Reaper – Dude, you’re banging a tentacle

This week started off as kind of a bummer for Reaper fans. The word on the street is that the show’s creators, Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters, have signed a new deal with 20th Century Fox TV. That’s particularly troublesome, given that Reaper is made by ABC Studios, and the new deal requires them to leave the show. It doesn’t necessarily spell doom for the series, but it makes the possibility of a third season even less likely. In happier news, the show soldiers on, delivering what was very nearly the perfect Reaper episode, with “Underbelly”. Crazy demon effects, funny one liners, and Sock gets the girl. What more do you want?

Or, maybe the question should be, “What is it that you don’t want?” If there was one thing I could have done without here, it’s the now off-again Sam and Andi relationship. It’s like hitting your head against the wall. I like Missy Peregrym, but if this is all they can come up with for Andi, she may have been better off just moving into the magical off-screen apartment Josie is living in. The only interesting bit in all of that was how it called back to Morgan’s little gambit last week. Otherwise, I’ve had my fill of Sam and Andi fighting.

Thankfully, the rest of the episode was top notch. To start, it was a nice change to have the real danger coming from a regular old human. Well, maybe not so regular, but human nonetheless. That’s a nice bit of casting too, landing Mr. Hollis Mason ¹ (Stephen McHattie). His menacing of the boys was terrific, and I especially liked the effect of the exploded bartender. More importantly though, it led us to hints that there could be more to Sam’s lineage than he would have us believe.

Does sentencing the good Sheriff to “a life of pain and torture” go down as justice being served. Or is it, as Nina put it, “diabolical?” I tend to fall on the side of Sam being a good guy caught in a bad situation. This isn’t Supernatural. This Sam isn’t going to be drinking the blood of his hot demon girlfriend as he walks the slow path to darkness. There just aren’t as many yucks there. There is enough to it to make it an interesting quandary though.

Elsewhere, it was Love, Reaper Style. Sock, as creepy as it is, finally got the girl. It was a nice payoff to the story, punctuated perfectly by his appearance at the window announcing it to the world. Of course, nothing ever works out quite how Sock imagines it will. So, just as he finally has what he wants, Mom and Step Dad are back in the picture. Curses, foiled again. I do wonder what their return means for the boys. On the other side of it, I really like Nina and Ben. He is a clingy bastard, but it does somehow feel right. And Nina is just a scene stealer. The only thing better than getting rid of Ben by telling him, “Do you like to eat llamas? Because I’m going to eat a live llama today.” was when they paid it off. “Get yourself nice and garlicky.”

So, despite another trip down the well traveled Sam/Andi tracks, this was another excellent episode. And that makes it all the more disappointing as we realize this is probably going to be it for the series. If you just have to have your glass half full, the possibility does exist that the numbers could be so good that they would have to bring in someone else to take over the show. Given what we’ve seen with the ratings thus far, it’s a long shot, but there’s the straw to grasp.

¹Because I assume Watchmen is a more recognizable reference than LEXX, which is what I thought of first.

Clacked by Brett Love
on Apr 08, 2009 @ 11:11 EST5EDT