Test Pilot: Reaper
Photo: Michael Courtney/The CW
Test Pilot is a semiregular feature this summer sharing my first impressions of the pilots for next fall's shows. These aren't reviews, since these pilots may be rewritten, recast and reshot before airing, and end up much better or worse. But, premature opinions are why God invented the Internet, so let's get on with...
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.
-
1
Wait, the CW with a quirky-premised show worth watching?
Based on Veronica Mars, I give it three episodes.
In all seriousness, though, imagine you're Dawn Ostroff, head of programming for CW. You have Reaper, Aliens in America, and Gossip Girls in development, all of which have elicited a fair amount of critical acclaim based on previews. You're definitely bringing back the sci-fi counter-programming night 2-hour block of Supernatural-Smallville. You have a critically dismissed but somehow popular One Tree Hill coming back, plus another season of America's Next Top Model and Everybody Loves Chris.
You're telling me there is no room in that lineup for the cultishly loved Veronica Mars? Even if just to give it a nice and neat 13 episode burial? Particularly in a television season when 24/Lost/American Idol don't return until January/February?
How do you leave it out? Particularly when this means you'll be airing "Farmer Wants a Wife," "Search for the Next Next Pussycat Doll" and things called CW Now and Online Nation?
Supernatural-Smallville belong together. Ditto Everybody Hates Chris-Aliens in America. Ditto One Tree Hill/America's Next Top Model-Gossip Girls.
And (should have been ditto) Veronica Mars-Reaper.
-
2
It sounds good to me - I'll definitely check it out this fall. But one little quibble, CW: you already have one show on your network (which only programs 2 hours a day, 5 days a week) wherein a 20-something guy named Sam hunts ghosts/demons/supernatural beings for a non-living. I think I might consider changing the main character's name. Or maybe "Sam" is the new "Jennifer."
Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few minutes and refresh this page.
Most Popular »
- Sex and 'The Saboteur': Dev Talks Nudity in New Game
- My Life as a "Science Fetishist"
- Top 10 Shows of 2009: The Best, and the Rest
- Is the Public Option Dead? Plus, Amendments That Might Actually Matter
- CNN Poll: Man Made Global Warming Takes a Hit
- A Jobs Speech with Elbows
- The Top 10 Games of 2009
- War of the Supermen: Q&A With Matt Idelson
- Best of the Decade: Sci-Fi Movies
- The PlayStation Turns 15, We Reminisce
- That Viral Thing: Facebook's Secret Code
- The Truth Behind the Leaked Climate-Change E-Mails
- College Degrees More Expensive, Worth Less in Job Market
- Mexico Witness Protection: Corrupt Program, New Killings
- Helicopter Parents: The Backlash Against Overparenting
- Taiwan: World's Lowest Birthrate Could Affect Society
- India's Friends: Dinner in the U.S., Dessert in Moscow
- Afghanistan War Surge: Might the Taliban Compromise Now?
- How Strong Is the Evidence Against Amanda Knox?
- U.S. Doesn't Know Where bin Laden Is; Time to Let Go
Quotes of the Day »
RSS