/8 central and is actually pretty good for a scripted show on The CW. So don’t let that scare you away right off the bat. I was planning on writing about
Reaper way back when, but the Writers strike kind of screwed up my plans. If you like
Chuck then do yourself a favor and watch the last few remaining new episodes of
Reaper.
Here’s a quick recap of
Reaper so far. The star of the show is Bret Harrison (
Grounded For Life,
The Loop) who as Sam Oliver had his soul sold to the Devil before he was even born in exchange for the Devil saving his father’s life. 21 years later the Devil’s back to collect on Sam’s parents’ debt. Now the Devil is forcing Sam to act as his Reaper or bounty hunter, “tracking down evil souls that have escaped and returning them to Hell.” (
link) While Sam tries to buy time to figure out why this is happening and how to get out of it, he and his two best friends Tyler Labine (
Invasion) as Sock and Rick Gonzalez (
Coach Carter) as Ben travel around town doing the Devil’s bidding and recapturing lost souls.
It really reminds me of a collection of shows crammed into one. It has the monster of the week theme and Scooby gang like feel to it that
Buffy used to have, but the cast is really set up more like
Chuck. You see Sam and his friends all work at the Work Bench, which is basically a Home Depot knock off. Sam’s got an annoying but funny boss, the wacky sidekick in Sock and the best friend/unrequited love interest in Missy Peregrym (
Heroes) as Andi.
But, what really makes this show great is the Devil himself Ray Wise (
Twin Peaks). He’s one of those actors you know even if you don’t know his name and he was made for this role. Wise pulls off a classic Devil, being friend, mentor and tormentor to Sam all at once. He really is the devilish heart and soul of the show and is worth tuning in every week to watch.
While the fact that Kevin Smith directed the pilot is what brought me to watch the show at first, the show’s relaxed, mindless fun is what’s kept me around.
Reaper reminds me of
Psych in that way. While the mysteries aren’t hard to figure out, they make for fun stories that you don’t have to pay attention to every little thing said to know what’s going on. There are only a handful of new shows left and
Reaper is on the bubble as to whether it is going to be renewed or not, so there’s also no commitment expected if you do start to like it. I’m not sure if that’s a plus or a minus, but I’ll let you decide that one.
Reaper is aimed at a younger demographic, but if you’re looking for a new comedy/adventure/fantasy show to watch that you don’t have to keep tabs on, like Lost, you should really check it out.
Thursday marks the return of new episodes of one of The Blot’s favorite new shows this season, Reaper. Reaper airs on The CW Thursday nights at 9/8 central and is actually pretty good for a scripted show on The CW. So don’t let that scare you away right off the bat. I was planning on writing about Reaper way back when, but the Writers strike kind of screwed up my plans. If you like Chuck then do yourself a favor and watch the last few remaining new episodes of Reaper.
Here’s a quick recap of Reaper so far. The star of the show is Bret Harrison (Grounded For Life, The Loop) who as Sam Oliver had his soul sold to the Devil before he was even born in exchange for the Devil saving his father’s life. 21 years later the Devil’s back to collect on Sam’s parents’ debt. Now the Devil is forcing Sam to act as his Reaper or bounty hunter, “tracking down evil souls that have escaped and returning them to Hell.” (link) While Sam tries to buy time to figure out why this is happening and how to get out of it, he and his two best friends Tyler Labine (Invasion) as Sock and Rick Gonzalez (Coach Carter) as Ben travel around town doing the Devil’s bidding and recapturing lost souls.
It really reminds me of a collection of shows crammed into one. It has the monster of the week theme and Scooby gang like feel to it that Buffy used to have, but the cast is really set up more like Chuck. You see Sam and his friends all work at the Work Bench, which is basically a Home Depot knock off. Sam’s got an annoying but funny boss, the wacky sidekick in Sock and the best friend/unrequited love interest in Missy Peregrym (Heroes) as Andi.
But, what really makes this show great is the Devil himself Ray Wise (Twin Peaks). He’s one of those actors you know even if you don’t know his name and he was made for this role. Wise pulls off a classic Devil, being friend, mentor and tormentor to Sam all at once. He really is the devilish heart and soul of the show and is worth tuning in every week to watch.
While the fact that Kevin Smith directed the pilot is what brought me to watch the show at first, the show’s relaxed, mindless fun is what’s kept me around. Reaper reminds me of Psych in that way. While the mysteries aren’t hard to figure out, they make for fun stories that you don’t have to pay attention to every little thing said to know what’s going on. There are only a handful of new shows left and Reaper is on the bubble as to whether it is going to be renewed or not, so there’s also no commitment expected if you do start to like it. I’m not sure if that’s a plus or a minus, but I’ll let you decide that one. Reaper is aimed at a younger demographic, but if you’re looking for a new comedy/adventure/fantasy show to watch that you don’t have to keep tabs on, like Lost, you should really check it out.
