Tuesday, February 03, 2009

CW makes a Satanic sacrifice of 'Reaper' to the 'American Idol' gods

Good news, bad news time for "Reaper" fans. The good news: "Reaper" is coming back a few weeks early, with the second season premiering March 3 instead of March 17. The bad news: the CW is flip-flopping its timeslot with "90210" so that "90210" won't have to go head-to-head with "American Idol." And that's sure not going to be helpful for "Reaper"s chances of a third season.

(Also, this moves up the "Privileged" finale date to February 24, though there won't be any unaired episodes; the CW just hasn't rerun it very much.)

I've seen the "Reaper" premiere, and while it doesn't quite keep up the momentum from the end of last season, it was nice to see Sam, Sock and, especially, Satan again.

17 comments:

Brian said...

I was shocked/pleased even to get a second season at all, so I won't do any grumbling about timeslots.

I was a big fan of Reaper's first season, through all its hills and valleys of quality. However, in the interim I've discovered the wonders of Chuck, and Chuck is so far ahead of Reaper while being the same basic type of show that I'm worried I won't enjoy Reaper as much.

However, much as I love Chuck, we all know it doesn't have anything quite as awesome as Ray Wise's Satan...

Man, I forget what the hell happened at the end of last season. It got pretty convoluted as I recall. Should I try refreshing my memory or does the S2 premiere do a good job of refreshing it for us?

Anonymous said...

I miss my weekly dose of Satan

Alan Sepinwall said...

After watching the premiere, I felt like I needed to catch up myself.

Does anyone remember where, specifically, we left things in terms of how strongly Sam believed that he was the son of Satan, whether Satan knew (or knew that Sam knew), etc.? Because the way things unfold in the premiere doesn't match my fuzzy recollections.

JakesAlterEgo said...

I got caught up a couple weeks ago. Nothing definitive was stated, unless you wanted to believe the dude from the State. He and his demon friends are convinced that Sam is the Spawn of Satan. We know for a fact that Sam's (maybe) dad is somehow otherworldly because he survives being buried alive. The Devil makes no mention of it at all. Even Sam seemed kinda ambivalent about the whole thing.

Alan Sepinwall said...

Pale Writer, that's how I remembered things. That's not how the premiere plays out, which is a bit disconcerting.

Anonymous said...

Huh, I was about to give up on the show until that weird question mark of a finale, which seemed to me that Fazekas/Butters had finally decided where to go.

Anonymous said...

I really like the show. If does get slaughtered on its new night, I wonder if SciFi would pick it up?

Brian said...

Wasn't there some game-changer at the end where Sam found out that more demons would be on his ass in a different way, or something? Was that just a result of them thinking he's Satan's son? I forget.

JakesAlterEgo said...

Yeah...Sam is left believing that all the rebelling demons of Hell that aren't in love with Michael Ian Black are going to try and kill him now.

At least, that's how it was last year.

Gabriel said...

I'm hanging for Reaper - hope it doesn't go the way of one of my other favourites, Pushing Daisies. I'm still sobbing over that loss.

Melanism said...

I'm glad they moved it to 8 because I wouldn't be able to watch it up against Scrubs, The Mentalist and Fringe, I don't care for American Idol

Unknown said...

Well, any show I like now is going to get canceled, so like Brian, I'm just happy to get a second season at all.

I think what the finale boiled down to was, "Sam is most likely the devil's kid, but he'll never know for sure and the devil said he'll never confirm it." So...leaves it open-ended as to how to handle it, I guess.

Hm, my word capcha is "conefics."

Alan Sepinwall said...

Jennifer, so Sam specifically confronted The Devil about it in the finale?

Anonymous said...

@Alan: Yes, there was definitely a specific confrontation in the last few minutes of Cancun. The full episodes are still online on the CW website. Here's Cancun:
http://www.cwtv.com/cw-video/reaper/full/?play=445-3787

(sorry, I'm at work and I can't install their viewer here, so I can't tell you the exact timepoint to look for)

Anonymous said...

This show is still ON?!?????

Ray Wise was brilliant. And then...that's IT. I quit watching this after the first 4-5 episodes in S1 because I came to the realization that the show sucks when you have sucky actors.

Bret Harrison is a bore as Sam, and it's hard to root for a guy who walks around not caring, anyway, and Tyler Labine was OK when he was on a 100X superior series like "Invasion" and not a bigger, featured player like here on a below average show like "Reaper".

"Chuck" is a 100X better because it's LOADED with an all star lineup of talent and a cast with great chemistry...everyone including Chuck, Casey, Sarah, Morgan, Ellie, Awesome, Big Mike et all. I love them all and "Chuck" is a lot of fun.

And the difference between the lifeless Bret Harrison and the deer-in-the-headlights fun of Zack Levi as Chuck Bartkowski is night & day. (Not to mention the writing is a lot better on "Chuck"). Levi makes you care about Chuck and feel for him, and reactions to his situation the way a lot of us might react.

If SATAN suddenly became my boss (and I've worked for a guy who was satan-like!) I might walk around a little more afraid and screwed up then stupid, boring Sam. It annoyed me to no end.

Anonymous said...

Since I'm proud to say I've never watched AI, the time slot is fine w me. Can't wait for the 1st episode, Reaper was one of my fave mindless pleasures last year.

Anonymous said...

How did you get to see the premiere? Lucky! Well I guess I can wait a few more weeks. Hope this is a good sign, not a bad sign, for the show.