Reaper *1.1*: Pilot

[ShannonA]

Well, I hadn't planned to watch this, because the premise sounds so entirely stupid: the star of the show's parents sold his soul to the devil, and now he's the devil's bounty hunter.

What that omits is that the show has a very serious funny side, and could best be described as Clerks meets Dead Like Me. There were several laugh-out-loud minutes in the premiere, and they're what really made the show.

I have some worries over whether the humor can be sustained, but if so, this should be a great new show -- that destined to last a season or two tops. Nonetheless, worth watching.

There's a rerun of the pilot on Thursday at 9pm.

[Fritzef]

I tuned into this with fairly high hopes of being some good laughs and wasn't disappointed. The hero and love interest were likeable enough, I guess, but what really made the show work were the devil himself and the best friend. Ray Wise, who plays the devil, has perfected the part of unctuous villain over the years and did it perfectly here. The writing was spot-on for him as well: "Drop off an escaped soul and renew your license at the same time! I'm all about the perks." Tyler Labine, whom I really liked in the unfairly-cancelled "Invasion," played the weirdo slacker buddy, 'Sock,' like he was born to do so.

On the other hand, I'm not sure if the show can keep up the quality. Kevin Smith, of Clerks fame, directed it and I think that showed. But it seems to be the only episode that he's directing.

[ShannonA]

Well, my general theory for shows is that the second episode is either a big step up or a big step down from the pilot. The former is a lot more common, and it's why I usually watch at least two eps of a show that interested me, but ...

I didn't think there was any way the second episode of Reaper could compete with the Kevin Smith-directed premiere, and I was right.

It was OK. The additional focus on detection was nice. But it wasn't nearly as funny as the premiere, and that's what the premiere had going for it.

If this were the first episode I saw, I wouldn't be nearly as enthused about continuing on (but it gets at least a few more weeks to see if it can recapture the magic).