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« Reaper
Episode Recap: Series Premiere
Oh, Reaper, my belly so aches from laughter, and it's all your fault. There were a ton of priceless moments in this episode, which I think promise good things for the future of this series. When I first found out about this show, it was easy to fall into a disbelieving mindframe, wondering how any network was going to pull off a show about a guy who finds out his parents sold his soul to the devil before he was born. I wondered what kind of footprint the CW was going to make with this kind of wacky premise, and now I know. A huge, hilarious one.
Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison) and his best pal Bert "Sock" Wysocki (Tyler Labine) are lackey salesmen at The Work Bench, a Home Depot-like hardware store where they work under an Office Space-worthy rule-monger manager and are are graced by the presence of Sam's crush Andi (Missy Peregrym) and their pal Ben (Rick Gonzalez). After a bizarre workday in which Sam learns he has (a sad excuse for) telekinesis, plays hero by saving Andi's life and is nearly dinner for a pack of wild dogs, he leaves work early only to find he's carpooling home with the devil (the awesome Ray Wise). Surprise!
I feel I have to mention a few things I learned about the devil in this episode.
1) The devil loves him some chicken-fried steak.
2) The devil digs sports-arena organ ditties.
3) The devil is concerned about coming off as "nice." Who knew.
4) The devil's got a thing for paisley ties.
5) The devil fake-bakes. (Was he looking way orange to you, too?)
Since Sam's folks forked over ownership of their son's soul, he is now the devil's bounty hunter and has to round up escaped souls on Earth and deposit them back in Hell where they belong. Not quite a Dog-the-Bounty-Hunter, he relies on a Dirt Devil minivac (I was on the lookout for vacuum ads during the show, but no cigar) and his pals to capture the bad guy (this time, a phantom arsonist). They're clever, these writers. Clever, clever, clever.
My favorite moments:
• They started the episode by playing Beck's "Devil's Haircut." Could it be more perfect? I predict the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" is going to make an appearance in future eps. Natch.
• Sock tests Sam's telekinesis by sporadically throwing large objects at him and remarking, "You were supposed to move that with your mind."
• "Any place that seems like Hell on Earth is hell on earth," says the devil. And then we find out one of those places is the DMV. I knew it all my life, didn't you?
• Sock kept his promise and gifted Ben's face with a set of eyebrows after his were charred off by fire. Now that's a pal.
So what I want to know is, will Andi become part of the evil-hunting team? I mean, she's got to find out about what the dudes are up to eventually, right? I'm hoping for some hardcore displays of lady-power in future episodes. And now that Sam's realized he wants this path of responsibility and action, will his fear of failure still be an issue, or are we going to see this kid become a warrior?
Can't get enough Reaper? Scare up some clips with our Online Video Guide.
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Sep 26, 2007 2:57 AM
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I enjoyed the show. I thought it was pretty funny. I hope it holds up week after week.
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Sep 26, 2007 5:29 AM
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In all honesty, after only 8 minutes of viewing the show had won me over. Naturally I don't know how this season will pan out, but this show has already accomplished the one thing that every new show must establish and that's chemistry among the characters and tonight it shined.
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Sep 26, 2007 6:17 AM
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I really thought there would be more comments than this! Reaper is hilarious!! I also LOVED that it opened with Beck's "Devil's Haircut". I was grinning from ear to ear from the first note and pretty much kept it the whole time, except for when I was laughing out loud. Honestly, few shows make me laugh out loud, and more than once even!!
There's not much more I can say about this episode since you pretty much covered all my favorite scenes. I really hope they can keep it up because the first episode was pretty much perfect.
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Sep 26, 2007 7:14 AM
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Yeah, I will be watching this. I was going to give it a chance anyway but when they showed Andi(Missy), I was really hooked. She is cute!
I just hope they don't wear corny suits every time they go for a bounty.
The Dogs were funny at the end.
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Sep 26, 2007 8:02 AM
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I think I'm broken.
I loved the actors (Brett - Grounded for Life - Nuff Said), I liked the characters, I enjoyed the premise, I got the jokes....so why did it seem like the longest hour of the night?
