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RSS'Reaper': Hell on earth day
Cain and Abel it wasn't, but tonight's "Reaper" did feature another fraternal breakdown between Sam and his supposed brother Morgan. At stake? A seat at the Devil's right hand and point person for Lucifer's actions on earth. Also at stake? Viewer boredom, as the past few weeks have been fairly yawn-inducing.
At this point, one has to question the Devil's master plan: are these two REALLY his only hopes for Hell on Earth? For an all-powerful being, that's pretty weak sauce. On one hand you have a slacker with little more aspirations than a beer with his best gal, and on the other a castoff from "The Hills." I'm not the most religious man in the world, but I'm liking God's odds in the overall war.
Impatient with the progress of both Morgan and Sam, The Devil stages a winner-take-all event: two sons, two bounty hunters, two vessels, one soul. Bud Brown used to own a chop shop, but now he's set up shop to build a portal to hell. That would totally earn an A in shop class, provided the teacher thought a little outside the box. The Devil tasks his future leaders to stop Bud before successful completion, but Morgan's incessant meddling allows Bud to complete the portal and allowing a whopping two souls through.
Yup, two. I expected a parade of souls to pour through, overwhelming the countryside. But I guess "Reaper" either doesn't have the budget for that or is saving it for sweeps. Oddly enough, the experience did provide Sam and Morgan with a bit of bonding, with each coming to the aid of the other before Sam ultimately pushed Bud through the portal back to hell. Naturally, this meant Sam inadvertently won the contest.
When Sam protested it was by accident, the Devil stuck the knife in Morgan's back further, insisting Sam wanted the title all along. The Devil then stripped Morgan of all worldly possessions save $10 and a bus pass. Somehow I doubt this is the last we've seen of Morgan. And Sam's other preoccupation this week demonstrates that he might not be in the Devil's favor, either.
With help from Andi, seemingly once again OK with Sam's extracurricular activities, Sam tracks down Alan under cover of a funeral procession. They try to extract information by bringing him to a race track, exploiting his gambling weakness. But unable to go through with letting Alan indulge in sinful activity, they concoct another plan: flying him to Vatican City to escape his dreary, graveyard-bound lifestyle. In return, Alan promises to reveal how he got out of his deal with the Devil.
He reveals the first part at the airport: engage the Devil's spirit of competition. Turns out Alan beat the Devil at poker. But that's only the second half of the plan; the first he promises to reveal once on the Vatican's sacred grounds. Too bad The Devil was wise to Alan's whereabouts at all time, posing as a stewardess on Alan's flight and redirecting it directly towards Las Vegas. I guess Sam will have to learn that all-important secondary facet some other way.
Ben and Sock spent the hour with lady problems. Sock tried to exploit the grief of a girl met through the aforementioned funeral in order to get some post-Kristen lovin'. And this part of the episode was so lame and forced that it actually made me wish that karaoke-singing, short shorts-wearing annoyance was back on the small screen. As for Ben, he ended things with Nina after his grandmother's evil eye alarm went off looking at Ben's demonic girlfriend. Hell hath no fury like a fallen angel scorned.
Other odds and ends from tonight's episode:
- Loved Sock's promotional video for The Vatican City, even if "Walking on Sunshine" is a clichéd a sound clip as it gets these days. Hope that ends up on YouTube soon.
- It seems like fundamentally bad design to construct a portal to hell that will instantly implode upon the builder stepping through it.
- Straw-To-Matic? Really?
- I'm glad the Devil was onto Sam's attempts to grill Alan for information, but I hope there's a good reason he's letting Sam try over and over again to get out his contract. Perhaps it's the pride mentioned by Alan, but right now it seems like sloppy writing.
With just a handful of episodes, Alan's potentially sinning, Morgan's potentially scheming, and Mr. Oliver's potentially losing an ear as he waits for the show to remember how seemingly vital his resurrection last year supposedly was. Let's hope at least one of these storylines wraps up in a satisfactory manner before season/series end.
Did Morgan's Daddy issues make his character more interesting or simply whinier? Why is Andi suddenly OK with Sam's status? And is anyone seriously worried for Ben's life?
