anybody watching Reaper?!

[Brown Jenkin]

I watched the first half-dozen episodes and saw it locked into a terrible, stagnant formula. Freak-of-the-week shows up with powers that are thematic, scary, and also happen to have some specific and obvious weaknesses. Protagonist raids his big-box store for ways to exploit said weaknesses. In between, protagonist has some idle chit-chat with his sidekick who's one step lower than him one the loser chain, with his love interest, and with the devil. For all the glibness of the devil's chit-chat, it's pretty much a dead-end diversion where he goes poof without anything substantial coming of the chatter. Big waste of time.

A show has to break away from freaks-of-the-week rut in order to survive, because only the most rabid viewer won't eventually find it monotonous. Smallville outgrew it, X-Files relegated FoW episodes to filler material after the first couple of years, and so I hope Reaper has become a little more ambitious as well. If it has, or if it does, please notify me.

Personally I like the episodic nature of the show. I don't want a soap opera or meta plot. I thought the stand alone episodes of X-files were better than the conspiracy episodes. I don't bother watching Smallville because it is a soap opera. Just because a show is episodic and formulaic doesn't make it bad. I also enjoy Law and Order which has survived 18 years being episodic and formulaic. Its more a matter of good writing and the ability to come up with interesting plots, and so far Reaper has managed this. So to each their own.

P.S. Next week the post strike episodes begin airing.

 

[WayneLigon]

I keep coming back for the non-episodic parts. The demonic neighbors revelations to Sam are really interesting, and I'm still intrigued about Sam's dad burning that one page. And the whole contract thing is particularly interesting in Ben's almost-throwaway comment in the first episode that no-one can sell your soul for you - you have to do that yourself. My thought is that the contract is really a contingency clause and Dad has some kind of bet with the Devil over Sam's soul; if the Devil can corrupt Sam, then Dad gets to keep his - well, his upper middle class lifestyle. That would make vastly more sense if they were super wealthy, though.

The Devil is obviously trying to corrupt Sam but at the same time, just as the neighbors seems to say, he's holding back. Given the Devil's behavior with others, he probably should have turned Sam inside-out by now if he truly 'belonged' to him. I'm thinking it has to be tied to the contract for some reason, but I can't imagine what. The neighbors comment about Sam being important somehow could mean that Sam is the son of the Devil, and by corrupting him, he gets a family. But again with the contract. Why is it there?

So far the most outlandish theory I've come up with is that Sam is the Second Coming and if the Devil can corrupt him, Sam becomes the antichrist.

Oh well. From what I remember, the show is not coming back in the Fall so unless they close it up in the episodes they have left, we'll never know. It's a cute show and funny, I make a point of watching it, but I won't exactly be pining for the fjords when it's gone.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Oh well. From what I remember, the show is not coming back in the Fall so unless they close it up in the episodes they have left, we'll never know. It's a cute show and funny, I make a point of watching it, but I won't exactly be pining for the fjords when it's gone.

Seems odd to me that they would cancel it after ordering new post strike episodes. If they really wanted to cancel it why not let it die during the strike like other new shows this year.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Personally I like the episodic nature of the show. I don't want a soap opera or meta plot. I thought the stand alone episodes of X-files were better than the conspiracy episodes. I don't bother watching Smallville because it is a soap opera. Just because a show is episodic and formulaic doesn't make it bad. I also enjoy Law and Order which has survived 18 years being episodic and formulaic. Its more a matter of good writing and the ability to come up with interesting plots, and so far Reaper has managed this. So to each their own.

P.S. Next week the post strike episodes begin airing.

I love episodic shows, but seeing Reaper was really refreshing. But it appears as if they are slowly introducing a meta-plot, which might ensure long-time viewership. I don't know what to think yet, but if they keep the show enjoyable to watch, I don't care if it's because of an intriguing meta-plot or because a formulaic setup that is fun watching.

 

[Felon]

Personally I like the episodic nature of the show. I don't want a soap opera or meta plot. I thought the stand alone episodes of X-files were better than the conspiracy episodes. I don't bother watching Smallville because it is a soap opera. Just because a show is episodic and formulaic doesn't make it bad. I also enjoy Law and Order which has survived 18 years being episodic and formulaic.

Law & Order was groundbreaking because it deviated away from what people expected from a cop show. It showed the viewer that the cop making bust and securing some evidence wasn't the final word in putting a bad guy away. It showed the viewer that cops were willing to clock out at 5:00 if they weren't getting paid overtime. It showed how bad guys could get off even if the cops did work overtime. Anyone remember the episode with the Columbians, where they killed all the witnesses in the coda?

"What about the little girl?"

"She's fine. Her uncle picked her up."

(ghastly pause)

"....She doesn't have an uncle..."

(fade)

That was ambitious. And of course, at the time it was struggling to survive with low viewership. Now, there's one L&O for every day of the week and they're all just lame shows about two-dimensional supercops who put in countless man-hours and millions of tax dollars to make sure they get every single bad guy. Seriously, when was the last time a bad guy got off in L&O? That one with Leonardo DeNofrio [sic] is especially over-the-top. Sometimes I ponder why shows like Reaper and Chuck are suffiiciently disappointing that I feel the need to share it. I think the answers lie somewhere in the inversely proportionate decline in Law & Order's writing and increase in ratings

I'm a big fan of "to each their own", but it's kind of fitting to note that in discussing a show about an underachiever, you actually have folks defending the show itself because it's kind of an underachiever--actually expressing a preference for unambitious and predictable forms of entertainment, because they're nice and comfortable. Fitting and bizarre.

Who knows? Maybe Dukes of Hazard, A-Team, and Power Rangers will be seen as the pinnacle of the television medium in years to come.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

A-Team are already a pinnacle of the TV medium! At least that's what I thought, considering the fact that it is still rerun these days on German TV. (Admittedly, on third-tier stations)
Hell, they basically have a kind of iconic setup of characters - the thinker, the face, the pilot, the brute! They are a model for every working d20 modern party!

 

[Felon]

OK, maybe you got me on that oen. I do recall our Iron Heroes group was specifically inspired by the A-Team. Framed for a crime we committed and all that.

 

[Darth Shoju]

I've been mostly enjoying the episodic content, but the introduction of a well-written meta plot would bump it up to the next level of entertainment for me.

 

[occam]

My thought is that the contract is really a contingency clause and Dad has some kind of bet with the Devil over Sam's soul; if the Devil can corrupt Sam, then Dad gets to keep his - well, his upper middle class lifestyle.

Yeah, the stakes are still unknown, but it would explain a lot if the contract actually spells out the terms of a wager for Sam's soul. In fact, from their behavior, it seems pretty clear that his parents are on the Devil's side of that deal; they've given up on Sam, and are investing in his younger brother. Meanwhile, Sam is unexpectedly holding his own without even knowing there's a game on.

How likely is it that the reason there are so many souls "escaping" to Seattle is because the Devil is releasing them, as part of his plan to corrupt Sam?