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Reaper: The Devil & Sam Oliver (series finale)
by Brad Trechak, posted May 27th 2009 12:22AM
(S02E13) Reaper has been axed by The CW and until I hear that another network has picked this show up, I will consider this the series finale and not simply the season finale. Admittedly, it ended on a mixed note.I'm glad the Devil actually has a weakness with regards to his vanity. When a character is all-powerful, they get boring rather quickly. Thankfully, Ray Wise has the talent to keep the character interesting despite his handicap of near-omnipotence. When you consider that, you have to wonder how Sam could have possibly thought he had an advantage during the first game of quarters.
The character of Mary Pat (whom I found amusing, but only because she reminded me of some people I know) was gone pretty quickly. At first I thought Steve was back because they couldn't get Tony for the finale until the broken hand occurred. Obviously, the creators planned a bigger role for Sam as a pawn of the war between Heaven and Hell. It's a pity that unless the show miraculously gets picked up, it will never get resolved.
The entire situation with Nina was a cute homage to the Exorcist movies. At least Ben is happy at the end of the series.
After two seasons, I still don't get the nature of the relationship between Sam and the Devil. If Sam refuses to do something, how exactly can the Devil exercise power over him and force him to do his bidding? Hypnosis? Can he use Sam's body like a puppeteer? Sam just seems to resign to his fate rather than refuse. If the series continues, my guess is that Andi will be stuck in the same deal as Sam. At least when they both go to Hell, they'll be together.
At least the relationships got a satisfactory ending: Sam is with Andi, Ben is still with Nina, and Sock is with Sock.
I find it ironic that in the final episode the best line was said by Gladys (usually it's given to Ray Wise): "You look like Justin Timberlake just took a dump."
What was the point of introducing that Indian character (whose name escapes me. Pacey?) in the Work Bench? Other than as a second-rate Gerry Bednob, he seemed to have no purpose in the season.
Obviously, we're never going to learn the big storyline between Heaven and Hell and Sam's involvement between the two. If you have a theory, please leave it in the comments.
Overall, I think the series had a nice concept with good characters, but suffered from a combination of poor writing and a budget that was too small for the concept. Too often I found myself saying what was going to happen a minute or two before it was mentioned in the story. I did enjoy the series and do hope that somehow, someway there will be a third season, but Reaper might have worked better as a feature film. Fortunately, for the same concept with a slightly better execution, we'll have Chuck next season.
So what did you think of Reaper?
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