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Zap2it Twitter Talk 
Wow... it can't be a good sign that mine is the only comment here so far? Damn. I figured this show was doomed, but I still like it. Ray Wise is awesome. I guess pretty soon we'll be saying "R.I.P, Reaper."
OK, I'll bite. I was/still am a big fan of Reaper. I much prefer it to Chuck, for example, which I consider a similarly-themed and flavored program.
But I have been losing interest lately. And since it was announced that it will not be renewed, I almost do not care if I miss an episode or not. I enjoy the humor, but I have nothing invested in the mythology/larger story arcs anymore.
Sad, but that is the way MOST good shows go down these days. It is hardly worth it to get invested in anything.
No - I still like the show - though I do think it is doomed.
But damn - does this reviewer like it ? I haven't thought the last few eps were yawnful. And where have you been - the devil keeps trying to make Sam actually DO something bad, so that is why he keeps putting him in positions where he has to choose to be good, in the hopes he'll be bad, hence the game Sam had to play with Morgan.
Cause, as we have been ***uming all this time, Sam in NOT the son of the devil and I do not think the devil owns him really, so the devil needs Sam to really do something so he can be gotten by the devil.
And as for Andi - she became fearful that Sam was starting to enjoy the hunt for the souls, to enjoy cat and mousing with the devil and so she put their relationship on hold - until such a time that Sam got the truth from Alan and get out of the deal. And since she now feels that Sam is close to getting out of the deal, she is ready to come back.
In answer to the question asking why Andy is suddenly okay with Sam's status, Andy's fear seems to be mainly centered on the devil corrupting Sam. She obviously never stopped caring about him.
Loved Sock's "Put a Sock in it" production.
I did not love last night's episode. But it saw a 19% increase in ratings. That is crazy. Is this last-minute increase enough to save the show, in the face of its creators and major cast member leaving?
When the soul grab becomes the most entertaining part of what was once a brilliant little series, it demonstrates just how much the bloody CW network completely gutted Reaper for its second (and last) season.
I can only imagine how the meeting went down between the CW network br*** and show runners Michele Fazekas & Tara Butters just after then end of the first season. Begin dream sequence...
The CW network execs: "Michelle and Tara, since we're targeting the young female demographic now, for Reaper's second season we'd like you to completely re-focus the show on everyone's personal relationships. You know, really spend a lot of time on creating friction with Sam & Andi so we have a 'are-they-or-aren't-they-a-couple' thing. And oh, give Sock and Ben love interests as well. Mmm-kay?"
Fazekas & Butters: "You mean in addition to Sam capturing escaped souls for the Devil, the great banter between Sam and the Devil, the ongoing mythology and overarching story regarding Sam's contract and questionable parentage aspect we firmly established in the latter part of this season?"
The CW: "Yeah... we have enough of that 'mythology stuff' happening over on Supernatural. And oh... maybe even make one of the love interests a female demon... that'll be cool. The other relationship, we're thinking Sock since his mom just got married to that cowboy Asian guy, could be some sort of strange, awkward hook up with his new step-sister. And if that doesn't work, just use whatever random girl Sock meets during the course of the episode. Yup, that ought to do it."
F&B: "Um, but wait... you want us to completely change..."
[interrupting]
CW: "Great! So to recap, more Sam and Andi relationship conflict, a demon girlfriend for Ben and a step-sister romance for Sock. Wonderful stuff. Really good. Oh, and dump the mom and dad drama for Sam. Don't need it.
F&B: "But we ended the season with his parents...
CW: "Yeah but that's not testing well with our new target audience and we're just not feeling it. You know what, instead of the mom and dad stuff and the 'who-really-is-Sam's-father' drama, introduce a new character. Maybe a really attractive, young male ***istant -- like another bounty hunter or even a son -- for the Devil that competes with Sam for the Devil's affection and attention. That'll work really well."
F&B: "Yeah, but, uh, um..."
CW: "Great meeting everyone. Thanks again for coming in. Bub-bye."
F&B: "Uh, um..."
Well the best thing I like about Reaper, is the bromance. The fellas certainly have chemistry and the show is watchable. It really is escapist TV.
Put this Chuck wannabe out of its misery already.
Hahahah "Doug" that's cl***ic. I still love Reaper, and we're still promoting the campaign to save this show. http://tvseriesfinale.com/articles/reaper-tv-show-support/