RIP Reaper

As I had done with the great show Party Down I am here today to talk about another show taken from us too early, Reaper. Reaper aired on the CW for a couple of years and most likely never found its audience. I remember watching the first season when it came out and then they started to change around the time it was on and it was hard to find and watch (this was before I had a DVR). Reaper was the story of Sam Oliver a normal guy who works at a Home Depot-ish store the Work Bench with his two best friends Sock and Ben. His long crush Andi also works with them. When Sam turns 21 he learns that his parents sold his soul to the devil in order to keep his dad from dying of illness, so in turn Sam now has to work for the devil and go around collecting souls that have escaped from hell.

The show has some great comedic elements to it, The best part of the series was by far the devil played by Ray Wise. They made the devil with a sick sense of humor and Wise is just perfect casting. He is smart, deceptive, and just enough of a sleeze ball to fit the part perfect. The interaction between him and Sam is some of the best stuff in the show in my opinion. The devil takes a liking to Sam and will sometimes help him out in his adventures. Each episode the devil will show up and give Sam a vessel in which he captures the soul. When the soul is captured in the vessel he has to take it to the DMV to be sent back to hell.




I won't ruin too much of the story but it turns out Sam and the devil are linked by far more then Sam ever thought. Sam's friends end up moving out together later on and have two neighbors who turn out to be demon's, played by Ken Marino and Michael Ian Black. I thought it funny that Marino shows up again in another great series cancelled too early (he was in Party Down, read my blog HERE).

The show sort of played out like Ghostbusters for a new generation, I really liked the humor (Kevin Smith directed the pilot and consulted on the first season). I guess I should be lucky that they completed two seasons of the show, both of which can be watched on netflix instant streaming as of today. It makes me sad to see another good show taken away before its time but I am left with the good memories that I got from the show.


I could only find a few clips from the show, but you can sort of get a sense of the humor of the devil in this clip.