I won't give up on it, but I wasn't thrilled and I really expected to be.
PS: I was pleased that their not making our hero suffer in secret...everybody's in on it.
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Sep 26, 2007 8:20 AM
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>
>
> PS: I was pleased that their not making our hero
> suffer in secret...everybody's in on it.
Yes, I know...it's they're NOT their.
Sorry spelling police wherever you are.
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Sep 26, 2007 8:22 AM
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I missed Reaper last night and I'm so bummed! I haven't even read any of these posts and I'm hoping someone can answer this question: does anyone know if it will repeat later in the week or on another channel, or can it be viewed on-line?
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Sep 26, 2007 9:25 AM
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I enjoyed your recap Sandra. Funny stuff.
I really liked this show. I thought it was ironic how his parents had obviously let Sam slide through life (most likely because they knew what they had done) and it takes the Devil to teach him responsibility and to see things through. I mean c'mon...they were OK with him quitting college because it made him sleepy. Why weren't my parents more like that?
The casting of Ray Wise as the devil is absolutely perfect. Actually, I liked the entire cast.
I hope this does not turn into another Veronica Mars for the CW or a The Loop for Bret Harrison. Both great shows with good critical buzz that just could not find an audience. Like gennial, I also was expecting quite a few more comments by now.
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Sep 26, 2007 9:25 AM
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I think I saw an illegal version of this pilot on-line and the lead female wasn't Missy Peregrym but that part was played by Nikki Reed. No offense to Missy Peregrym but she doesn't have as much chemistry as Reed did with the lead (nor is she 1/10 the actress that Nikki Reed is) and it looked as though they just shot the scenes with Peregrym and through them in.
Why did they get rid of Nikki Reed?
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Sep 26, 2007 9:26 AM
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I agree with you dojo625- while I thoroughly enjoyed the show, I was expecting a little more. There weren't too many laugh out loud moments for me (most of them were from Sock, who I think is hilarious). Regardless of that though, I intend to keep watching. The characters have great chemistry and I'm looking forward to seeing how it progresses.
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Sep 26, 2007 9:31 AM
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Love this show! With this and Gossip Girl I think I may be able to forgive the CW for my beloved Veronica Mars cancellation. Loved Tyler Labine in Invasion and Bret Harrison in Grounded for Life. They are hilarious. I can totally see a couple of guys just like this working at my local Home Depot (save for the whole Devil thing of course!). I have to say that they do a good job of making the devil "likeable" even though you know he's bad. (Also, on a personal note, I like how he said God's gonna win. Obviously this show isn't meant to be a religious forum but it did earn brownie points for me for that.) I wondered how they would approach it exactly and make our "hero" still be a good guy who happens to be working for the devil and they did a better job than I could have imagined. Kudos to the writers! I'm hooked. Hope the show does well throughout the season!
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Sep 26, 2007 9:36 AM
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technogeek - Reaper is airing again tomorrow (Thursday) night at 9:00 PM. I am not sure about the online thing. I know I was able to watch Veronica Mars last year online at the CW's website, so hopefully it is the same with this show.
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Sep 26, 2007 9:39 AM
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First off, let me just say that I love me some Bret Harrison. He was hilarious on Grounded For Life and charming in The Loop. Next, can we talk about how much I love Kevin Smith. He's just so wrong he's right. He's always throwing in the quirky religious zingers and I love that about him. Don't know what I'm talking about... watch Dogma.
Now onto the show. Loved it. It had me gripping my side it in laughter. The repeating line of college making Sam "sleepy", classic. The Devil is deliciously funny. The scene where he tells Sam and Andi that was a tender moment cracked me up. OK, that's all I have for now. Can't wait for next weel!
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Sep 26, 2007 9:46 AM
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I LOVED this show from the moment Sock said "I Love this dog" then slams the door into him (only Tyler Labine could make that funny) to the smoke detector going off on his "demon catching suit". I've already decided if it can keep up the quirky humor and throw us some good story lines, it'll probably end up on my top 5 list for the year.
So glad Tyler Labine is back... I missed him after Invasion ended (too early).
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Sep 26, 2007 9:57 AM
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