September 26, 2007

TV: Reaper (CW, Tuesday 9/8)

For a few weeks after the networks announced their fall schedules, Chuck and Reaper were scheduled for the same timeslot. It would have been an interesting battle, because they are almost exactly the same show: An aimless college dropout works unenthusiastically at a big-box retailer (instantly recognizable, though renamed for legal reasons) when a series of bizarre circumstances force him to go on a series of dangerous missions for an organization of immense power; through surviving these missions, he finds a sense of purpose and grows up. In Chuck, our hero's employers are Not Best Buy and the CIA; in Reaper, it's Not Home Depot and Satan.

Why does Sam (Bret Harrison) have to go to work for the Devil (Ray Wise) on his 21st birthday? Well, it turns out that his folks sold his soul to the Devil before Sam was even born. (This is the part of the show, just as it is on Chuck, where you have to take a deep breath, swallow hard, and just go along with it.) Now Sam is forced to work as a bounty hunter, returning escaped souls to Hell. He's got the assistance of sidekicks Sock (Tyler Labine) and Ben (Rick Gonzalez); it seems inevitable that Sam's not-quite-girlfriend Andi (Missy Peregrym) will eventually be let in on things, completing the show's Scooby Gang.

Kevin Smith directed the pilot, and it's as good an hour of television as I've seen in years, getting the tone absolutely right, and moving smoothly from smirky slacker comedy to exciting battle sequences. Harrison is a charming lead, Labine and Gonzalez are both very funny (though Labine could cut back on the Jack Black mannerisms a bit), and Peregrym is sweet and lovely, pretty enough that we understand why Sam is a little bit intimidated by her, but not so inhumanly beautiful that she seems completely out of his league.

But if the Devil is a character in your show, then that's your most important bit of casting, and in Ray Wise, Reaper absolutely nails it. Wise is fabulous here, turning on a dime from wicked charm to genuine menace. He's the best thing about the show -- the best thing about the new TV season, so far -- and the reason why Reaper gets the nod over Chuck if you don't have the time or the inclination to watch both.

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